Blood, Sweat and Courage

41 Squadron RAF, SEPTEMBER 1939-JULy 1942; A Biographical History

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41(R) Squadron, based at RAF Coningsby, is one of the oldest RAF Squadrons still in existence, and celebrates its Centenary in 2016. The unit has seen service from World War I, through Policing Duties in the Middle East in the 1930s, throughout World War II, and more recently in the First Gulf War and Yugoslavia. However, its History has barely been told.

Blood, Sweat and Courage, by author Steve Brew, is his second comprehensive study of this gallant Squadron, concentrating on its World War II activity between September 1939 and July 1942. The work complements its sister volume BLOOD, SWEAT AND VALOUR, which examines the Squadron between August 1942 and May 1945.

The third RAF Squadron ever to receive Spitfires, 41 Squadron was one of few RAF units to be equipped with this aircraft throughout the entire War, having been issued with newer versions as they came available. These included the Marks I, II, V, XII and XIV.

From the unit’s cautious entry into the fray during the Phoney War, the pilots had risen to the challenge at Dunkirk. Having faced odds stacked heavily against them, they acquitted themselves well in their baptism of fire. Despite losing two men over the beaches, they had also bloodied the Luftwaffe’s nose.

Whilst the pressure increased on the Home Front as the battle for supremacy of Britain’ skies rose to its climax, the pilots and their indefatigable ground crews answered the call over and over again. Never faltering when scrambled, the pilots were sometimes in the air multiple times a day. By the end of the Battle of Britain, they had become one of the top scoring Squadrons of the RAF and several of its pilots were household names. History had been written, victories claimed, courage rewarded, and bonds formed that lasted lifetimes.

Blood had also been spilt, and numerous lives had been lost. Within the short space of the few months that encompassed the Battle of Britain, eleven men were killed, and almost as many were wounded, accounting together for almost half of the Squadron’s pilots that had participated. It was the Battle of Britain where the Squadron established its place in history, the pilots now forever known alongside their peers as members of Churchill’s ‘Few’. Not only had they helped scuttle Hitler’s planned invasion of the United Kingdom, they also halted his conquest for the first time since Czechoslovakia in 1938.

The Squadron had matured into a battle-hardened unit, where pilots and ground crews knew what had to be done, and got it done with the minimum of fuss. On landing, the ground crews met their pilots, and re-armed, refuelled and repaired their aircraft in minimal time. Strategies in the air were also changing and new rules of play had been introduced. Pre-War thinking had also altered significantly with the combat experience gained in the campaign in an effort to find the most versatile fighter formation and battle tactics. By early 1941, the War was also being fought back across the Channel and the Squadron participated in its first bomber escorts, a role they would continue to play through to 1945.

Within the space of approximately eighteen months since September 1939, nineteen pilots and three ground crew had been killed, and the Squadron had its fourth Officer Commanding. By the time the Squadron was rested again in March 1941, it had undergone a virtual 200% turnover in its pilots. At this time, however, it went through yet another complete renewal of its pilot pool as tired and battle-weary men were rested, and fresh new pilots were brought on board to bolster the ranks. They were rigorously prepared for the Squadron’s return to front line operations in 11 Group, and to take the fight back across the Channel to occupied France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

At the end of July 1941, the Squadron flew south again to join Douglas Bader’s Tangmere Wing and were issued the Spitfire Mk V for the first time. Thus commenced the third major phase of the unit’s war and they were in the thick of the fighting again almost immediately. However, these young men, a large number of whom had joined up since the War had started, many graduates of the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, did not – and could not have had – the experience of their predecessors, and the veritable hornet’s nest into which they were thrust took another horrific toll: over a period of just ten weeks, six pilots were killed, six wounded, five captured and one shot down who evaded and returned to the United Kingdom a few months later.

In time, the intensity of this period waned, and more pilots were brought on board as the winter approached and operations reduced significantly; bomber escorts ceased altogether. Roving attacks into France seeking specific targets, or targets of opportunity, were the mainstay of the pilots’ operations in late 1941, but in early 1942 their focus changed to shipping operations, either protecting vessels or attacking them. This period also saw the Squadron’s provision of air cover for Commando raids to France, and its participation in efforts to thwart the Kriegsmarine’s escape from Brest in what is known today as ‘The Channel Dash’.

It was, however, also a period of little loss of life or injury, which gave many of the pilots considerable operational experience. As a result, however, a number of the pilots were posted away from the unit, and sent to the Mediterranean to defend the beleaguered island of Malta. Some of these pilots enjoyed significant success in this theatre following their time with 41 Squadron, but several did not come home.

In April 1942, the Squadron commenced its fourth spike in activity, and several cross-Channel clashes took place with the Luftwaffe, particularly during escort operations for bombers and fighter-bombers, which had once again become a significant part of the pilots’ operational activity. In May and June, they gave way to defence of the south coast in response to the Luftwaffe’s ‘tip and run’ raids, but the Squadron was now facing the Luftwaffe with pilots of considerably more experience than the volunteers before them.

Although the Squadron braced and held the line, and hit back at the Luftwaffe as hard as they took the punches, this phase of the War also left its mark on the pilots and no less than four were killed in action, one killed in a flying accident, three captured, three wounded in action, and one almost killed in a flying accid-

ent, who left the Squadron as a result.

