27 September 1940: Peter Moore, John Crossman and Bill Millington

Australians in the Battle of Britain. 27 September 1940

Peter Moore, who hasn’t appeared in this narrative since 8 September, completed his operational training at Aston Down and was posted to 245 Squadron at RAF Aldergrove in Northern Ireland on 27 September 1940. In addition to its defence duties—Aldergrove was responsible for the defence of Belfast and the protection of shipping—it had recently been tasked as an operational training unit for advanced training for Hurricane pilots destined for front line squadrons.

 

 

(Peter Moore)

John Crossman returned from his 24 hours leave at 1.00 p.m. 46 Squadron had already been in the air with 249 Squadron twice that day and was ordered off again about 2.50 p.m. John joined his comrades in the air.

The two squadrons patrolled Hornchurch and saw a formation of ten to twelve Junkers Ju 88s flying above the estuary towards London with a large escort of Me 109s. 249 led the joint attack. A ‘general melee ensued followed by a running fight out to sea.’   

From John’s perspective, this was not a successful outing, and once again he was critical of 249’s conduct of the operation:

‘Intercepted bombers and would have got them all ourselves if 249 hadn’t led us away from them. I only got one burst in. Pat [ie Billy Pattullo] was able to get near but got an explosive bullet in his cockpit—just missed his head. Hit armour plate peppered his face with pieces and he was lucky it all missed his eyes.’

 

 

(John Crossman)

Despite John’s opinion, both 46 and 249 squadrons considered this a successful combat. 46 Squadron claimed one definite Ju 88 destroyed and, although Billy Pattullo force landed with a bullet in his engine, he was unhurt. 249 suffered one killed and other pilot shot down, uninjured and claimed 11 1/2 enemy aircraft destroyed and one damaged. Bill Millington accounted for one and a half of those: 

‘I climbed 1000 feet above enemy bombers and made a steep dive quarter attack on the rear e/a. At this time there were only 7 or 8 bombers left as they were being continuously attacked by Hurricanes. Rear e/a left formation smoking and I delivered a quarter attack opening fire at 100 yards, closing. Port engine of enemy aircraft exploded and e/a dived down steeply to ground in flames. Three fighters, some thousands of feet below, seemed to be following e/a down. E/a crashed South East of Portsmouth.

Bomber formation split up and not one reached the French coast. PO Neil and I attacked the remaining Ju 88 at about 4000 feet which had been attacked by numbers of our fighters, but was still maintaining height and flying steadily over the coast. I delivered a quarter attack, opening fire from 100 yards closing and the starboard motor of e/a burst into flames. E/a dived steeply over the coast losing height rapidly and PO Neil finished it off with a burst from close range. E/a crashed into sea off Shoreham.’

Afterwards, Bill and Tom Neil talked about how they had joined forces in shooting down the Ju 88. ‘I recall reliving [this] and other events with him with some glee when we discussed them later, he being especially animated, as he appeared to enjoy flying as my partner on that and other occasions, and often told me so’.

 

 

(Bill Millington and Tom Neil)