During the squadron

Despite this early encounter contact with the enemy was infrequent. Indeed, flying appears to have been infrequent except in a training role. But there were still incidents. On January 11^th 1941 PO Lauder crashed on landing Hurricane V7130 at Cranage. The following day Hurricane P3663 also crashed in the hands of Sgt. Kneath. Both pilots were uninjured. These events and the early fatality doubtless was responsible for the visit of a Flight Lieutenant Payne attending the airfield on January 17^th to instruct on landing techniques. Despite this visit, 96 continued to be dogged by accidents. On February 1^st Sgt. Peacock was uninjured when he crashed Hurricane P8813 on landing at Cranage. Two days later Hurricane W9159 force landed near Tarporley, Cheshire with Sgt. Taylor at the controls. He, too, was uninjured.

Not all the Hurricane crashes were the responsibility of 96 Squadron pilots. Flt. Lt. Gron ‘Dopey’ Edwards was a Flight Commander with No. 2 School of Air Navigation at Cranage and together with one of his pilots, FO Peter Wakeford, was determined to return to operational flying, ideally on fighters. Edwards had made application to be posted to 96 Squadron by the Station Commander who would not approve the move. In April 1941, Edwards’s commanding officer, Sdn. Ldr. Joe Riley, approved a second application for transfer, this time to 605 Squadron at Croydon. Despite visiting the squadron, Edwards and Wakeford were unsuccessful.

A sortie flying Army personnel to Hawarden allowed both the opportunity to fly a couple of Spitfires from neighbouring RAF Sealand while the Army types went about their business. Emboldened by their good fortune, Edwards and Wakeford went single-seater flying again four days later on May 2nd.

There was a standing order in the Cranage Pilot’s Order Book that stated quite clearly that Navigation School pilots were not to fly any aircraft operated by 96 Squadron – including Defiant, Hurricane and the squadron trainer, a Fairey Battle. Chancing their arms, both managed to scrounge a Hurricane flight in V7261. Edwards pulled rank and went off first, returning safely enough. Wakeford was not so fortunate. The Hurricane caught fire and while Peter Wakeford survived the ensuing crash, the Hurricane did not.

When FO Wakeford returned from hospital, both he and Edwards had to face a Court of Enquiry who were outraged to find that two, never mind one, officers Navigation School types had flown the Hurricane. Edwards lost nine months seniority on his promotion to Squadron Leader and endorsed his log book ‘the most expensive flight of my career.’

Other airmen for 96 Squadron continued to arrive including two Czech pilots, FO’s Vlasimic Vesely and Josef Kloboucnik, from 312 (Czech) Squadron on 8^th February. FO Kloboucnik also had misfortune when his Hurricane (V6947) force landed at Sutton Hall Farm causing the pilot some minor injuries just two days after his posting to the squadron. Another two days had passed when Verity’s had to make a forced landing at RAF Shawbury, near Shrewsbury .

The night of February 15^th/16^th saw two further crashes. PO Lauder dropped Hurricane P3833 while Sgt. Scott damaged Hurricane V7591 on landing. The likely cause for some of the crashes at Cranage was the poor weather. Indeed, Fighter Command operations were being considerably hampered during early 1941 with snow, slush and flooding at airfields affecting serviceability. Cranage was affected as was Squires Gate, Charmy Down, St. Eval and Middle Wallop.

The Weather Factor

The winter of 1940/41 was particularly bad and conditions at Cranage have already been alluded to. During February 1941 only four nights saw double figure flying times, the best of which was 11^th February when a total of 27 hours was achieved. Overall the ORB shows no interceptions made during 34 day sorties (21 hours in total) and 106 night sorties totalling 87 hours and 15 minutes. However, every opportunity was taken for training and searchlight co-operation exercises to be undertaken.

Training flights were obviously important during this period because the squadron was converting from the Hurricane to the two-seat Defiant that demanded a completely different set of tactics. Sgt. Stanley Sim, an air gunner, did not join the squadron until mid-September 1941 but his training would have been a development of tactics already adopted by both 96 Squadron and other squadron’s equipped with the aircraft.

