brickhistory
Airman 1st Class
- 104
- Jan 13, 2007
Here are a couple of the stories featuring 410 RCAF pilots.
The only photos I have are of the crews standing.
NOCTIVAGA "Wandering By Night" 410 Squadron motto
"I tried applying for RCAF pilot training in the autumn of 1940." So begins David Adlam's story of finding himself in a Beaufighter's cockpit.
As he had to leave school to help his family earn a living during the Depression, he was a year short of the mandatory four year secondary school pilot requirement, the RCAF tried to interest him in air gunnery instead.
Fortunately for David, the Royal Canadian Legion shortly thereafter introduced a night school course at the University of Toronto for David and others in the same educational situation. Graduating in the spring of 1941, David now met the RCAF's pilot/navigator application minimums.
David shipped out to an Initial Training Unit for an introduction to military life and a sorting out into a potential 'trade.' Adlam continues, "It was here that we were washed out or selected for pilot or navigator training. "
Graduating from No. 20 Elementary Flying Training School, Adlam next went to multi-engine training where he flew the Avro Anson Mk I. He earned his wings and a commission as a pilot officer on January 9, 1942.
After winning his wings, Adlam was selected as a flying instructor and posted to No. 1 Service Flying Training School (SFTS). For more than a year, from April 1942 to August 1943, David trained many other pilots in North American Aviation's Harvard advanced trainer.
In the fall of 1943, David was posted to No. 54 OTU, Charter Hall, Great Britain for conversion training on the Bristol Beaufighter Mk II and Mk VI night fighter variants. David's comments on the Beaufighter include "It was delight to fly, a little heavy on the controls, and the tendency to ground swing on take-off required undivided attention. The cockpit was really excellent and everything handy."
One incident concerning the Beau sticks in David's memory. He tells it with a chuckle but it also reveals a certain cool-headedness on his part, "While returning from a GCI practice interception flight in a Mk II, I was taxiing back to dispersal when I discovered my brakes had failed. The area was on a slight downhill slope with aircraft parked on each side of the taxiway. The only directional control I had was to play the throttles, first applying power to one side and then the other. Naturally, each time I applied the power, the speed increased. Finally clearing the other parked Beaus, I was able to cut the throttles and let the aircraft roll to a stop almost at the runway.
"A post-flight inspection revealed that a wire restraining ring on one tire had worked loose and cut the air pressure line."
David says he was given about two hours flying instruction in the Mk II and a week later, an hour in the Mk VI while at OTU. After that, he constantly practiced A.I. intercepts with his nav until he was declared ready for ops.
In the months preceding the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944, 410 Sq. continued its primary role as a night fighter unit based in England, but after the Allied breakout from the confines of the beachhead moved to a new home near Ameins, France. It subsequently moved up to Lille on November 3 where David joined the squadron.
In one puzzling patrol, he says, "We were carrying out a lengthy interception, heading generally eastward when we were given a 360 degree (due north) vector. We made the turn but as it seemed odd, we requested, twice, the 'Q' code, or authentication from the ground. Receiving no response, we checked our compass heading by using the stars since by then we were quite far out to sea.
"We did a 180, finally picked up a 'splasher' beacon on the coast and headed for home. I always wondered if it was a German controller trying to drive us out to sea until we ran out of petrol."
"Win Some, Lose Some"
William "Bill" Vincent joined the RCAF as soon as he graduated from school in 1940. Another product of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, he won his pilot wings in March 1942 and a posting to night fighters.
He was introduced to the Beaufighter in the Mk II Merlin-powered version at No. 54 OTU at Charter Hall. This version had an even greater reputation for ground looping due to the longer nacelles needed to contain the Merlins as compared to the shorter, Hercules radials. His most memorable flight in the Mk II had nothing to do with ground operations however.
In Bill's words, "I had about 20 hours in the Beau and was out practicing A.I. (airborne interception) intercepts. We would fly out in pairs, one aircraft acting as the target for a while, then swap roles and conduct our own intercepts on the other aircraft and under GCI (ground control intercept) control.