The Squadron was rested again from late June 1942 and subsequently taken off operations altogether pending an overseas posting for the whole unit, but this was abandoned and the pilots briefly returned to operations again before being sent on an exercise. It had been a long war so far, and there would be much to come before it was over. However, the Squadron was by now a mature unit with a strong esprit de corps and a good reputation, that was well-equipped for what lay ahead.

Although chiefly rested until early 1943, the Squadron was brought back to the front line in April 1943 and never left it again before the cessation of hostilities. The Squadron was now at the forefront of campaigns, battles and strategies, participating in the landings at Dieppe, and the concerted bomber effort to destroy German airfields, infrastructure, factories, and oil stores and refineries. The Squadron escorted bombers attacking V-Weapon factories and launch sites, defended the southeast against the V1 flying bomb, claiming over 50 destroyed, and undertook Big Ben reconnaissances to suspected V2 launch sites. The pilots also provided air cover over Arnhem for Operation Market Garden.

The unit moved it base across the Channel to Belgium in December 1944, and continued moving forward as the front line crept eastwards. The pilots provided air support for the crossing of the Rhine, but by mid-April 1945, the unit was based well inside Germany, just 200km west of Berlin and soon met the Soviet Air Force over the German capital.

It went all their way from now on and when the guns fell silent in May 1945, 41 Squadron knew it had done its job well. It could be justifiably proud of itself as an entity, and of its pilots, ground crews and staff. With their blood, sweat and courage, they had earned the enviable reputation that 41 Squadron still enjoys today.

325 pilots had served on the Squadron between September 1939 and May 1945. They claimed a total of 200 aircraft destroyed in the air and one on the ground, 61 aircraft probably destroyed in the air, 109 aircraft damaged in the air and 22 on the ground, and 53 V1 flying bombs destroyed and one damaged. Countless ground targets were also destroyed  or damaged.

The pilots were awarded three DSOs, 21 DFCs, one DFM and one Mention in Despatches for their service on 41 Squadron. Sixty-four men were killed in action or in accidents, at least 56 sustained wounds in action or injuries in accidents, and 21 pilots became Prisoners of War. These figures equate to a total casualty rate of around 41.5% amongst the Squadron’s pilots.

Blood, Sweat and Courage tells 41 Squadron’s story for the first time, recounting the unit’s role within battles, operations, offensives and larger strategies, and details experiences made by the pilots and ground crew participating in them. The Squadron’s actions are often revealed for the first time,  through records that have hitherto never been available.

Blood, Sweat and Courage is fully supported by  41(R) Squadron, and an ex-Officer Commanding, and currently serving Knighted RAF Air Marshal has written the Foreword.

Each chapter investigates a period of the Squadron’s World War II History between 3 September 1939 and 31 July 1942. These periods are generally defined by changes in deploy-ment, but also relate to new airfields or aircraft.

Steve Brew has consciously sought to evoke the feeling of the period, producing not only a factual account but also one that captures the colour of life on a World War II fighter squadron, with a balance between material of a documentary nature and narrative action, intertwining fact with personal recollections of events, serious events with humour, and sobering statistics with poignant after-thought.

The author set himself one main aim: to create the definitive source of 41 Squadron’s history, considering that if it is necessary for a reader to consult another work to check a detail, he has not achieved his goal. As such, for example, he has provided full names and ranks of all persons mentioned throughout the text, and checked spellings of foreign locations to ensure accuracy.

Steve Brew has drawn heavily on previously unpublished primary sources, particularly 41 Squadron’s own archive, which is not open to the public and has been made exclusively available to him for the purpose of writing this work. This is a new, untapped source of World War II data.

Sources include over 350 documents from 41 Squadron’s archives, literally thousands of pages of data from over 250 National Archives files and 50 files from other international archives, hundreds of references from the London Gazette, major periodicals, books, and records from across the globe. Personal sources also include personnel files, pilots’ logbooks, personal accounts, interviews and memoirs.

Sign-off on what has been written about pilots has been obtained from them and/or their families, and permission sought for reproductions of material of a personal nature. The work is also illustrated with over 300 previously unpublished photographs from private collections.

Blood, Sweat and Courage has been thoroughly researched and referenced, and citations, sources, cross-references, and asides are included in comprehensive Notes to the text. Contradictions between sources are also noted, and corroborating evidence provided for conclusions that have been drawn.

The chronological history of the Squadron is rounded off by a series of appendices, which form the back-bone of the work. These are the indisputable facts upon which the account is based, and complete a fully comprehensive narrative of the Squadron’s wartime activity between September 1939 and July 1942.

These include detailed biographies of every pilot on the Squadron between September 1939 and July 1942 (187 men), regardless of the length of his tenure, and of key members of the ground staff (ten men). The appendices also incorporate a record of Officers Commanding, Flight Commanders, aerial and ground victories, decorations, a roll of honour, a casualty list, prisoners of war, base locations, aircraft in service, a list of surviving combat films, and a list of total victories per pilot.

An account of 41 Squadron’s wartime activity has therefore been created that has never previously been available. It has been consciously written as an authoritative point of both historical and biographical reference, and a significant amount of data is provided for the first time ever.

For an independent review of Blood, Sweat and Courage, please see: http://aircrewbookreview.blogspot.com.au

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© Steve Brew, 2014-2015