They Spread Their Wings (3 page)

Plt Off Howard Clark at No 52 OTU Aston Down, England, December 1941. (Clark Collection)

After leaving Lagos, the first stop, of one hour at 15.10, was at Kano in the north of Nigeria; ‘an incredible place,’ wrote Howard, ‘fed on goat meat. One whole goat costs two shillings, a chicken costs one penny and a dozen eggs cost half a penny.’ The next leg was from Kano to Maiduguri in the east of the country, where they arrived at 18.10. ‘We are stopping at the Pan American Airways place. Wizard food in darkest Africa.’

After an overnight stop the aircraft left Maiduguri at 05.45 bound for El Geneina, which Howard described as ‘hot and miles from anywhere’. It was 950 miles east of Kano in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan close to the border with what is now Chad. They touched down at 09.45 for an hour before pressing on to El Fasher, another 200 miles east – ‘hotter still’ – arriving at 11.55. They departed half an hour later for Khartoum, 500 miles to the north, where they landed at 16.35 on 30 April. With another overnight rest, Howard was on his way again at 08.00 the next morning, heading for Cairo. The DC–3 flew via Wadi Halfa, landing at Heliopolis airport, Cairo, at 14.30 on 1 May. Howard stayed at the Metropolitan Hotel where, once again, he found he had to kick his heels for a while. In one of his letters home, on 4 May, he said: ‘I have been in Cairo now for about three days. A pretty good spot but frightfully expensive. I expect to go out into the desert any day now.’ His optimism was, however, misplaced since he was ordered to go to the Almaza Transit Camp (No 22 Personnel Transit Centre), located on an airfield on the outskirts of Cairo, where he was billeted to await his next posting. There followed another period of waiting, while the powers that be decided what to do with him. He wrote in his diary: ‘bags of pilots out here and no planes for them to fly’, and this situation would only change when the desert campaign hotted up and aircrew casualties began to rise. While he was ‘stooging’, Howard made the best of it and spent his time ‘meeting Old Uppingham types’, sightseeing (Pyramids and Sphinx), cinema-going or playing golf, tennis, cricket and swimming at the Gezira Sporting Club, a huge social facility on a large island in the Nile in central Cairo used by officers and European civilians. After three weeks, this way of life began to pall somewhat and he complained: ‘Still no news [of posting], horribly browned off. Hope to god I leave here soon; want to fly.’ To relieve the monotony of the transit camp he spent a week’s leave at the New Hotel in Cairo, but returned to Almaza when that finished because his foot had been causing him trouble since 24 May (no explanation given) to the extent that he needed to see the medical officer (MO). He was told to rest it for four or five days, which he did willingly because he was anxious for it not to affect his posting. Although it was still playing him up on 13 June, by the 16th he noted it was ‘almost better now’.

A refreshing cuppa for Howard Clark at the Gezira Sporting Club, Cairo, 1942. (Clark Collection)

By 18 June 1942 the Allied situation in the desert war had deteriorated and everyone was retreating eastwards towards the Alamein Line. A few days later Tobruk fell to the Germans; things were looking grim and for Howard his time had come. On Sunday 21 June he was interviewed by Sqn Ldr Kettlewell and told he was posted to No 6 Squadron to fly the Hawker Hurricane. He was to report to the squadron at Shandur, an airfield close to the Little Bitter Lake on the Suez Canal, on Tuesday 23 June 1942. It was two months since he had arrived in Cairo and eighteen months since he had joined the RAF.

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No 6 Squadron, after months of relative inactivity, had moved to Shandur on 10 May to convert to the Hurricane IID anti-tank aircraft. The squadron then moved out with nine Hurricane IIDs to Gambut in Libya on 4 June, operating as part of No 239 Wing of the Desert Air Force: No 6 Squadron with Hurricane IID; Nos 112 and 3 Squadrons (RAAF) with Curtiss P–40 Kittyhawk fighter-bombers; Nos 250 and 450 Squadrons (RAAF) with Kittyhawk fighters. Here the squadron began ground attack operations in support of Free French forces in the critical battles in the ‘Cauldron’ around Bir Hacheim. The Hurricane IIDs of No 6 Squadron made their operational debut on 7 June, west of Bir Hacheim, although the enemy was not engaged on that occasion. By 18 June, however, the squadron had been pulled back and was operating from Landing Ground (LG) 102, Sidi Haneish airfield, having vacated Gambut in a hurry to keep ahead of the advancing Germans.