"On Friday, November 13, 1942, I had a mid-air collision with another Mk II. I was acting as the target and the 'fighter' was vectored onto me. As he completed his curve pursuit intercept he did not complete the breakaway properly. He was supposed to pull off to either the left or the right. Instead, he came right underneath my aircraft and pulled up right in front of me.
"He misjudged his pull up and my starboard engine chopped off his left elevator. He was trying to throw me into his slipstream, which would make it very difficult to maintain control of my aircraft. As it was, the collision and prop wash flipped me upside down and it took a lot of altitude to regain control.
"The other guy was unable to regain any control and went straight in. Neither he nor his nav got out.
"I was having my own troubles just then, however. The propeller blades of the Mk II were wooden, variable pitch ones. When the accident occurred, the blades just shattered and wood went flying everywhere. Fortunately, none broke through the cockpit plexiglass. If it had, I would have been skewered.
"I lost a lot of height getting my aircraft back to level flight. I had to watch not over-G'ing the plane because my starboard engine had been bent sharply off center. The supports and brackets were really stressed and I didn't think the engine would stay on the wing. It did, however, and I was able to recover and land.
"They conducted an investigation and I was found not to be at fault. Seems the other pilot had a history of such 'pull ups' but had never been reported. This time he cut it too close and killed himself. Unfortunately, he took his navigator in with him and almost my crew as well."
Bill finished his night fighter training and was subsequently posted to No. 409 Squadron (RCAF) located at an airfield named Coleby Grange Due to the decline in relative numbers of the Luftwaffe and the growth in numbers of night fighter squadrons, 409 had relatively little trade in their sector.
Lacking said enemy activity, in April 1944, the squadron moved to the south to the famous night fighter field of West Malling. In addition to a new airfield, the Canadians were switching to a new aircraft, the Mosquito and designated as a D-Day invasion squadron.
On that day, June 6 1944 and after, there was plenty of enemy activity associated with the invasion of France. Numerous Ju 88 and Ju 188 aircraft were active laying mines in the invasion beach waters and the squadron racked up an impressive number of kills against these aircraft. During this time, V-1 'Flying Bombs' were also being fired from the Calais area towards London; these pilotless aircraft often flew right over 409's airfield and disrupted squadron activity transiting to and from their patrol area.
Eventually the squadron was moved from West Malling to RAF Hunsden, northeast of London. They were assigned against the V-1s for about a month. Although 409 enjoyed little success intercepting the V-1s, they did a brisk business against the pesky minelayers. Crews were obviously eager to join in during this burst of trade.
By this time in the war, Bill recalls that it took six kills to earn a DFC. He never earned a DFC, but he did achieve one kill. On the evening of June 26, 1944 Bill and his nav were on patrol over the Normandy beaches. A GCI site located on a barge near the French town of Fecamp picked up an intruder flying the same profile as earlier minelayers and vectored Bill onto it.
The GCI controller continued giving vectors for the crew to steer until the nightfighter's radar made contact with the bogey (an unindentified radar contact). Picking up the chase, Bill's navigator brought Bill into visual range. All A.I. intercepts had to go to a visual identification to avoid shooting down a friendly aircraft. Bill gained such a 'visual,' sighting a Ju 188.
Bill picks up the story, "He was just turning towards the beachhead when I laid on some deflection and gave him a short two second burst of cannon fire which hit him in the port engine near the wing root and he went down, creating a large fireball when the aircraft hit the water.
"The GCI controller radioed me that he saw the Jerry hit the water."
"Recently an RAF officer researching the fates of German aircraft that failed to return from missions against the invasion and beaches contacted me about this engagement. Evidently some of the Ju's crew did bail out and were fished out of the water by the Royal Navy. They spent the rest of the war as POWs.
"This officer was able to pinpoint the exact latitude and longitude as well as the precise date and time of the kill - one minute past midnight, June 27, 1944!"
In July 1944, Bill was tour expired and was posted to No 54 nightfighter OTU for a rest. It was here that he became reacquainted with the Beaufighter. He instructed new crops of eager crews in the aerial tactics required for successful nightfighting. He went later back to operations with 410 Squadron (RCAF) in France again flying Mosquitoes. He flew from numerous fields there and in Belgium, Holland, and Germany until the end of the war.
