ISSUED FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE EURO GROUP
I S S U E 1 7 0
16 October 2002
CFS2CFS3IL2CFS1CFS2CFS3IL2CFS1CFS2CFS3IL2CFS1CFS2CFS3IL2CFS1CFS2CFS3
This Edition dedicated to the
Memory of Alice S Wood 1923/2002
SQUADRON NOTICEBOARD
Group Training Sessions - O C T O B E R i s T R A I N I N G M O N T H
7 Oct: CFS 1 Week - Great Discussions held so far. Watch out for Saturday Nights Bomb Run.
14 Oct: IL-2 Week - Underway Now! Have some fun with lots of vodka and powerful machine guns.
21 Oct: CFS 2 Week - Coming Soon!
28 Oct: FS2002 Sessions
See the appropriate forums in the PRC.
©2002GAZETTEArchive
"On August 24,
|
Air Commodore Peter Brothers,
DFC, a 13-victory Hurricane ace
during the Battle of Britain with 32 and 257
squadrons.
Twenty-three-year-old Flt. Lt. James B.
Nicolson was new to combat, but he was able to judge his position relative to
the Messerschmitt 110s of II. Gruppe, Zerstörer Geschwader 2 that were escorting
a large Luftwaffe raid over the English coast near Southampton. He signaled his
two wingmen in Red Section No. 249 Squadron to prepare to attack. Before the
three Hurricanes could tackle the 110s, they were hit by several Bf 109s in a
classic, six-o'clock-high, surprise attack. Nicolson's number two wingman dived
away to nurse his damaged fighter back to Boscombe Down. The number three pilot
bailed out of his burning aircraft and parachuted free of the combat
area.
Hurricane Mk Is of
No. 71 Eagle Squadron. Seven Americans flew in the Battle of Britain and,
despite U.S. "neutrality,"
a full squadron of American fliers was
established in September 1940 and became operational
in January 1941. Two other
Eagle squadrons followed: No.121 in May 1941
and No.131 in August
1941.
Nicolson's Hurricane was also severely damaged, and its fuel ignited. Despite sitting in an inferno and wounded in his head and one foot, Nicolson pressed home his attack on the 110s. He fired on one from close range; it dropped away, a probable kill. Then, badly burned, he struggled from his cockpit and fell into space.
Opening his parachute, Nicolson was appalled to find himself under fire from friendly forces on the ground. British Army and Home Guard troops mistook Nicolson and his wingman for German paratroopers, and both were shot as they descended. Pilot Officer M.A. King was killed. Wounded by buckshot, Nicolson was unable to release his chute harness because his hands were badly burned. Once the ground forces' horrible error had been discovered, he was taken to a hospital in Southampton. He recovered from his burns and survived to become the only RAF recipient of the Victoria Cross in the Battle of Britain.
After Nicolson had recovered, he returned to flight status and eventually became a wing commander. However, like 30 percent of the other RAF pilots who survived the Battle of Britain, he later perished in the War; ironically, he was a passenger in a bomber that crashed during the month in which Germany surrendered.
Nicolson's Hurricane was one of 23 British fighters lost on August 16, 1940; the Luftwaffe wrote off 48. In addition to King, six other RAF pilots and about 75 German aircrew were listed as killed or missing. It was just one day in 120 days of unrelenting combat.
Sixty-one summers ago, the world's first great air battle was fought over southeast England. The massive combats in the sky over Kent were more a campaign than a single battle, for it has been estimated that there were 40,000 confrontations in the four months of July through October 1940. The Luftwaffe's failure to achieve air superiority from the RAF was Germany's first reversal in the War, and prevented implementation of Operation Sea Lion—the invasion of Great Britain.
The Battle of Britain has passed beyond history into legend—not unjustifiably portrayed as a David versus Goliath confrontation and vividly described by Winston Churchill's soaring language. His tribute to the "Few" of RAF Fighter Command has perhaps been more widely repeated than any that originated in WW II: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
Supermarine
Spitfire Mk Is of No. 65 Squadron in 1939. First flown in 1936, the elegantly
beautiful Spitfire
entered service in late 1938 and became an icon of the RAF throughout WW
II. Original Mk Is
like these were upgraded with three-blade, two-speed propellers and a
bulged canopy that allowed
the pilot better visibility. With a
1,175hp Merlin XII, the Mk II fought in the Battle of Britain
and by July 1940, 18
squadrons were equipped with it.
A Hurricane Mk II
from the 1968 film, "The Battle of Britain." Bearing false MI code
letters,
it
displays the red and white checkerboard emblem of No. 303 Polish Squadron. The
most successful RAF fighter unit i
n the Battle of Britain, it claimed 127
victories.
