The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. C Haw

Squadron Leader (Sergeant during the Battle) Charlton "Wag" Haw, who has died aged 73, was awarded the Order of Lenin while fighting alongside the Red Air Force in the Arctic Circle. In August 1941 Haw's squadron, No 81, was paired with No 134 in 151 Wing and sent to Arctic Russia: their orders were to protect the ports of Murmansk and Archangel and to teach Soviet pilots and ground crew how to fly and maintain Hurricanes. Flight Sergeant Haw's Hurricane and 23 others were shipped to Murmansk in the small and elderly aircraft-carrier Argus, from which they flew to Vaenga airfield on 25th August. A convoy carrying crated Hurricanes sailed on to Archangel, 400 miles to the east, as did Llanstephan Castle, a liner bearing some 500 wing personnel. Fifteen aircraft were assembled at Archangel and then flown to Vaenga.

The Russians showed great affection for the Hurricanes from the outset and it was observed that they stroked the wings of their aircraft before taking off. At first the pilots had some perilous sorties. The Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, so reliable during the Battle of Britain, proved less effective with the lower-octane Russian fuel. The British company Broquet Fuel soon corrected the problem by adding a catalyst. The wing went on to achieve 15 confirmed kills. Haw brought down three Me109’s, which gave him the highest individual score. In accordance with Red Air Force practice Haw was given 100 roubles (about £20) for each enemy aircraft he had destroyed.

Charlton Haw was born at York on 8th May 1920. He developed a taste for aviation at the age of 10, after a joy-ride with Sir Alan Cobham's Flying Circus. He worked as an apprentice lithographer in Leeds until shortly before the Second World War, when he was accepted for pilot training in the RAF Volunteer Reserve. In May 1940 Haw was posted to 504 (County of Nottingham) Hurricane squadron, an auxiliary squadron based at Wick in Scotland and giving fighter protection to the naval base at Scapa Flow. Pre-war auxiliaries were notoriously clannish, but Haw soon made himself popular - not least through playing the piano at squadron parties.

In early September 1940 the squadron was ordered south to reinforce Fighter Command's hard-pressed 10, 11 and 12 Groups, and on 27th September Haw destroyed an Me110 fighter before being shot down over Bristol. Haw's flight in 504 formed the nucleus of 81 Squadron, which in July 1941 was ordered to RAF Leconfield, Yorkshire, from which it was dispatched to Russia. On his return in December Haw was commissioned and briefly rejoined No 504; in May 1942 he was posted to No 122, a Spitfire squadron at Hornchurch, Essex.

The next February he received command of No 611, a Spitfire squadron at Biggin Hill, and in November that year of No 129, another Hornchurch-based Spitfire squadron. In April 1944 No 129 converted to Mustangs. After covering the D-Day landings, Haw led the squadron in July and August in an offensive against flying bombs. Finally, as leader of a wing of long-range Mustang fighters, he escorted Allied bombers on daylight raids.

After a spell at the Central Fighter Establishment he commanded No 65, a Hornet squadron, from 1946 until 1948, when he was granted a permanent commission.

He later lost his flying category because of poor eyesight, and retired from the RAF in 1951.
For a while Haw and his first wife were the landlords of a public house in Sussex. He later ran a pet-food and boarding-kennels business at Farnham, Surrey, and in recent years made dolls' houses and toys.

In addition to the Order of Lenin, Haw was awarded the DFM in 1942 and DFC in 1944.

He is survived by his second wife and a son.

With acknowledgments to the Daily Telegraph November 1993