The only photos I have are of the crews standing.
NOCTIVAGA "Wandering By Night" 410 Squadron motto
"I tried applying for RCAF pilot training in the autumn of 1940." So begins David Adlam's story of finding himself in a Beaufighter's cockpit.
As he had to leave school to help his family earn a living during the Depression, he was a year short of the mandatory four year secondary school pilot requirement, the RCAF tried to interest him in air gunnery instead.
Fortunately for David, the Royal Canadian Legion shortly thereafter introduced a night school course at the University of Toronto for David and others in the same educational situation. Graduating in the spring of 1941, David now met the RCAF's pilot/navigator application minimums.
David shipped out to an Initial Training Unit for an introduction to military life and a sorting out into a potential 'trade.' Adlam continues, "It was here that we were washed out or selected for pilot or navigator training. "
Graduating from No. 20 Elementary Flying Training School, Adlam next went to multi-engine training where he flew the Avro Anson Mk I. He earned his wings and a commission as a pilot officer on January 9, 1942.
After winning his wings, Adlam was selected as a flying instructor and posted to No. 1 Service Flying Training School (SFTS). For more than a year, from April 1942 to August 1943, David trained many other pilots in North American Aviation's Harvard advanced trainer.
In the fall of 1943, David was posted to No. 54 OTU, Charter Hall, Great Britain for conversion training on the Bristol Beaufighter Mk II and Mk VI night fighter variants. David's comments on the Beaufighter include "It was delight to fly, a little heavy on the controls, and the tendency to ground swing on take-off required undivided attention. The cockpit was really excellent and everything handy."
One incident concerning the Beau sticks in David's memory. He tells it with a chuckle but it also reveals a certain cool-headedness on his part, "While returning from a GCI practice interception flight in a Mk II, I was taxiing back to dispersal when I discovered my brakes had failed. The area was on a slight downhill slope with aircraft parked on each side of the taxiway. The only directional control I had was to play the throttles, first applying power to one side and then the other. Naturally, each time I applied the power, the speed increased. Finally clearing the other parked Beaus, I was able to cut the throttles and let the aircraft roll to a stop almost at the runway.
"A post-flight inspection revealed that a wire restraining ring on one tire had worked loose and cut the air pressure line."
David says he was given about two hours flying instruction in the Mk II and a week later, an hour in the Mk VI while at OTU. After that, he constantly practiced A.I. intercepts with his nav until he was declared ready for ops.
In the months preceding the Allied invasion of France on June 6, 1944, 410 Sq. continued its primary role as a night fighter unit based in England, but after the Allied breakout from the confines of the beachhead moved to a new home near Ameins, France. It subsequently moved up to Lille on November 3 where David joined the squadron.
In one puzzling patrol, he says, "We were carrying out a lengthy interception, heading generally eastward when we were given a 360 degree (due north) vector. We made the turn but as it seemed odd, we requested, twice, the 'Q' code, or authentication from the ground. Receiving no response, we checked our compass heading by using the stars since by then we were quite far out to sea.
"We did a 180, finally picked up a 'splasher' beacon on the coast and headed for home. I always wondered if it was a German controller trying to drive us out to sea until we ran out of petrol."
"Win Some, Lose Some"
William "Bill" Vincent joined the RCAF as soon as he graduated from school in 1940. Another product of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, he won his pilot wings in March 1942 and a posting to night fighters.
He was introduced to the Beaufighter in the Mk II Merlin-powered version at No. 54 OTU at Charter Hall. This version had an even greater reputation for ground looping due to the longer nacelles needed to contain the Merlins as compared to the shorter, Hercules radials. His most memorable flight in the Mk II had nothing to do with ground operations however.
In Bill's words, "I had about 20 hours in the Beau and was out practicing A.I. (airborne interception) intercepts. We would fly out in pairs, one aircraft acting as the target for a while, then swap roles and conduct our own intercepts on the other aircraft and under GCI (ground control intercept) control.
