Chapter 6 of 12
410 Squadron, RCAF
Coleby Grange, from April 1943
On 1 April 1943 I joined 410 Squadron, an RCAF (Royal Canadian Air Force) squadron at Coleby Grange, a wartime airfield with grass runways a few miles south of Lincoln. I now had 247 flying hours, 68 of them at night.
The squadron was flying Mosquito II aircraft equipped with AI Mark V. I was one of several RAF navigators on the squadron, the RCAF presumably not at that time having sufficient navigators trained and experienced in the use of AI. I was crewed with P/O C F Green (always called Bud)1 and flew with him until I left the squadron on 28 December 1943 to go on rest as an instructor at an OTU.
Like other navigators I found AI Mark V frustrating and unsatisfactory. It suffered from the same height and range limitations as AI Mark IV with the added disadvantage that the pilot, to make an interception, had to watch a far-from-clear display on a small CRT. The navigator did little more than keep a strobe on a blip. Theoretically the idea was a good one but in practice it did not work well. Eventually the equipment was withdrawn and replaced by AI Mark IV as it was realised that a navigator giving a running commentary and instructions to his pilot was a better way of handling interceptions.
On most nights the squadron maintained standing patrols with one or two aircraft under the control of either Orby or Staythorpe GCI. The patrols, lasting about three hours, were mostly over the North Sea. They were enlivened by practice interceptions and the last patrol finished an hour or so before dawn. Sometimes weather conditions were so bad that only nightfighters were airborne and we also had to stand by in daytime if the conditions precluded single engined fighters flying.
The squadron had come to Coleby Grange from Acklington, north of Newcastle, and when I joined had only recently converted to the Mosquito II from the Beaufighter II (a much disliked aircraft with a reputation for being dangerous). The Mosquito was at that time still on the secret list and was not available in large numbers.
The log book entries for the period I was in the squadron relate in the main to NFTs; night flights under GCI control, usually involving practice interceptions, a few short trips into Europe; and four patrols over the Bay of Biscay at the height of the Battle of the Atlantic.
I came to the squadron as a Sergeant and was promoted to Flight Sergeant on 1 May. The Canadians had, I believe, a policy that all their pilots and navigators on operational squadrons should be commissioned. When I was asked by the CO if I would like to be an officer it was not a matter of much importance to me, but I remembered my father’s advice “If taken prisoner you’ll get better treatment as an officer and if you’re sent to India life will be miserable if you’re not one.”
So a few days later I and two others went to 12 Group HQ where we were interviewed by the Air Vice Marshal. The next day I was told I had been commissioned and was given a 48 hours pass and some clothing coupons. Off I went to London, met my father and went with him to Moss Bros. where I was fitted out in about half an hour.
On returning to Coleby Grange I did not notice any difference in my life except that the coffee cups in the Officers’ Mess were smaller than those the sergeants used! I did the same job, lived in the same sort of hut and spent most of my time as I always had, flying, hanging about or sleeping. Being commissioned obviously did not strike me at the time as a matter of any significance as I made no record in my log book of the date, 17 July 1943, on which I became a Pilot Officer.
Notes
- C F Green AFC retired as a Wing Commander and was killed in a car crash in 1987. ↩
Editor’s notes
These notes were added in 2026 and are not part of E G White’s text. They summarise information from the Wikipedia articles linked at the end of each note. See About this edition and the glossary of RAF terms.
No. 410 Squadron, nicknamed the Cougars, was formed at Ayr in June 1941 as a Royal Canadian Air Force squadron under RAF operational control, the third RCAF night-fighter squadron. It flew Defiants, then Beaufighters from May 1942, and converted to Mosquito Mk IIs in October 1942; its first outright victory came on 22 January 1943, a Dornier Do 217 destroyed near Hartlepool by a crew that included an RAF observer. The squadron went on to become the top-scoring night-fighter unit of the Second Tactical Air Force between D-Day and VE Day, and by the end of the war had claimed 75¾ aircraft destroyed in 2,972 sorties, for 17 aircraft and 32 aircrew lost on operations.
Coleby Grange, south of Lincoln, opened in 1939 and kept its three grass runways throughout the war. The photograph of No. 6 AONS in an earlier chapter names a Frank Thomson who was to meet the author again at 410 Squadron and did not survive the war. The squadron’s Wikipedia page records that Flight Lieutenant F. G. Thomson DFC of the RAF, who had returned to the squadron for a second tour, was killed with four others when the squadron’s Airspeed Oxford crashed near Wrotham in Kent on 21 December 1944.
Source: 410 Tactical Fighter Operational Training Squadron, RAF Coleby Grange (Wikipedia).
Aircraft in this chapter
de Havilland Mosquito
NF Mk II, FB Mk VI, NF Mk XIII and NF Mk 30
- A British twin-engined multi-role combat aircraft built largely of wood, nicknamed the Wooden Wonder; in 1941 it was one of the fastest operational aircraft in the world. The crew of two, pilot and navigator, sat side by side.
- The first prototype flew on 25 November 1940 and the fighter prototype on 15 May 1941. Total production was 7,781, of which 6,710 were built during the war.
- The NF Mk II was the first production night fighter, carrying AI Mk IV radar, four 20 mm cannon and four machine guns; 466 were built and the first entered service with No. 157 Squadron in January 1942, replacing the Havoc. E G White flew the Mk II with 410 Squadron.
- The FB Mk VI fighter-bomber, which first flew on 1 June 1942, was the most-produced variant, able to carry bombs or rockets and two 100-gallon drop tanks; 141 Squadron flew it in 100 Group with ASH (AI Mk XV) radar.
- The NF Mk XIII, of which 270 were built, carried centimetric AI Mk VIII radar in a solid thimble radome. The NF Mk 30 was the final wartime night-fighter variant, a high-altitude version with two-stage Merlin engines and a top speed of 424 mph; 526 were built.
- Mosquitoes of 100 Group flew high-level night intruder patrols in support of Bomber Command, using Serrate to home on German night-fighter radar; Mosquito fighters of all units were credited with 487 German aircraft during the war.
- The last operational RAF Mosquitoes, TT.35 target tugs, were retired in May 1963.
Source: de Havilland Mosquito (Wikipedia).
Bristol Beaufighter
Beaufighter Mk II and Mk VIF
- A British twin-engined multi-role aircraft by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, conceived in 1938 as a heavy-fighter derivative of the Beaufort torpedo bomber; the first prototype flew on 17 July 1939, a little over eight months after development began.
- It came into RAF service during the Battle of Britain and was invaluable as a night fighter: its size allowed it to carry four 20 mm cannon and the bulky early AI radar without a serious loss of performance, and improved radar from January 1941 made it one of the most effective night fighters of its day.
- The Merlin-engined Mk II, delivered from April 1941, was underpowered and swung badly to port on take-off and landing; of 337 Merlin-powered aircraft, 102 were lost in accidents, which fits the poor reputation E G White records at 410 Squadron.
- As the faster Mosquito took over as the main night fighter from mid-to-late 1942 the Beaufighter moved to anti-shipping, ground-attack and long-range interdiction in every major theatre.
- The last flight of a Beaufighter in RAF service was made by a TT.10 target tug from Seletar on 12 May 1960.
Source: Bristol Beaufighter (Wikipedia).