“We practised night fighter tactics, the theory being that the enemy bombers would be silhouetted against the cloud overcast or even the flames resulting from their bombs,” he says. “The favoured Defiant attack technique was to slide undetected into a position immediately below and within a few feet of the enemy aircraft from where the gunner could blow out its engines. This technique was practised regularly.”

It was hoped by Fighter Command that night fighters would already be on station over the enemy target areas allowing the night fighters to find a target. Things didn’t always work out that way, says Sgt. Sim. “It was generally hoped that the fighters would be in position over the target ready to find a target as the waves of bombers came over to start their bombing run. You must appreciate that GCI [ground controlled intercept] was fairly basic although fighters could be directed to their target, and this was practised often, but much reliance had to be placed on night vision.”

Despite the fact that little flying could be undertaken at Cranage it appears to have been better off than some of its neighbouring airfields. In January 1941, 57 OTU at Hawarden, now home to British Aerospace, had been forced to vacate its home with two flights of Spitfires going to RAF Sealand and one to Cranage. The Cranage contingent remained until May. Coconut matting was spread on the landing/take off areas, recalls Stanley Coates, a member of RAF Cranage’s ground staff.

The poor weather continued into March and the ORB records that ‘weather in Cranage is never anything to boast or write home about’. Fog and poor visibility was the main factor restricting operations. Some 12 hours of flying was achieved on March 3^rd with 11 ‘Hurrybirds’ and three Defiant’s making sorties. The following day Verity was airborne ‘looking for the enemy. Fortunately for the latter, no contact was made’.

Despite the lack of flying and contact with German raiders morale and humour were recorded as high. Fog stopped operations again on March 5^th causing caustic comments from aircrew ‘but adjectives used are nothing compared to the hot fate in store for the Huns when they cross our territory’.

Sqn. Ldr. Kellett appears to have been unimpressed with Cranage, probably because of the weather. He made strenuous efforts to have concrete runways installed as well as fighter pens so that the poor weather would not hinder winter flying. He was unsuccessful but did win one concession. The natural camouflage of a dense stand of silver birch trees on the airfield perimeter was identified as an ideal dispersal point. The Air Ministry Works Department was persuaded to leave the trees alone and they became 96’s dispersal point. There was no dispersal accommodation, despite Kellett’s persistent requests. In fact, all of the buildings were pre-war including the Bellman hangars in a block of eight towards the north end of the airfield.

The weather, however, seems to have had little effect on the advancement of 96’s staff and on March 8^th Squadron Leader Kellett was promoted to Wing Commander and moved to North Weald in Kent. His replacement was Squadron Leader R J Burns, a South African formerly with 54 Night Fighter OTU at Church Fenton in Yorkshire . The change of command did not appear to affect morale.

Enter the Defiant

During the squadron’s early weeks, the Hawker Hurricane had been the sole mount for 96 Squadron’s combat patrols. That was to change in early 1941 with the arrival of the first Boulton Paul Defiant, ironically designed and built just a few miles south at Wolverhampton and powered by Rolls Royce Merlin engines many of which were built at Crewe just ten miles away.

The Defiant was a two-seat, single-engine fighter and could be best described as a Boulton Paul development of the Blackburn Roc that the company had been assembling at Wolverhampton . Its appearance was similar to that of the Hurricane except for a gun turret fitted aft of the pilot that was equipped with four guns. There were no forward firing guns. The prototype, K8310, first flew in August 1937 without a turret before going to Martlesham Heath for test flying by Service test pilots. The aircraft achieved surprising results, capable of 320 miles per hour and of climbing to 10,500 feet in only seven and a half minutes. Handling was described as good in all respects even when trimmed for landing with flaps and undercarriage deployed.

The turret was finally fitted in February 1938 having a marked impact on performance with top speed down to 303 miles per hour while it took over 15 minutes to reach 20,000 feet. Despite this, the performance was close to that of the Mark I Hurricane.

