They Spread Their Wings by Alastair Goodrum

Author:Alastair Goodrum
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780752492179
Publisher: The History Press
Published: 2012-12-06T05:00:00+00:00

In his logbook Walter noted that January was the worst month for the squadron, losing six pilots, and morale was badly shaken.

Events were moving apace now and No 183 Squadron was moving with them. At the end of January 1944 the squadron transferred from Predannack in No 10 Group to RAF Tangmere in No 11 Group. At Tangmere, No 183 Squadron became part of the three-squadron No 136 Wing under the command of Wg Cdr Denys Gillam. Dive-bombing was still on the menu but the squadron’s targets were now airfields, transportation, radar and V-weapon sites along and inland from the Channel coast between Cherbourg and the Pas de Calais.

There was no time to admire the new surroundings. The first operation under the new ‘boss’ was mounted at 09.00 on 1 February when Nos 183, led by Walter Dring in JR385, Nos 193 and 257 Squadrons went for a No-Ball site in the Pas de Calais. Low cloud obscured the primary target so the formation dive-bombed the alternative at Zudausques, 5 miles west of St Omer, with good results. During the afternoon, Walter was in the air again, leading the squadron in a wing attack on another site 10 miles south of Abbeville. Some direct hits were seen and, although flak was heavy during both operations, there were no casualties.

Always looking for better ways of plastering a target – particularly the difficult No-Ball sites – on 13 February Walter, in MN197, and his wingman Fg Off Arthur Napier, in MN144, tried out a method of target marking. The pair flew slightly ahead of the main formation with the task of accurately identifying the target. It was felt that just two aircraft appearing over a target area was less likely to ‘spook’ the flak defences quite so much as a larger force with more obvious intentions. Having located the target, they acted as ‘pathfinders’ by dropping their bombs and calling in the rest of the formation to aim at the smoke generated. This pair raked the target with cannon fire to distract the gunners, observed where the bombs fell and adjusted aiming points for the other pilots. On this occasion the results were recorded as ‘excellent’. Walter led a similar dive-bombing operation on the 15th, with equally good results, but this ‘pathfinder’ method does not seem to have been used much thereafter. Peter Brett wrote that flak encountered during dive-bombing operations was becoming more concentrated and more accurate. German gunners had worked out that if they spotted a large group of aircraft, such as Typhoons, in their vicinity, when the group changed into an echelon formation it almost certainly meant that a target was about to be attacked and, forewarned, the gunners were ready to draw a bead on each diving aircraft. Walter Dring came up with what was considered a better way of getting all the squadron’s aircraft down on a target in the shortest time possible. Generally, flying in ‘squadron’ formation to a target area involved two flights, one behind the other, each of four aircraft flying in a ‘finger-four’ formation.

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