Australians in the Battle of Britain. 30 August 1940

30 August 1940 saw the Luftwaffe return in force, with a total of 1,310 sorties launched against Britain and Bill Millington was in the thick of them.

 

At about 10.30 a.m. a large formation was detected off the French coast. It soon became clear that Fighter Command would have to deal with three separate formations of Heinkel He 111s and their escorts. Fighter Command decided to counter the formations by releasing their squadrons in two waves. 43, 79, 253, and 603 Squadrons were in the first wave, and were despatched to the Deal and Folkestone area to intercept the first formation of bombers just prior to them reaching the English coast.

 Eight aircraft from 79 Squadron scrambled from Biggin Hill at about 11.30 and again the squadron acquitted itself well. Green Section met thirty or more Heinkels and the three shared a destroyed. Pilot Officer Mayhew, who was Blue 4, met eighteen He IIIs as well as three Me 110 and 109s. He claimed 1 Heinkel destroyed. Meanwhile, Blue 1, Pilot Officer Teddy Morris, attacked a Heinkel head on. Not surprisingly, he destroyed it but also had to bale out. He eventually returned home safely. Pilot Officer Tracey, Blue 3, claimed one destroyed Heinkel. There was some suggestion that this Heinkel had in fact been attacked by Spitfires but Tracey was confident of his victory. There were no doubts about the claims of Blue 2, however.

 Bill Millington once again proved that he was a fighter pilot of a high calibre. When he went on readiness that morning, he already had a personal bag of one destroyed Me 109 and three destroyed He 111s. He was almost an ace. By the time he limped back to Biggin Hill at about 12.15 p.m., during a ‘hair-breadth escape’ in an aircraft that had been holed in at least thirty places and rendered U/S and with no more ammunition, he was an ace with a claim for one destroyed He 111, one He 111 probably destroyed, and a Bf 110 damaged.

 Bill was a modest chap and, like many a RAF ‘star’ refrained from adopting the ace tag. But he was proud of his achievements in an understated way, and always willing to share the credit where it was due. When he told his sister all about the day’s efforts (and those of the next day, but stay tuned for details of those) he told her that: 

‘August 30/31 were rather epic days. A South African [Teddy Morris] and I scattered a Bomber formation, shooting down three. Actually the South African collided with a Heinkel III and both machines crashed but Teddy baled out and reached home safely. I limped back home with my machine badly shot up.’

Bill Millington, an Australian ace fighter pilot.

(Incidentally, those who have read my Clive Caldwell Air Ace might recognise Teddy Morris as Caldwell’s CO at 250 Squadron.)