James Smiths Diary
Wednesday 10th July 1940
Woke up about eight, heard the fitters testing the Merlin engines and then couldn't get back to sleep. Excitement over my first flight as squadron leader, not sure the rest of the group are so confident in me. I think they want their old leader back, but he's somewhere at the bottom of the channel.
Word come through at ten, spotters had seen a lone pencil somewhere near Dover, shufty kite most likely. Took Red Section up and found him west of Dover, introduced him to my .303s, he didn't like that much. Screwed it up on landing but we have a spare kite to use. Fitters not impressed.
Took off again after lunch, Jaunty convoy took a terrific pasting from Jerry, quite a few ships sunk, typically it all happens when we're on the ground. Flew a patrol over Jaunty, no Jerry about, so came back down. Typically Jerry then shows up and cuts straight over Kent and smashes Jaunty in the Thames approach. Not good for morale, and guess what, by the time we go up over Jaunty, it's ten to seven and Jerry has gone to bed! Listened to the Beeb, Jerry has put that Petain in charge of this 'Vichy France', he claims he's not a puppet but Hitler will be pulling the strings, and it does nothing to stop Jerry throwing his lot at us.
Went down the pub and got into a fight with some sailors, they reckon we're doing bugger all to help them. If Jaunty is anything to go by, they're right.
Score:
Six for eighteen.
Thursday 11th July 1940
Woke up early with a stonking headache, some dream about being trapped in a burning Hurricane just wouldn't go away so I went for a run around the airfield. Fry up and some coffee soon fixed headache, and then we went onto five minutes readiness. Jerry paid us a visit whilst at readiness, some high level bombers completely missed the place and ploughed a nearby farmers field with high explosives, nice of them but it's not the ploughing season yet.
Whiskey got hit just before lunch as it went up the Essex coast, light damage we're told but we were sent up at about midday to cover it. Jerry, naturally, stayed at home. Patrolled for an hour and a half (real time) over by Orford Ness and Aldeburgh and then came home for something to eat and refuel. Heard rumours of a raid forming just as we landed, it'd just be our bleeding luck to miss all the action again. Morale is improving though, I think the lads are starting to warm to me, putting that mouthy sailor on his back last night might have helped!
Will write more later.
Whiskey got hit again but only minor damage, the boys from the Anglian squadrons seem to have all the work at the moment, another convoy Midget is coming down the coast and Jerry wants that too, hundreds of Stukas went up the coast while we sat around waiting for the order. When it became obvious that that one patrol was it for the day, we went down the pub, no sailors about today but one very pretty barmaid. I think Charlie might have gotten to her first though!
Heard Portsmouth copped it late in the evening but not much damage caused.
Score:
Sixteen for Twenty Eight
Friday 12th July 1940
Woken up early by the Blennies coming back, undercarriage collapsed on one and it ploughed off the field, one of the crew injured, but I'm sure he'll be alright, broken leg probably.
Slept fitfully afterwards, woke up at eight and was told we were released, whether Jerry will let us relax today, who knows?
Spent most of the day between playing games and reading books, took the opportunity to grab a nap or two to make up for the interrupted night. Quiet day all said, weather not so great so that's probably why. Jerry made a couple of heavy attempts on the convoys in the Channel and North Sea but nothing concrete came of it.
A storm rumbled through late in the afternoon while we were trying to get a game of cricket in, got bloody soaked!
Jerry followed the storms with a couple of recon flights and a raid on Portsmouth but again, not much damage caused. The higher ups have warned us that Jerry may have slotted some external fuel tanks on his Stukas to give them some more range and some bombs on a group of his 110s to enable them to bomb ground targets. Gives us something to look forward to!
Score:
Two for Twelve
Saturday 13th July 1940
Whoops! Got our patrol orders through, convoy Bread was our colleague for today, unfortunately as I throttled up to take off, some joker had left the parking brakes on. Nice of them to tell me.
Currently hiding from a rather annoyed fitter!!
Looks like we're going to miss the action today, the lads are rather pissed off at me for it. We've been released, took them for a pint down the local to try and swing them back on side. Charlie left early with that barmaid, looks like he's got his legs well under the table there! She's a local farmers daughter apparently, that spells trouble in any book I've read, hope Charlie can dodge shotgun shells!
Jerry threw a few raids at convoys on the East Anglian coast, their boys took care of it again. It must be busy up there!
Score:
Eight for Eight
Sunday 14th July 1940
Released again! I hope we manage to get some action soon! Squadron morale is low, why can't they just send us up?! No convoys in our area though, so doubt Jerry will bother us much today. Going to get a fry up down the pub and then see what the day brings...
Got a phone call from control at dinner, we've been put on five minutes readiness. Took dinner under the wing of my Hurricane and then read a book. For all the fuss all that Jerry did for the afternoon was send a Shufti-kite over the Pearl convoy. Warning bells should have been ringing then...
Got the Scramble bell at about four, up we went, Jerry sending a heavy raid against Pearl, 100+. Met up with three other squadrons on the way there and then found Jerry coming in off Hastings. Dived into the fray and went after the Stukas, it all happened so bloody fast, no sooner had I found a Stuka then he was filling up my cockpit and it was only time for a quick burst and peel away. Did this twice and on the third run received a engine full of bullets from a tail gunner for my troubles. Peeled off and headed for home with an engine with RPMs going all over the shop. Don't think I got any of them but it looks like we broke the attack up, the Stukas were dropping their bombs early and running for it. Only saw one escort, a 109 with a smoking engine, tried to give chase, but my engine was in about a good a state as his, so left him to it and put down at Lympe. The fitters there will fix her up and send her over when they're done. Listened to Churchills speech whilst waiting for a lift to Manston.
Quote:
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"This has been a great week for the Royal Air Force, and for the Fighter Command. They have shot down more than five to one of the German aircraft which have tried to molest our convoys in the Channel, or have ventured to cross the British coast line. These are, of course, only the preliminary encounters to the great air battles which lie ahead. But I know of no reason why we should be discontented with the results so far achieved; although, of course, we hope to improve upon them as the fighting becomes more widespread and comes more inland. "
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I hope we can keep this up, rumour has it we were savaged today, with thirty-eight planes lost, but I don't know how many Jerries we got, I heard that we got about thirty-five in our raid but not sure what the other chaps got.
Score:
Thirty-Eight for Unknown (possibly +35)
Monday 15th July 1940
Monday bloody Monday, released again, probably because of the fiasco from the intercept yesterday. Not much doing anyway, just more of the channel lark. The lads got a cricket match going with the boys from the Blennies, the Blennies were good at bat but useless at fielding, it was a close run score but we beat them. I kept an ear out for the telephone but there was nothing doing. A few phone calls in the evening revealed that Jerry had been about, Detling got strafed by 109s and Whiskey got hit by Stukas off Orford Ness, but otherwise it was quiet. Heard about a raid on Dover whilst heading down the pub at six.
Score:
Two for Fourteen
Tuesday 16th July 1940
Some of us are beginning to wonder if Fighter Command even knows we exist...
Then again, it's been another quiet day, Shoreham was strafed in the morning by 109s with the traditional shufty pencil following, and then Eastchurch got hit about five, probably the best thing that's ever happened to it if I'm honest. The only attack on Fighter Commands airfields was a strafing run on Lympe at six but since there's no-one based there at the moment there was no harm done.
Dover copped it again in the later hours, we stayed back at base tonight and played poker, I'm now out of pocket by a few bob. Note to self...never play poker with Johnny again!
Score:
Nothing for Three