The Air Council Committee placed an order for 289 Defiant’s and by August 1938 production was in full swing. Boulton Paul expected to deliver 450 of the type by March 1940 once Roc production had been completed by November 1939. A further order for 161 aircraft was placed.

The first squadron to be equipped with the Defiant was 264 (Madras Presidency) Squadron who had reformed at Sutton Bridge in October 1939 but they did not receive any of the fighters until early December. In March 1940 the first Defiant’s were delivered to 141 Squadron at Grangemouth but it was with 264 Squadron that the aircraft first saw combat action in the day fighter role.

During patrol’s with Spitfires from 66 Squadron, ‘A’ flight assisted in destroying a Ju-88 on May 12^th but the following day a similar patrol by ‘B’ Flight resulted in disaster and five Defiant’s were shot down by Bf-109’s resulting in eight fatalities. Revenge was to come. During operations over Dunkirk at the end of May a considerable number of He-111’s and Bf-109’s were claimed destroyed. And the squadron slaughtered a of force of Ju-87’s near Calais by pouncing on the bombers as they pulled out of their dives, their most vulnerable time. By the end of the day the squadron claimed eight Bf-109’s, nine Bf-110’s, 19 Ju-87’s and a Ju-88. With three other probables, this made a total of 40 aircraft shot down at no loss to themselves. The Defiant looked as though it was going to be successful in the role for which it had been designed that of destroying bombers.

Conversion to the Defiant for 96 Squadron commenced during early 1941. The first aircraft to arrive was N3389 on January 15^th presumably for familiarisation training. It was not until mid-February that more of the type arrived with six reaching Cranage on February 15^th – N1803, N3327, N3338, N3433, N3434 and N3436. A further three arrived on February 28^th – N1766, N1767 and N3374. With ten airframes in squadron hands conversion to type began in earnest.

There was a major influx of the aircraft during March with a further eleven arriving and there were more arrivals during April and May with a total of nine. By the end of May 1941 the squadron had 21 operational Defiant’s. Some had already left, generally for modification by Reid & Sigrist who had been tasked by Boulton Paul with constructing a second assembly and flight test centre at Desford.

Sgt. Sim’s comments about the aircraft are interesting and bear out some of those made by those responsible for the early testing of the type. “The Defiant”, he says, “was a bit under-powered, and though it looked like a Hurricane the extra load of a heavy four-gun turret reduced its manoeuvrability and speed, and it bounced a bit on Cranage’s grass. Nevertheless it saw some sterling service as a night fighter.”

There were some loses. First to suffer on February 25^th was N3433 at RAF Sealand on the English/Welsh border. The aircraft overshot during a forced landing in poor weather and ended up in a ditch. The crew were uninjured (except for their pride!) and the aircraft was subsequently repaired, probably at Reid & Sigrist to where it was transferred to on March 12^th.

Despite this early accident, the Defiant had grown in popularity with pilots and they were now a firm favourite even with the most enthusiastic Hurricane fan. The ORB records in early April that ‘the time is not far distant when pilots will not fly anything else at night but Defiant's’.

A more serious accident occurred on April 13^th. FO Paul Rabone was flying N1766 together with FO Ritchie on an air test when the engine cut out. The crew abandoned the aircraft some two miles west of Derwent Reservoir and it crashed at Rowlees Pasture in Derbyshire. Both pilot and air gunner were uninjured and on returning to Cranage the following day, Ritchie was awarded a gold badge by the parachute makers, GQ, in recognition of his successful use of their product as an air gunner.

In August 1980, a group of aviation enthusiasts excavated the site and were able to recover the engine and propeller from the aircraft. These items are on display at the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry. This is one of only three surviving Defiant fighters and the only one known to have served with 96 Squadron. It is also believed to be the only remaining aircraft operated by the squadron in the wartime fighter role.

