23 July 1940 was a relatively quiet day for Fighter Command. No combat losses were recorded and only two German bombers were shot down. Eight Australians also had a quiet day.
Des Sheen was still
waiting to hear about his hoped-for return to 72 Squadron, Ken Holland
continued his training, Stuart Walch was off duty, Dick Glyde was still off the
ops list, Pat Hughes spent the day on the ground and Bill Millington and 79
Squadron were grounded until 26 July. After waking up late after his stint as
duty pilot, John Crossman took the squadron’s ‘Maggie’ to Kenley to have tea
with a new friend he had met at the R/T course. It was an enjoyable afternoon,
making up in some small measure for his disappointment in not being able to fly
the 32 Squadron’s Master, which was unserviceable. It was ‘a nuisance’ and this
would have been his next step towards his first go on a Hurricane. He was also
cheered up at mail call, when he received a scarf from some family friends and
the first letter for weeks. Another late night was in order as he was duty
pilot again ‘and had to control night flying again as officer in charge didn’t
turn up’.
(John Crossman had missed out on flying the Hurricane during his training and, even after being posted to an operational fighter squadron still hadn't had a chance to fly one. Bill Millington had gained plenty of Hurricane experience by this stage. Here he is standing in front of a Hurricane of 10 FTS Tern Hill.)
No comments:
Post a Comment