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World War II - The Middle Wallop’s Role Researched by George MILLIE Reference: “That Eternal Summer” Unknown Stories
From The Published by William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. Chapter 2 - “The Salvation of 609 (Auxiliary) Squadron”
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Note:
Recruited in peacetime from the West Riding of Yorkshire, 609 Squadron’s
losses over Page 36: (para 1) “Darley’s
avowed intention of leading the two flights together as a squadron was
frustrated in those early weeks of July (1940) by orders from Fighter
Command. While one flight was to operate from the home base at Middle
Wallop, near Stockbridge, the other was to operate from an advanced base
fifty miles away at Warmwell, near Weymouth, in
order to defend the Portland area. This, the Royal Navy’s principal Channel
base, was a major target of German bomber raids, and it was also one of the
areas where the Germans were believed to favour as a potential site for their
invasion landings. The two flights, A and B, would take turn and turn about.” |
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(para 5) “…back
at Middle Wallop. From his
deckchair in the garden of his rented house, Darley
had his own private line to the Middle Wallop sector controller, and
when the squadron was called to readiness he simply ducked through the gap in
the hedge to dispersal and waited for the rest of the squadron to arrive by
truck from the Mess. Sometimes many of the pilots were sitting in the garden
with him when the telephone rang, and they would race to dispersal together.” |
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Page 38: (para 3) “The
splitting of his force between Middle
Wallop and Warmwell meant a penny-packet
operation which Darley detested. It led to the
squadron’s first losses under his command. Tuesday 9th July was a
wet day, and after a false alarm in the morning two of the pilots on stand-by
at Warmwell, Peter Drummond-Hay and David Crook
(photo below), both auxiliaries, sat for much of the afternoon planning the
trip they were to make the next day, when, being off duty, … Then at 6.30 pm
a section of three Spitfires was ordered up to patrol off Weymouth. (para 4) “Spotting
some Junkers 87 Stuka dive-bombers attacking a
convoy, they raced after them. …Crook…nearly crashed his Spitfire when he got
back to Warmwell… Since the attack he had seen
nothing of the others.” |
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(para 5) “One
of them, in fact, was missing. It was Crook’s friend Peter Drummond-Hay. He
had shot down a Messerschmitt 109, as was later confirmed, then been shot
down himself.” (para 6) “Returning
to Middle Wallop that night,
Crook, who had been rooming with Drummond-Hay, moved into the cubicle next
door. The vision of his friend lying in his cockpit at the bottom of the
Channel haunted him all night.” Page 39: (para 2)
“In a vehement protest to the controller of Middle Wallop sector, Darley
complained of the criminal futility of sending small sections of fighters to
cope with the intense air activity that was developing in the (para 4) “By
the end of July, reinforcements to the sector enabled 609 to operate together
as a squadron; and in August, sailings were reduced to a fraction.” Page 42: (para 4) “…
by the dawn of Eagle Day, Tuesday 13th August, (Reichsmarschall Hermann) Goering believed his pilots
had the measure of Fighter Command.” (para 5) “Of
all the Luftwaffe units engaged in the battle, none had a more significant
task than the phalanx heading for Middle
Wallop, intent on dive-bombing the airfield and hangars and wiping the
station off the map. This was to be retribution for the toll 609 had taken in
the previous days.” Page 43: (para 1) “Climbing
rapidly after take-off, with Darley leading, the
squadron was ordered to patrol over (para 2) “They
were above cloud when (para 3) “Climbing
into the sun, with the rest of the squadron following in line astern, Dundas had reached 18,000 feet when he saw, silhouetted
against the cloud below, three huge arrowhead formations of Stukas, eighteen in each block, sweeping north-east.
Someone was in for it if they were not broken up. It did not occur to him
that the target might be Middle
Wallop.” Page 44: (para 2) “Given
the advantage of position, altitude and surprise by their leader, the men of
609 used them to deadly effect. … Every single pilot fired his guns, and
almost immediately, in a rigid, grotesque formation, five of the luckless Stukas fell from the sky.” (para 4) “Later,
back at Middle Wallop, every
609 pilot engaged in the action claimed victories – some more than one –
except the unselfish Darley, the man who had
master-minded the massacre.” (para 7) “It
hadn’t occurred to Darley and his pilots that they
had, in effect, been defending their own base; they did not know that because
of their recent successes Middle
Wallop had been singled out for destruction. The realization came
within twenty-four hours.” (para 8) “Marjorie
Darley, watching what she thought was a friendly
Blenheim twin-engined bomber from her favourite
vantage point on top of the air raid shelter next day, suddenly saw its
bomb-doors open and a clutch of black eggs fall away.” Page 45: (para 1) “At
the northern end of the field, four airmen, having first taken refuge in a
slit trench, noticed that the huge steel-plated doors of 609 Squadron hangar (hangar
5) were open. They were squadron men, and they knew Darley’s
orders. Those doors must be closed in the event of a bombing attack. Inside
were a number of Spitfires under repair.” (para 2) “…they
raced to the hangar and began winding the ratchet handles that operated the
doors. They had scarcely begun when a 500-kilogram bomb from the raider
crashed through the hangar roof, blasting the doors outwards. Thirteen tons
of steel toppled over on top of them, crushing three of the four airmen to
death.” (para 4) “It
was … Sergeant Alan Feary, … the only NCO pilot on
the squadron … who avenged their deaths by shooting down the intruder.