On the night of April 27^th/28^th Sgt.’s Angell and Goldsmith were flying N3389 on a cross-country exercise. Just before midnight the aircraft plunged to the ground four miles south of Wellingore airfield. Both crew members sadly lost their lives lost their lives, the first to do so on the Defiant. It is ironic that just a few days before the same crew had been involved in another flying accident. On the night of April 15^th/16^th they had crashed on landing at Cranage, this time in Defiant T3954. This aircraft was subsequently returned to service.

Defiant pilots were glad to see the back of April because just three days later N3376 suffered an engine failure while in the care of Sgt.’s Ralls and Phillips. Although the crew successfully baled out the aircraft was destroyed when it came to earth in Park Road , Gatley, Cheshire , part of the Manchester suburbs. There will be more on this crash in later.

During the summer of 1941 up to 96’s transfer to Wrexham, there were periodic deliveries of Defiant’s to replace airframes sent for repair or transfer to other units or those destroyed in further accidents. A total of twelve aircraft were received with eleven departing intact and five being destroyed in accidents, three during August 1941.

At the time of 96 Squadron’s move to Wrexham, fourteen airframes were available for service:

N1705, N1759, N3438, N3448, N3508, N3515, N3936, T3996,

T3997, T3999, T4008, T4051, V1134 and AA290

It is worth recording here that Wrexham soon claimed its first 96 Squadron Defiant in the shape of T3999 when, on October 25^th – just four days after arrival at the Welsh airfield – the crew of PO Phoenix and Sgt. Seales were forced to bale out after the undercarriage was damaged on take off. Phoenix was injured.

At Last - Action Stations!

On February 6^th 1941, Adolf Hitler issued Directive 23 “Directions for Operations Against the English War Economy”. He demanded that Britain ’s continuing resistance must be broken. The Directive stated that “When attacks against ports have obviously been successful they will be repeated again.” Thus, the fourth phase of the Liverpool Blitz commenced.

As mid-March approached the weather changed and on 12^th March 1941 patrols of six aircraft on a single patrol line were operational at the same time in the hope ‘that Jerry would come along’. The Germans did come to the party and during 30 hours of flying there was intense activity over Liverpool with 96 seeing its first real action and attaining its first combat casualty.

The raid was a typical German offensive with some 169 aircraft from Luftflotte 3 taking part together with a further 170 from Luftflotte 2. A slightly lesser number of Luftflotte 3 aircraft found the target but that didn’t lessen the impact on the city. According to records 303 tons of bombs were dropped together with almost 2000 containers of incendiary. This produced in excess of 400 fires in the Birkenhead area and a further 126 in Liverpool itself. The first bombers found their target; despite poor ground visibility, at around 2040 hours and were the first of nine waves lasting some six hours. The raid saw intense Fighter Command activity and German crews reported frequent contact with enemy fighters.

The RAF achieved some success with four He-111’s destroyed plus one Ju-88. Several more He-111’s were damaged or claimed as probables. Of course, 96 were involved and the ORB details the night’s action in detail

.‘Eighteen trips hunting for the enemy and the result – no large numbers of enemy aircraft blazing on the ground, but just a drawing of enemy blood in “probables”, and a squadron with tails well up and a few gunsights and gun muzzles that had spat forth fire at the enemy machines. There was great enemy activity over Liverpool and several of our aircraft were in action for the first time. FO Vesely was the first in action, having taken off in Defiant N1803 at 2155 with Sgt. Heycock to patrol Cotton East at 15000’. He saw an He-111 above on the port side and told the air gunner, but the guns failed to fire. He kept the Defiant in formation with the German aircraft and flew alongside and slightly below expecting the air gunner would get the guns to fire. The pilot of the Heinkel dived, followed by F/O Vesely, who manoeuvred to get on to the starboard side. He flew in formation again but the side gunner of the German bomber got in two bursts. Pilot felt that he had been hit in the chest, shoulders and left arm. He lost consciousness and when he came to found the Defiant falling in a spin; however, he managed to recover and return to land despite his injuries.’

96 Squadron Association Website created by K Sanderson

site hosted at : UKHostIT