Certainly, the facts of the Battle lend themselves to hyperbole. Britain, immune to invasion for nine centuries, had felt the threat of German airpower two decades previously, but the Zeppelins and primitive bombers that harassed London and its environs during WW I posed no serious danger to Shakespeare's "scepter'd isle." After Nazi Germany drove the British Army from the Continent, a far more serious threat arose at the start of July. Poised on newly captured French airfields, two Luftwaffe air fleets with 1,200 bombers lay within easy range of London and even part of the industrially important Midlands. A smaller German air fleet was based in Norway. At the same time, the RAF was able to field not quite 600 fighters of all types with approximately two pilots for each aircraft.
Designed and mainly used as
a bomber, the RAF had seven Blenheim Mk I fighter squadrons when the War
began in 1939. Unable to compete against single-engine opponents, at least
20 Blenheims were lost in combat
during the summer of 1940. The type lent
itself to night fighting, however, and proved moderately successful
before being replaced by Bristol Beaufighters
British Assets
RAF Fighter Command's order of battle numbered 27 Hurricane and 18 Spitfire squadrons plus six Blenheim and two Defiant squadrons. The latter two types were practically useless in daylight. The Boulton-Paul fighter bore an uncanny resemblance to the Hurricane (affording a temporary advantage), but its sole armament was a four-gun turret whose zone of fire was essentially behind the wingtips. It had been roughly handled during its few Channel encounters with Bf 109s. The Blenheim IIF—a twin-engine bomber modified with four guns under the fuselage—was considered to be an interceptor, but it was really better suited to night fighting.
Forty percent of Britain's single-engine fighters were Supermarine Spitfires, whose elegant lines bespoke their pedigree. Reginald Mitchell's timeless design caught the world's imagination, as it combined looks, performance and panache in one exotic package. With a top speed of 350mph, relatively heavy armament and exceptional maneuverability, the Spitfires Mk. IB and II were as fast as the Bf 109E. Their carbureted engine faltered, however, when subjected to negative G—a lapse that wasn't corrected until later Marks. Of the 17 RAF double-ace pilots in the Battle, 10 mostly or exclusively flew Spitfires.
In the Hawker Hurricane Mk. I, the RAF possessed a splendid stablemate for the Spitfire. With the same Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and eight-gun armament, the "Hurribox" was slower than the Spit and the 109, but it demonstrated surprising durability for a fabric-covered aircraft. Additionally, the Hurricane was far easier to produce because the all-metal Spitfire with its gracefully complex elliptical wing required two-and-a-half as many hours to build. By the end of the four-month conflict, Hurricanes claimed 55 percent of Fighter Command's victories, and a Polish Hurricane squadron, No. 303, was at the top of the RAF score sheet.
Incredibly, the
Gloster Gladiator biplane was introduced to squadron service as late as 1937,
but most of the eight
squadrons were deployed overseas as
Hurricanes were intended for home defense.
One RAF and one Royal Navy squadron flew
"Glads" in the U.K. during 1940
while its antagonist, the Italian Fiat
CR.42, also appeared in British skies
Among the most
flawed concepts in military aviation was the "turret fighter" epitomized by the
Boulton-Paul Defiant.
Its sole armament comprised four .303
machine guns in a powered turret that was suitable for engaging
bombers
but
left the aircraft defenseless during head-on attacks. The "Deffy" entered
service in late
1939 and equiped two squadrons during the Battle of Britain. Six were
lost in combat during July 1940 and 11
more in August when the type's
vulnerability was at last recognised.
The Luftwaffe
A symbolic photo
of a Bf 109E over the white cliffs of Dover. The Messerschmitt's short radius of
action
limited its pilots to about 15 minutes in the London area and required
relays of squadrons or groups to provide
adequate bomber escort. A substantial
number went down in the English Channel on the trip back to
France.
The twin-engine Me-110C had speed and punch, but as a long-range bomber escort its design proved to be a flawed concept. Unable to compete with British fighters, it was eventually driven from daytime skies and emerged as an excellent nocturnal predator.
A variety of twin-engine bombers was available to attack Britain, but only the Junkers 88 had the "stretch" to remain useful into 1945. The Heinkel 111 and Dornier 17 were relatively fast and carried adequate bomb loads, but they required fighter escort over Britain. The Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber, so effective in earlier close air support, sustained crippling losses at RAF hands and was withdrawn from the Battle in August. The Luftwaffe badly needed a four-engine strategic bomber in the summer of 1940, but the prewar opportunity had been lost with the death of Gen. Walter Wever, who foresaw the potential need for such a weapon. Consequently, the Luftwaffe was instead forged into a superb tactical weapon whose stated mission was army support. That role was brilliantly fulfilled in Poland, France and the Netherlands during the first nine months of the War.
The world came to
recognize the inverted gull-wing silhouette of the Junkers Ju-87 Stuka better
than
that
of any other German aircraft. Tested in the Spanish Civil War and proven
conclusively in Poland,
France and the Netherlands, the Luftwaffe
dive bomber in 1939 to '40 established an almost mythical
reputation.
Much of its success, however, lay in the efficiency of air/ground
liaison between the Luftwaffe and the German army.
When it was committed to
action in the Battle of Britain, the slow, vulnerable Stuka came to
grief.