Airborne at the time of the attack, he fired all his ammunition into the
bomber at close range and it crashed in flames five miles away, killing the
crew.” |
Reference: “
Published by Jonathon Cape Ltd.
Chapter: “The
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Page 70: ‘After that it was chaos’ – Sergeant Arthur
Power (RAF) (para 2) “The
Germans strafed us on the first day without doing much, because all our
aircraft were dispersed. But on the big French airfield a few miles away at Mourmelon-le-grand everything was lined up in rows,
parade ground style, and there wasn’t much left when the Luftwaffe had
finished.” (para 4) “On
our last day we had flown five times and were just getting ready to go again
when we were ordered to jettison bombs and scarper. Our aircraft had been
damaged a good bit by then, but we found another that was only missing a tailwheel, put our tailwheel on
it, pushed the groundcrew in the back, and took
off. All I had was a cycling map of northern |
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Page 92: Middle
Wallop is recorded both as a Sector and a Base airfield for No
11 Group HQ Uxbridge Middlesex.
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Chapter:
“Eve of
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Page 99: British and German air forces late July and
August 1940 (lower half of map only) - Middle Wallop airfield and Sector are marked on the map as part
of 10 Group –
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Chapter:
“Adlerangriff – Eagle Attack”
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Page 131: 13 August continued (para 2) “A few minutes after (para 3) “Meanwhile,
other engagements were being fought out all over southern Page 139: 15 August 1940 – Middle Wallop is marked on the map, below the time 1750
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Reference: “The
Published by Headline Book Publishing 2000, ISBN
0-7540-1650-1
Chapter
V: The Royal Air Force
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Page 146:
Pages 147 &
148: (para 2) “A
few days after (H.S. ‘George’) Darley’s
arrival, the (609) Squadron was posted to Middle Wallop, about halfway between (para 3)
“Instead of flying from Northolt direct to their new base at Middle Wallop on 4 and 5 July
(1940), the squadron received orders that it should fly to Warmwell, a forward base of Middle Wallop’s, fifty (continued on page 148) miles to
the south-west, near Weymouth.” … “From then on, the squadron alternated
between Middle Wallop and the
forward base at Warmwell.” … “When 609 arrived (at
Middle Wallop) there was no water or sanitation and they were forced to
sleep in the dispersal tent (the place where the pilots would wait to be
scrambled to their aircraft). It was very dry and the tent would be filled
with dust and stones whenever an aircraft passed nearby. Worst of all, the
civilian cooks refused to serve meals outside of regular times.” … “In the
end the pilots were forced to rustle up bacon and eggs for themselves on an
assortment of rickety stoves in the dispersal tent. Middle Wallop itself, although one of the key sector stations,
was still under construction when 609 arrived. The squadron’s dispersal hut
was a cramped cottage at one end of the field.” Page 150: (para 3)
“On 19 June (1940), 238 (Squadron) were moved to Middle Wallop …” Page 151: (para 1)
“At Middle Wallop the
fledgling 238 Squadron shared the facilities with 601 Auxiliary Squadron …” …
“Known as ‘the Millionaires’ Squadron’, 601 was a particularly smart outfit,
even for an Auxiliary squadron. Novelist Len Deighton
tells the story of how an officer of 601, sent out to do something about a
petrol shortage at the base, returned having bought a filling station, ‘but
announced that the pumps there were only half-full. The situation was
remedied when another pilot remembered that he was a director of Shell. His
secretary arranged a delivery’.” Pages 163 &
164: (para 1)
“For John Bisdee, returning from combat to the
serene surroundings of Middle Wallop
was quite a contrast. Unlike army or navy personnel, the fighter pilots would
be in the thick of the battle one minute and relaxing on deckchairs in the
sun the next.” (para 2)
“The contrast between the ground and the air was fantastic, I mean, imagine
coming back from, say, Portland and being surrounded by black crosses in the
sky, then you landed and everything was fairly quiet at Middle Wallop. In the evening we
would go to a lovely pub, the Black Swan in Monxton
that we called the Mucky Duck.” (continued on page 164) “If we were
night-flying we always used to go and beat up the Mucky Duck from the air.
Alternatively we went into Page 164: (para 2)
“Compared with the later stages of the Battle of Britain, when 609 (Squadron)
were posted to Biggin Hill, the time at Middle Wallop is remembered by John Bisdee fondly. The spirit, he says, ‘was absolutely first
class’. Darley, the CO, had done his
morale-boosting work. Occasionally he would organise a dance at Middle Wallop for all ranks, and a
small barrel of bitter was always available at his and his wife’s house on
the airfield perimeter if the pilots were free.” Page 166: (para 3)
“The ground crew also had their fair share of risk. In August (1940) a
raid of Ju 88s and Bf 110s penetrated the defences
at Middle Wallop and hit two
hangars. The force of the explosion blew down two enormous steel doors
directly on to eleven ground crew inside, all of whom were killed.” Page 177: (para 2) “…
like 609 Squadron, 238 were alternating between Middle Wallop and Warmwell and there
was precious little free time.” |
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