5 October 1940. Bill Millington. Australians in the Battle of Britain.

Australians in the Battle of Britain. 5 October 1940

On 5 October, 249 Squadron carried out two patrols. The first was over London and the second over the Hornchurch–Dover line. Bill Millington only flew on the hour long mid-morning London patrol. He had been regularly flying Hurricane V6614 during the first days of October but today he was flying V6692. Tom Neil flew in V6614 during his two sorties that day.  

George Barclay also flew two sorties on the 5th. Sometime later he filled in his diary and mentioned the squadron’s acquisition of ‘a very nice terrier puppy for the squadron. We have named him “Pipsqueak”’.

George put the new acquisition down to ‘Mulligatawny (Pilot Officer Middleton DFC)’. A quick survey of the squadron lists indicate no Middleton DFC so obviously this was a slip of the pen, Middleton for Millington as Tom Neil recalled that Bill Millington was ‘keen on animals and I believe it was he who introduced Pipsqueak, the dog, and Wilfred, the duck, to the squadron.’

How did Bill come up with the names of his new friends?

Pip, Squeak and Wilfred were three characters in a long running cartoon appearing in the (London) Daily Mirror and (earlier) the Sunday Pictorial newspapers. Pip, who took the father role, was a dog, Squeak, a penguin, was the Mother, and Wilfred, a long-eared rabbit. The little animal family first appeared in 1919, also featured in children’s annuals, and entertained readers right through the war years, into the mid-1950s.

In an irreverent but affectionate tribute, the three British Great War medals award to most of Britain’s servicemen—the Mons Star, the British War Medal and the Defence Medal—were dubbed Pip, Squeak and Wilfred. After the Great War, the RAF apparently appropriated the names for its three Blackburn Kangaroo training aircraft. During this war, the RAF christened the radio-navigation system IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) fitted to some of its fighter aircraft ‘Pip-squeak’.

Despite the wide variety of possible sources for his pets’ names, Pipsqueak, at least, may have been named after the nav. system. After noting in his diary that the terrier was named Pipsqueak, George Barclay stated that ‘it tends to get shortened to Zero!’ and explained that:  

‘Pipsqueak Zero is what the Controller gives to a pilot after take-off to tell him the exact second on which to set his Pipsqueak or contractor going. This mechanism emits a wireless signal for 15 seconds in every minute, thus giving the receiver of the signal a bearing and thus the position of the aircraft. Only four aircraft on the same frequency can of course be operated with pipsqueak at once.’

Bill Millington may have introduced Pipsqueak to the squadron but he was not solely responsible for him. In his diary, George Barclay has photo of himself, Tom Neil and the squadron adjutant Flying Officer Lohmeyer delousing him. Pipsqueak also spread his love around as George also has a photo of Pipsqueak sitting on his lap.

Regardless of who looked after Pipsqueak—who was, according to Tom Neil ‘a little black and white terrier of indeterminate ancestry’—Bill was obviously fond of his new found friend as indicated in this photo.

 

(Bill Millington and Pipsqueak)

 

 

(Bill Millington with Wilfred and Tom Neil with Pipsqueak)