"On Friday, November 13, 1942, I had a mid-air collision with another Mk II. I was acting as the target and the 'fighter' was vectored onto me. As he completed his curve pursuit intercept he did not complete the breakaway properly. He was supposed to pull off to either the left or the right. Instead, he came right underneath my aircraft and pulled up right in front of me.
"He misjudged his pull up and my starboard engine chopped off his left elevator. He was trying to throw me into his slipstream, which would make it very difficult to maintain control of my aircraft. As it was, the collision and prop wash flipped me upside down and it took a lot of altitude to regain control.
"The other guy was unable to regain any control and went straight in. Neither he nor his nav got out.
"I was having my own troubles just then, however. The propeller blades of the Mk II were wooden, variable pitch ones. When the accident occurred, the blades just shattered and wood went flying everywhere. Fortunately, none broke through the cockpit plexiglass. If it had, I would have been skewered.
"I lost a lot of height getting my aircraft back to level flight. I had to watch not over-G'ing the plane because my starboard engine had been bent sharply off center. The supports and brackets were really stressed and I didn't think the engine would stay on the wing. It did, however, and I was able to recover and land.
"They conducted an investigation and I was found not to be at fault. Seems the other pilot had a history of such 'pull ups' but had never been reported. This time he cut it too close and killed himself. Unfortunately, he took his navigator in with him and almost my crew as well."
Bill finished his night fighter training and was subsequently posted to No. 409 Squadron (RCAF) located at an airfield named Coleby Grange Due to the decline in relative numbers of the Luftwaffe and the growth in numbers of night fighter squadrons, 409 had relatively little trade in their sector.
Lacking said enemy activity, in April 1944, the squadron moved to the south to the famous night fighter field of West Malling. In addition to a new airfield, the Canadians were switching to a new aircraft, the Mosquito and designated as a D-Day invasion squadron.
On that day, June 6 1944 and after, there was plenty of enemy activity associated with the invasion of France. Numerous Ju 88 and Ju 188 aircraft were active laying mines in the invasion beach waters and the squadron racked up an impressive number of kills against these aircraft. During this time, V-1 'Flying Bombs' were also being fired from the Calais area towards London; these pilotless aircraft often flew right over 409's airfield and disrupted squadron activity transiting to and from their patrol area.
Eventually the squadron was moved from West Malling to RAF Hunsden, northeast of London. They were assigned against the V-1s for about a month. Although 409 enjoyed little success intercepting the V-1s, they did a brisk business against the pesky minelayers. Crews were obviously eager to join in during this burst of trade.
By this time in the war, Bill recalls that it took six kills to earn a DFC. He never earned a DFC, but he did achieve one kill. On the evening of June 26, 1944 Bill and his nav were on patrol over the Normandy beaches. A GCI site located on a barge near the French town of Fecamp picked up an intruder flying the same profile as earlier minelayers and vectored Bill onto it.
The GCI controller continued giving vectors for the crew to steer until the nightfighter's radar made contact with the bogey (an unindentified radar contact). Picking up the chase, Bill's navigator brought Bill into visual range. All A.I. intercepts had to go to a visual identification to avoid shooting down a friendly aircraft. Bill gained such a 'visual,' sighting a Ju 188.
Bill picks up the story, "He was just turning towards the beachhead when I laid on some deflection and gave him a short two second burst of cannon fire which hit him in the port engine near the wing root and he went down, creating a large fireball when the aircraft hit the water.
"The GCI controller radioed me that he saw the Jerry hit the water."
"Recently an RAF officer researching the fates of German aircraft that failed to return from missions against the invasion and beaches contacted me about this engagement. Evidently some of the Ju's crew did bail out and were fished out of the water by the Royal Navy. They spent the rest of the war as POWs.
"This officer was able to pinpoint the exact latitude and longitude as well as the precise date and time of the kill - one minute past midnight, June 27, 1944!"
In July 1944, Bill was tour expired and was posted to No 54 nightfighter OTU for a rest. It was here that he became reacquainted with the Beaufighter. He instructed new crops of eager crews in the aerial tactics required for successful nightfighting. He went later back to operations with 410 Squadron (RCAF) in France again flying Mosquitoes. He flew from numerous fields there and in Belgium, Holland, and Germany until the end of the war.