Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer by Alastair Panton

Author:Alastair Panton [Alastair Panton and Victoria Panton Bacon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781849547758
Publisher: Biteback Publishing
Published: 2014-04-20T04:00:00+00:00

7 June 1940

The next morning the minor advances by the Germans we had reported the day before had become major ones. On our first sortie Farrow and I had more to cope with in our area over the west end of the line than we could record fully and accurately. Accordingly, on our return to Coulommiers, I left our information with Hallows as before, and divided my area with Chancery, leaving Holmes to deal on his own with the eastern end of the line where things were quieter.

I was anxious that any reconnaissance over the area around the 51st Division should be done by me. I would then be 1,000 feet above Colin. Although, for all the good I could do personally to help him, I might as well be 1,000 miles away, being there was my miserable best. I wondered unhappily if he might be watching my Blenheim with his binoculars, and seeing the large letters PZ-E, my aircraft identification letters, painted in white on each side of the fuselage; he knew them to be mine.

On my second sortie on that day, 7 June, Farrow and I saw the German advanced units were nearing Rouen and Beauvais, and watched their steady progress the day after. I had a most unhappy feeling that any chance of Colin with his division reaching Le Havre was very slim.

Early on the morning of 9 June I was told to pull out of Coulommiers and move to Chartres, some 40 miles south-west of Paris and about 90 miles away by road from where we were. The order, signed by a Squadron Leader Robinson, was delivered by a despatch rider. On the day before I had warned Sergeant Hallows that I thought we should have to move. In fact, he did not need much warning, being able to read the signs as well as anyone, and he had been preparing to travel. Although I had arranged to delay our three aircraft from taking off until he was ready, we did not have to wait long. Our plan was that he would drive the 3-tonner with the ground crew to Chartres and be there to meet us when we landed at the end of our second sorties. We took off twenty minutes after he left. I circled round and spotted him on the ominously crowded road; he had not gone very far.

All our three aircraft returned to a deserted Coulommiers. As we had to refuel ourselves by hand-pumping, we only took on board as much as we needed for three hours’ flying instead of filling to capacity as was the usual procedure. I was anxious not to overtax the aircrew in the heat, and when the refuelling was finished and we had had something to eat, I ordered an hour’s rest before taking off on the second sortie. During this hour I slipped down to the cafe to say farewell to the Montaignes; she was in tears and he was pale with worry. Whatever slight hopes they had had were killed by the remorseless German advance.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.