Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot by Jonathan Falconer

Author:Jonathan Falconer
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Life as a Battle of Britain Pilot
ISBN: 9780752470498
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2011-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 4

Flying a Fighter

Strategy and tactics

I shot down 109s when flying Hurricanes, but only when I had the advantage of height. I’d stick my nose down and go for them. But a Hurricane couldn’t match the 109 on the same level. I spoke to German pilots after the war and they said ‘Hurricanes? We didn’t worry about them. It was the Spitfires we worried about.’

Squadron Leader Bob Stanford-Tuck, CO 257 Squadron, September 1940

In 1940, the hordes of German bombers attacking Britain usually had a formidable fighter escort of Me109s and Me110s to protect them. They would

also fly in close formation to give each individual bomber the benefit of protection from their combined defensive firepower. Put simply, the job of an RAF fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain was to separate the enemy escort fighters from the bombers, break up the bomber formations and shoot down as many bombers as possible.

The RAF had one major advantage over its Luftwaffe adversaries, and that was its system of ground-based fighter controllers who could commit their forces where and when they were most needed in response to the changing enemy threat, thanks largely to radar. Not only were the RAF’s fighter squadrons in two-way radio contact with their ground controllers, their pilots were also able to communicate with each other in the air via their high-frequency TR9D wireless sets.

Air combat in the battle took place at all heights, from 30,000ft all the way down to sea level. Whether on a standing patrol or if scrambled to intercept an incoming enemy bomber formation, a fighter pilot had to keep his wits about him all the time. Flying a fighter aircraft meant he could never relax.

A fighter pilot’s survival depended on being alert. Once he became airborne he checked and rechecked his instruments and the sky all around him continually. For an experienced pilot these actions became second nature. His systematic scans of the sky began at the left and the rear, his eyes moving in a careful and deliberate up and down zig-zag pattern, searching the sky from high above to below the horizon, gradually working around until he reached the right and the rear. Then he checked again in the direction of the sun, before beginning the procedure all over again. All the time he was doing this, his roving eyes would dart down into the cockpit every few seconds to check that all was well with the instruments and their flickering needles caged in their glass dials.

During the Battle of Britain, famous fighter ace Squadron Leader A.G. ‘Sailor’ Malan drew up his ‘Ten Rules’ for air fighting. They were sound advice and quickly achieved widespread fame throughout RAF Fighter Command. Copies could be found pinned to noticeboards in crew rooms and flight offices. His first rule was to hold fire until you could see the whites of your opponent’s eyes, then fire short bursts of 1 to 2 seconds – and only when your gunsight was definitely ‘on’ the target. He also

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