More
than 60 were lost in July and August 1940, before it was
withdrawn.
Aside from lacking an equivalent to the Boeing B-17 to cripple enemy industry, the Luftwaffe suffered an institutional lapse and had poor intelligence available. The need for a restrike policy was not recognized until too late, as chief of the Luftwaffe Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring's staff tended to consider a British base destroyed after one effective raid. Targeting also required close analysis; valuable sorties were often wasted on irrelevant facilities such as Coastal Command and training airfields. With an astute mixture of high/low tactics, German aircrews could have inflicted significant damage on Fighter Command fields and command centres, but the follow-up knockout punch was seldom delivered.....
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The black obelisk/column is just past the entryway B-24 bomber. Funded and sponsored by Nature's Recipe Pet Foods, the 16-ft. tall granite and bronze statue depicts a soldier and a German Shepherd. It was sculpted by A. Thomas Schumberg and dedicated on Feb 21, 2000.
Other somber military monuments and memorials are arrayed around the grounds, but the War Dog Memorial commands the plaza's central vantage. The sculpted soldier is half absorbed, Han Solo-like, by the slab -- but vigilant. His dog is alert, attuned to an impending jungle ambush, or maybe just a noisy weekend pass latecomer.
A bronze plaque at the base reads:
Most touching are the tiles around the Memorial's base, tributes to individual dogs, each marked with a symbolic black pawprint. Inscriptions are short and a bit cryptic, but hint at the adventures and trials these dogs must have undergone: "'Hilda' My Hero Da Nang 66 B Martin" or "Team F Ban Me Thout 981st MP K9 Mort 69." Other tiles salute dogs from WWII and Korea.
One is a stark apology: "King Leaving you was sad and wrong Peace." What's the story here? Was King the last dog on the American embassy roof in 1975, valiantly attempting crowd control as the helicopters fled Saigon? The Memorial doesn't explain, but you get the sense the remembrance of each canine, whether for valor or simple companionship, helps veteran handlers find closure on the relationship with their departed dogs.
The East Coast National War Dog Memorial is at Fort Benning, GA -- home of the Calculator the Dog Memorial -- in front of the National Infantry Museum. Hartsdale Pet Cemetery, Hartsdale, New York has been home to another War Dog Memorial for many years. The island of Guam features the Doberman War Dog Memorial (and there is a replica at the University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine). Small town tributes such as "Guardians," a war dog memorial in Streamwood, Illinois, are becoming more common.
There is growing pressure for recognition on a national scale. A brochure available at the March Field ticket counter encourages visitor donations to a proposed National War Dog Memorial in Washington D.C., honoring "Courage at both ends of the leash." There's a photo of the Vietnam War Memorial wall, a German Shepherd sitting and looking on patiently, with the caption: "Where's my name?"
(West Coast War Dog Memorial: March Field Air Museum, 22550 Van Buren Blvd., south of Riverside off I-215)
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See you in the Friendly EURO skies....
ACBrit1
Editor
EURO Group Gazette
Usworth
England
PS!
DONT FORGET you can visit the Gazette Archive at http://www.cfspilots.com/ , courtesy of our very own LtCSnoopy.
THE GAZETTE IS AN FZC PRODUCTION FOR FZC ENTS ©1997-2002. CONCEIVED WRITTEN & PRODUCED FOR, AND ON BEHALF OF THE EURO ADVANCED COMBAT AND TACTICAL GROUP - THE NUMBER ONE AIR COMBAT OUTFIT. ALL IMAGES ITEMS AND ARTICLES ARE SUBJECT TO INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT LAWS, NO ITEMS SHALL BE REPRODUCED OR STORED IN ANY FORMAT WHATSOEVER WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS. PERMISSION WILL BE GIVEN ON REQUEST WITH THE APPROPRIATE CREDITS, SO THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO USE OUR WORK WITHOUT ASKING WILL BE PROSECUTED TO THE FULLEST EXTENT OF THE LAWS AS THEY APPLY. EURO AND ALL ITS MEMBERS HOLD NO POLITICAL AMBITION OR PREFERENCES - WE PLAY ONLINE FOR FUN AND FOR THE BROTHERHOOD THAT MEMBERSHIP OF THIS GROUP GIVES US. THE EDITOR ( ACBrit1 ) IS NOT ON THE PAYROLL OF ANY GAME MANUFACTURER OR DESIGNER AND THE THOUGHTS HELD WITHIN THESE PAGES ARE THEREFORE PERSONAL AND NOT INTENDED FOR QUOTATION WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION. REPRODUCTION OF ©GAZETTE ARCHIVE MATERIAL WITHOUT CONSENT IS A CRIMINAL OFFENCE...AND BESIDES...WHAT WOULD YOUR MOTHER THINK? LOL
"Arguing with a pilot is like wrestling with a pig in the mud. After a while you begin to think the pig likes it" — Cat, 2002
"No you don't" ---- Brit, 5 minutes later