At Brize Norton, Peter Moore was officially mustered as a Pilot: he was
finally awarded his pilot’s brevet. He had received a proficiency rating of
79.2%. Next stop, operational training. John Crossman left Sutton
Bridge for Biggin Hill. He had had enough of training: he was ‘very glad to be
going too’.
26 August was a
red letter day for Ken Holland ‘X RAID PATROL FIRST’. He was Yellow Two, but
they met nothing. It seems the squadron thought little of this non-encounter as
it is not recorded in the Operations Record Book. Perhaps they were too
distracted by the ‘big flap in the evening but only solitary Huns over.’
As well as
recording his own important news, he noted that ‘234 Wallop had a dog fight
with six 109s and shot down two’.
Actually, Ken
got it a bit wrong. Indeed, 234 Squadron did have a busy time of it and two of
the 109s were shot down by fellow Australian Pat Hughes. At about 5.00 in the
evening, five miles south of the Isle of Wight, while on a squadron scramble to
patrol Portsmouth, Pat, as Cressy Leader:
‘Intercepted
eight Me 109s at 16,000 feet followed by 30 Me 109s 2000 feet above and three
miles behind. My section formed astern and attacked the leading eight, who
immediately split up into sections of two aircraft each. I attacked the leading
two aircraft and fired a burst of five seconds as the rear one which caught
fire and dropped vertically. The second aircraft had climbed and was shooting
from above but on turning he dived away but was caught by a long burst from
dead astern when he pulled out. This aircraft caught fire but stayed in the air
for several minutes.’
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(This photo of 234 Squadron was taken before 15 August when Bush Parker was taken POW.)
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