|
Wartime Recollections - Battle of
Britain experiences of Flight Lieutenant Robert Eric Jones 605
Squadron - County of Warwick Squadron
THE WAR IN THE AIR
The letter from which the following extract was taken was
written home by Pilot Office R E Jones on 15 August 1940 from
SE Scotland where he was then stationed. It describes his first
actual contact with the enemy raiders.
'I think I can give you some good news today. Yesterday our
flight was 'at available', which is to say we have to be on the
camp and be able to get into the air within 15 minutes. At 11.45
a message came through that the whole squadron was to go up on
patrol. Within 10 minutes we were climbing to 20,000 feet and
heading out to sea. From there we were directed by the ground
and heard that about 30 enemy aircraft were approaching. We cruised
about and eventually found ourselves over Newcastle and the Tyne.
I began to think we were on a wild goose chase because by this
time we had been up for about one and three-quarter hours and
we were being told to land at local aerodromes to refuel. There
were only five of us left by that time; the others had drifted
away. Suddenly over the leader's machine and about three miles
away, I saw the biggest formation of enemy aeroplanes I have
ever seen bigger than any I ever saw at Hendon air display
and then another smaller formation behind them.
Archie McKellar, my leader, decided to attach the big formation,
so we turned and climbed into the sun. At that moment I ran out
of petrol and by the time I had turned on to my reserve tank
Archie was 200 years in front of me. We kept climbing until we
were about 4,000 feet above the enemy and directly overhead.
Then we turned on our backs and dived to attack.
I found myself attacking two aircraft which were below each
other and dead in my sights. As I came down I pressed my firing
button and for the first time heard my either guns go off
I could see my bullets hitting the aircraft, when suddenly the
starboard engine of one of the Heinkel's (111) exploded and left
a long trail of black smoke.
Almost immediately the port engine of the other machine caught
fire and the last I saw of those two as I shot by at 400 m.p.h,
they looked as if they would collide.
I pulled out of my dive and climbed up again well to one side
of the formation and looked for Archie. I couldn't pick him out,
so I decided to attack a lone aircraft which was a little way
from the others - I went in from the side and as he went through
my sights I followed him round.
Suddenly his nose went straight up into the air, and then
he toppled over and went straight into a spin. Two parachutes
came out as the machine crashed toward the sea. I climbed up
again and waited until I saw another straggler and then I went
in again and pressed the button there was a roar and silence
- I had run out of ammunition, so I dived towards the clouds
and as I went I saw lots of bombs explode in the sea.
My total bag for my first encounter is one Heinkel 111 shot
down and two damaged. We lost two machines, but the pilots are
safe; one came back to the aerodrome last night; the other is
in hospital with concussion. My machine was not hit.
We had a wizard champagne party in the mess last night. The
whole of A Flight was unlucky, they didn't see a thing but our
flight sent seven down and damaged six.
R E Jones
|
Contact
Information 
