Blood, Sweat and Valour

41 Squadron RAF, August 1942-May 1945; 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 Valour, by author Steve Brew, is the first comprehensive study of this illustrious Squadron, concentrating on its World War II activity between August 1942 and May 1945. The work complements its sister volume Blood, Sweat and Courage, which examines the Squadron between September 1939 and July 1942.

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.

Having experienced their baptism of fire over the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940, 41 Squadron went on to become the third-highest-scoring RAF unit of the Battle of Britain. By the end of November 1940, the Squadron had claimed over 100 enemy aircraft destroyed, with many more probable and damaged.

During the ensuing War years, 41 Squadron was deployed in a variety of offensive and defensive roles, including reconnaiss-ance flights, convoy and ASR patrols, Circus and Ramrod bomber escorts, and fighter sweeps over the Continent.

The unit was also at the forefront of larger strategies. The pilots participated in the attempt to thwart the German Navy’s escape from Brest and the Canadian landings at Dieppe in 1942. The Squadron was about to be sent to Russia to support Stalin on the Eastern Front but Churchill cancelled the plan shortly before their departure.

The pilots participated in attacks on strategic targets throughout 1943 and early 1944, provided ground attack support in advance of the D-Day landings, air cover for Operation Market Garden, and escort cover for the Allied Oil Campaign in 1944. The unit was instrumental in combating the V1 menace in Summer 1944, and proved invaluable in air-to-air and air-to-ground roles over Germany in the final months of the War.

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 Valour tells 41 Squadron’s full 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 Valour 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 1 August 1942 and 31 May 1945. These periods are generally defined by changes in deployment, 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 250 previously unpublished photographs from private collections.

Blood, Sweat and Valour 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 August 1942 and May 1945.

These include detailed biographies of every pilot on the Squadron between August 1942 and May 1945 (166 men), regardless of the length of his tenure, and of key members of the ground staff (10 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 the first index of all of 41 Squadron’s Combat Reports currently held by the National Archives.

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 Valour, please see: http://aircrewbookreview.blogspot.com.au

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© Steve Brew, 2012-2014