Like the Eighth Army, the Desert Air Force was being built up with men and materials in preparation for a big counter-offensive and Plt Off Howard Clark was just one small pawn in that grand strategy. Thus, along with another nine fresh-faced English, Australian, New Zealand and American pilots, Howard proceeded to Shandur airfield. Here they became part of the Western Desert Air Force (usually abbreviated to Desert Air Force) and underwent intensive training on the Hawker Hurricane IID with No 6 Squadron’s training flight.

The Hurricane IID, the aeroplane that Howard would fly, was the outcome of experiments to determine if existing 40mm armour-piercing (AP) cannon shells could be used effectively by aeroplanes against tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles. The 40mm cannon was a weapon of relatively light weight and Hawker found it was entirely practicable to install one beneath each wing of a Hurricane; thus, the Mk IID version came into being. A standard Hurricane Mk II was adapted to become a pure ground attack machine by removing all but two of the wing-mounted. 303in machine guns; these two were retained to fire tracer ammunition as an aid for sighting the two 40mm cannon mounted in pods, attached one on each side to the specially strengthened under-wing hard points. Two designs of 40mm cannon were originally considered for this project: a Vickers ‘S’ and a Rolls-Royce ‘BF’ model. Ammunition to feed the former was contained in a spring-loaded drum magazine, while the latter was belt-fed. The drum-feed became the preferred option as it was more reliable and the ‘S’ drum held fifteen rounds per gun compared to twelve in the ‘BF’ version. Although about 200 of the RR/BF version were built, after several mishaps due to breech explosions it was discarded for the Hurricane IID in favour of the Vickers ‘S’ gun. Almost all of the IIDs produced were sent to overseas squadrons and during May 1942, No 6 Squadron – at that time under the command of Wg Cdr Roger Porteous in Egypt – was the first to receive the aircraft for combat operations.

The batch of new pilots began their training at Shandur airfield under the watchful eye of Wg Cdr Stephen Dru Drury, who had been in charge of this particular weapons project since its inception. Now he was helping to bring it into service as soon as possible. Under his guidance, pilots learned how to handle the tricky tendency of the Hurricane’s nose to drop, resulting from the recoil of the 40mm guns when fired. It was necessary to take minor corrective action to ‘catch’ and correct this tendency before the next salvo (one pair of shells) could be lined up and fired because flying at about 50ft above the ground left little room for error. The 40mm guns were aimed using the usual Mk II reflector sight and tracer rounds from the simultaneous firing of the machine guns gave a good indication of the impact point. Although the gun’s range was quoted as over 2,000 yards, the range at which the 40mm gun became most effective was about 1,000 yards and with practice, it soon became clear that it was possible to get two salvos off before overrunning a target. During training it was even found that a third salvo could be fired on some occasions. With solid, tungsten-tipped AP shells as standard, it was possible to penetrate 55mm armour plate. A downside to this lethal weapon system was that when the guns and an engine sand filter were installed on a Hurricane IID, its speed was reduced by about 40mph.

Tank-buster Hawker Hurricane IID armed with two 40mm cannon, the type flown by Howard Clark with No 6 Squadron in the Western Desert. (J. Cheney Collection)

At the beginning of January 1942 the squadron went to Helwan in preparation for a move to Iraq, by which time it had reached an all-time low point with just one lone Hurricane Mk I left on its inventory. However, all was not lost because in the end the squadron did not go to Iraq, but remained in Egypt instead. It took up residence on LG 224, also known as LG Kilo 26 and later as Cairo-West, to await re-equipment with the Hurricane IID. The airfield was located near the Cairo to Alexandria road, about 16 miles west of Cairo itself. Once all the air and ground personnel and the first batch of the long-awaited new aircraft had been brought together at this location, on 20 April 1942 it moved out as a squadron to its initial operating base at Shandur to begin training with the new Hurricane IID.

