Goering's last shout ...

It was late summer 1942 and I had just joined my Squadron at RAF Detling, near Maidenhead. After only 6 weeks basic flying training I was desperately in need of combat experience and the Squadron was desperately in need of new pilots and so, when 'the Boss' suggested that I should take his Spitfire MkV up for a spin, I jumped at the chance. The excitement of 1940, which Churchill decribed as the 'Battle of Britain', had calmed down somewhat and so we were not expecting any enemy activity. The brief was simple: take the aircraft up, do a few high level manoevers, get the feel of her ... AND STAY OUT OF TROUBLE!

 

Start up was normal ...

 

 

and after a short take-off run I was heading up into the East Sussex skies.

 

 

I broke cloud at 9,000 ft just south of Manston. I could see its massive 3-lane runway which had been the salvation of many a stricken bomber crew limping back from the Continent on a wing and a prayer.

 

 

She climbed easily to 20,000 ft and I started to put her through her paces, diving ...

 

 

... turning ...

 

 

... rolling ...

 

... getting a feel for this magnificent fighting machine.

 

But then, just as I was turning for home, I saw the glint of sunlight on an aircraft's wing high over the French coast. What is going on? I could just make out a large force of Nazi bombers heading for the English coast, with their escorts a couple of thousand feet above them. At least 30 He111s was my guess. The Boss said 'stay out of trouble' but I couldn't miss this opportunity. I radioed Group and warned them of what was happening, causing 'Scramble' warnings to be sent out to Hawkinge, Detling, Biggin Hill, Kenley ... but I couldn't just let them pass by without doing something ... could I? I hatched a cunning plan, brilliant in its simplicity (as all junior officer's plans are). I would circle around 'up sun' of the fleet and dive through the escorts before hitting the bombers, hopefully before the fighters had woken up to what was going on. I would then dive for home. 'Dulce et decorum est' is fine for the poets but I wasn't ready 'pro patria mori' on my very first op!

 

I cautiously snuck up behind the fighters which I could now see were Me109's from the infamous 'Yellow Nose' squadron ...

 

 

... diving through and loosing off a few rounds on the way, more in hope than anything.

 

 

I then headed for the bombers, over 30 He111s. Surely this must be Goering's last shout before the Luftwaffe loses air superiority to a revitalised RAF?

 

 

Diving through the packed bombers the sky seemed full of black crosses but I wasn't hanging around to count. Discretion is definately the better part of valour and it was time to put the nose down and head for the deck before anyone woke up to the fact that I was entirely on my own.

 

 

I reached Detling without further incident, joining the circuit as everything on the ground that could fly was scrambled to meet the incoming armada.

 

 

My hands were trembling on the stick as I tried to put my Spit down on the grass field. I consider the fact that I only bounced once to be a success. Later on the Boss told me that I had one confirmed He111 'kill' and one Me109 'probable'. I really did feel like I had earned my spurs that day!

 

 

Credits: RAF Detling 1940 built from scratch by myself, RAF Manston 1940 modified from FSX default, both using ADE. Spitfire MkV by that nice Mr Scrubb. AI activity programmed by myself using AI Flight Planner and aircraft models modified for AI.

 

I plan on uploading many of my 'RAF 1940's' airfields to 'Flightsim.com' in the near future but if you have a particular interest in Detling please send me a PM and I will let you have an advanced copy of the scenery package.

Very nicely displayed and a fine narrative as well. :cool: :cool: :)

Greatly enjoyed the photos and the narrative, nice work!

I liked the story and the pics too ... :)

 

But, just for the sake of being obnoxious, my sources say there were no Spitfires MkV at RAF Detling in the late summer of 1942.

 

No.184 Squadron did receive Spitfires VB in October 1943 and was I believe located at Detling at the time. My sources may be wrong of course, and I certainly do not pretend to know better than someone who was actually there :D

Great story and pics here! :cool::cool: And I'm very interested in your WW2 sceneries! :cool::cool:

Edit: I tried to send you a PM, please let me know if you didn't receive it.

Hi RatRace, thanks for your comments. Yes, you are correct. Strictly speaking Detling was not a Battle of Britain airfield, they were operating Avro Ansons at the time as light bombers to protect shipping in the channel (didn't stop the Luftwaffe from attacking them though!), but there were Spits there later in the war. I am sure you will forgive the 'artistic licence' I employed to show off my airfield and AI programming skills ;)

Hi Peer, thank you for your comments. Yes, I did receive your PM. I will send the files to your private e-mail address shortly.

 

Just for your info I currently have around 233 airfields in my RAF WWII airfield scenery file (and another 130 on my 'to do' list). 15 of them I have built from scratch using Google Earth images and coordinates (including seaplane bases), 73 have been built by modifying stock FSX airfield files and the rest have come from dear friends such as Ian Pearson and, in particular, Terry Boisell who has produced a massive amount of work in recent years. Let me know if you are interested in any particular airfield and I can tell you if it is on my list or not.

Very impressive pics, it adds to it when you took the time to narrate it. Kenny

Thanks Kenny, if you have seen any of my previous posts you would have noticed that, rather than just putting up pictures, I like to build them into a little narrative. I enjoy doing it, I hope folks enjoy reading them. Just as an aside, I originally tried to do this post with my A2A Spitfire MkI, much more representative of the epoch and a cracking good virtual cockpit, but I have not yet managed to complete a flight without blowing up the engine!!

Great story and enjoyed the pictures. Super post. Jim

Thanks for the files!! I'm gonna look for the scenery files and will install them! :):cool::)