Fighter Command's Air War 1941: RAF Circus Operations and Fighter Sweeps Against the Luftwaffe by Norman Franks

Author:Norman Franks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473847231
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2016-10-14T00:00:00+00:00

Circus No.55 – 21 July

During the late afternoon of the 21st, with weather continuing cloudy but fair, three more Stirlings of 15 Squadron, led by F/O Campbell, were ordered out to bomb a target at Mazingarbe, but yet again the weather defeated the attempt. No sooner had they set course for Gravelines than the huge cloud formations ahead forced the leader to order an abort.

Both the Escort Wing and Escort Cover Wings aborted too, but the Target Support Wings carried on. Biggin Hill’s squadrons (72, 92 and 609) caught fleeting glimpses of the French countryside north of St Omer before spotting what might have been 109s below. One section was sent down but in the swirling cloud nothing further was seen. On the way out a couple of 109s made a half-hearted approach but did not press home their attack.

Tangmere, the other Cover Wing, orbited over France and just before 2045 saw some 109Fs pass 500 feet below heading south-west. They were attacked but the 109s turned and got stuck in, with mixed fortunes. One 109 was probably destroyed and another damaged but one pilot of 616 Squadron didn’t get home, Sgt F. E. Nelson going into the Channel. A second squadron pilot, Sgt S. W. R. Mabbett, was wounded but managed to belly-land in France. He was taken to hospital but died of his injuries. Both men were victims of JG26. They had been sent to engage but with the bombers missing the German pilots assumed this was a sweep rather than a bombing raid. Nevertheless, they claimed three Spitfires for one loss. Unteroffizier Gottfried Dietz made one claim, his first, no doubt Sgt Mabbett, while the other Spitfire may not have been seen crashing into the sea. Johannes Siefert was credited with a Spitfire – kill number fifteen – while Hans Hahn of JG2 claimed another. JG2 had a pilot wounded, lost a 109 and had another damaged. Pilot Officer J. E. Johnson was on this operation and recorded in his book ‘Wing Leader’:

‘Leading a section of two Spitfires, I lost my wingman on a late evening show over France. We were badly bounced and didn’t see the 109s until they had opened fire. The wingman was a sergeant-pilot, a kindly farmer’s son from Gloucestershire, and the next thing we heard of Mabbett was that the Germans had buried him with military honours at St Omer.’

‘The bombers flew over France on every suitable day, and as the high summer wore on, so the resistance of the 109s seemed to increase and sometimes we had to fight our way to the target from the coast. One day in July we shot down Tangmere’s 500th Hun, and the same fight witnessed the squadron’s fiftieth victory. This was not a large squadron score since some units, including 610 Squadron, already claimed more than 100 kills, but we had got off to a poor start last autumn and our present masters seemed satisfied with our progress.’

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