With five weeks’ training under its belt, No 6 Squadron was declared ready for battle and in mid-May was sent forward to Gambut airfield near the coast – about 30 miles south-east of Tobruk and 400 miles west of Alexandria – to begin operations against the enemy once again. However, in the fluid situation then existing in the desert war, the squadron was under constant orders to move – forward or backward(!) – at two hours’ notice. In common with many of these desert landing grounds, Gambut had several ‘satellite’ airstrips and it acquired a dubious reputation as ‘the worst ‘drome for dust in the desert’.

The Hurricane IID had its baptism of fire with No 6 Squadron on 8 June 1942 when several tanks and vehicles were destroyed with the new weapon. While extremely effective, the very nature of the type of attack profile carried out by the Hurricane IID left it exposed to enemy air opposition. Major Hugh Rice, a former army air liaison officer (ALO) with No 6 Squadron, recalled:

The Hurricane IIDs were few in number and vulnerable and were therefore never sent out without medium or top cover. As a result, the planning of a strike was a relatively complicated job, particularly as the covering squadrons were themselves pretty busy on routine work. Only targets that were certain to be identifiable at low level, which were not in the thick of the heaviest flak and whose existence and location were absolutely certain, were attacked. This policy resulted in a very high percentage of successful operations, with great damage to enemy armour and with low casualty rates.

As the battle moved forward, the IIDs were sent out unescorted [due] to the reduction in enemy air resistance and the difficulty of getting escort from different airfields when the whole air force was moving forward daily. By the time the Tunisian show was over, casualties had reached a worrying level and the IID was clearly past its prime.

In that short period the Hurricane IID was extremely effective – particularly when its pilots were given timely information, accurate directions and had top cover – at unblocking localised enemy armoured obstructions encountered by the Eighth Army.

During June 1942 this initial contingent of pilots, ground crew and aircraft, effectively comprising ‘A’ Flight No 6 Squadron, gradually retreated eastwards to LG 102 Sidi Haneish, located adjacent to the main Libyan coastal highway, 20 miles east of Mersa Matruh and 240 miles west of Cairo. The squadron’s base organisation was sent to No 239 Wing HQ sharing LG 91 Amriya (or Amiriya), an airfield on the Alexandria–Cairo road, 15 miles west of Alexandria. On 24 June, Desert Air Force HQ ordered ‘B’ Flight to take its batch of new pilots and aircraft from Shandur forward to join ‘A’ Flight at Sidi Haneish. Once again, though, in the fluid situation and with Sidi Haneish now under regular air attack, this signal was countermanded on the 25th and ‘B’ Flight moved to LG 91 Amriya instead. This was now the base for No 7 (South African) Wing which was composed of Nos 6 (Hurri IID), 127 (IIB) and 274 (IIB) RAF Squadrons and No 7 SAAF (Hurri IIB) Squadron.

Next day, while ‘B’ Flight moved west to join ‘A’ Flight at Amriya, Howard had his first thirty-five-minute Hurricane sortie in ‘a rather ropey Mark I’ with the training flight back at Shandur. All the ‘new boys’ received lectures in tank recognition. Meanwhile, ‘A’ Flight was in action searching for a squadron of enemy tanks reported to the west of Mersa Matruh. None were found but a convoy of lorries, armoured cars, guns and troop carriers was attacked with some success by Wg Cdr Porteous and four other pilots. In the evening of the 26th, No 211 Group HQ ordered all aircraft to pull back immediately to landing ground LG 106 at El Daba near Ghazal, 50 miles east of Sidi Haneish. The ground personnel were to follow at first light the next morning. With a stop at Fuka landing strip (LG 17) en route – the ground party scrounging rations, equipment and tents as they went – the air and ground echelons were safely installed at Ghazal by evening on the 27th, just in time to be bombed again, fortunately without damage to life or equipment.