Unwanted Hero: The Flying Career of Squadron Leader Donald Barnard DFC 1937-1955 Read online

  Donald applies to join the RAF, September 1937

  Having completed his formal education, Donald left Cranleigh in the summer of 1937 with no notable distinction other than a slight stammer and that he had been ‘a bit of a nuisance’. So, barely three months short of his nineteenth birthday, Donald was now cast alone into the adult world and, rather than return to his home on St Lucia, his immediate refuge lay at his brother Hugh’s house at 8, Talbot Road, Bayswater, London W2. Whether or not he was persuaded by the Royal Air Force’s publicity drive that was under way at this time, he decided to apply to the RAF to become a pilot on a short service commission in the General Duties Branch, for which one had to be at least 17½ years of age.7 Short service commissions were ‘mostly for four years’ service in the first instance, followed by six years in the Reserve’.8

  As Donald was over the required minimum age, the RAF required him to attend No. 2 Central Medical Board for his medical examination on 9 September 1937. Pronounced ‘Fit as Pilot’ and having successfully passed the entrance examination, he was now a probationary member of the RAF. Noted on his RAF records, and which undoubtedly would have helped his chances of acceptance by the RAF, was the fact that he had passed the OTC exam Certificate A, Part 1.

  Donald Barnard in RAF service wearing the rank of Squadron Leader.

  In 1935 the British government had heard that Hitler was ordering the expansion of the German Air Force to equal that of the French, which boasted some 1,500 machines. The RAF were far behind in numbers, and so it was agreed by the House of Commons that, by March 1937, ‘the first line of the Royal Air Force was now to be built up to 123 squadrons, or 1,512 aircraft.’9 In 1936, estimates were revised, and the basic target, for completion by March 1939, was 1,736 frontline aircraft in 124 home-based squadrons, plus a further ten squadrons for overseas. To man the many new squadrons the authorities created the RAF Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR), with the intention of recruiting 800 men per year for pilot training. When the scheme began in April 1937, eager young men flocked to the colours in such numbers that some 5,000 of them had enlisted by September 1939.10

  The RAF were now in a hurry and, with members of the RAF and RAFVR all in the same boat, Donald, who was RAF not VR, began his flying training on 25 October 1937 at No. 1 Elementary & Reserve Flying Training School (E&RFTS), which was lodged with the Civil Flying School at Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire.11 This was a private airfield of some 150 acres that had been bought by the pioneering aircraft designer Geoffrey de Havilland in 1930. Work began on facilities in 1933, and in 1934 more extensive work was undertaken, with a large factory and administration buildings being constructed, together with a flying-school building and the necessary flying control. In the same year the de Havilland Aeronautical Technical School (founded at Stag Lane in 1928) moved to the new airfield.

  Located to the west of the town of Hatfield itself, it was not an altogether ideal site for flying, for on the east side there was a 75-foot high aircraft factory chimney, and to the west radio masts towered up to 200 feet or so. Nevertheless, it was here, at No.1 E&RFTS, that qualified RAF instructors gave initial flying training to would-be RAF pilots. On 25 October 1937, Donald recorded his very first entry in his flying logbook: a 25-minute air experience flight with a Flying Officer Ross in a de Havilland DH.82A Tiger Moth.

  Flying logbooks were issued to all aircrew according to their trade – pilot, observer, etc. – and it was their duty to complete them according to the appropriate headings therein. As an official document, a pilot’s logbook required its keeper to provide evidence of all flying hours undertaken, and was submitted for checking and endorsement by supervisory ranks either at the end of each month or on a posting to a new squadron or establishment on a training or operational base. Here the pilot would be required to produce his logbook for inspection.

  Donald recorded his second flight with Flying Officer Ross in the Tiger Moth on 26 October, but this time he took control of the aircraft, getting a feel of its controls and general handling. On 8 November, the logbook has the remark ‘satisfactory’ against taking-off and landing into wind, but on 24 November Donald was able to write proudly in his logbook, ‘First Solo Good’. This was achieved after sixteen hours of instruction on the Tiger Moth over a period of just seventeen days. Rapid though this may seem, with the huge demand for trained pilots that was to come with the RAF’s expansion during the Second World War, it was not uncommon for a pilot to go solo after eight or ten hours of instruction.

  That flying was inherently dangerous was brought home very forcibly to Donald when, as he noted in his logbook on 17 December, one of the instructors, T. Q. Smith, was killed in a flying accident. Having completed the course, Donald was assessed by the Chief Flying Instructor at Hatfield as a student pilot of ‘Average’ ability,12 and his logbook was annotated with a total flying time of 57 hours and 10 minutes.

  It was not until 25 January 1938 that Donald achieved the lowly rank of Acting Pilot Officer on probation. On this date the Air Ministry announced in The London Gazette that he and one hundred and four others ‘are granted short service commissions as Acting Pilot Officers on probation with effect from 9th Jan. 1938’ in the General Duties Branch of the RAF. His commission was to be effective for the four years from 25 October 1937 to 25 October 1941. There was no mention in The London Gazette of each officer’s personal and unique RAF service number, as it was not then the custom to do so, though it would be during the Second World War. Donald’s, however, was 40352.

  On 23 January 1938, Acting Pilot Officer Barnard began further training at the relatively new airfield of RAF Brize Norton, some 5 miles south-west of the Oxfordshire town of Witney. Though building had begun in 1935, it was not until 13 August 1937 that the airfield’s first occupant, No. 2 Flying Training School (FTS), was able to move in. In due course, 2 FTS would become part of No. 23 (Training) Group, whose headquarters were in Grantham, Lincolnshire. Another of the units within this widely dispersed Group was the School of Air Navigation at Manston in Kent, to which Donald would be sent in due course for further training.

  At Brize Norton, Donald was introduced to the Hawker Hart biplane, at that time a fast two-seater aircraft in service across the RAF. He made steady progress in flying training, and in May 1938 graduated onto the advanced training squadron at 2 FTS. He now flew such aircraft as the twin-engined Airspeed Oxford, which would later earn a reputation as a ‘flying classroom’ for navigators and wireless operators, and the Hawker Audax, the usual complement of which on navigation exercises was pilot, observer, and rear gunner.

  A frequent signature in Donald’s logbook while he was at 2 FTS was that of the Chief Flying Instructor (CFI) who signed off Donald on 24 June 1938 with the impressive red-ink stamp: ‘Qualified for award of Flying Badge under King’s Regulations’. The CFI, Squadron Leader Thomas Howell French DFC, further endorsed the award of the pilot’s ‘wings’.13 Pilot Officer Barnard, though now qualified to wear the RAF ‘wings’ on his uniform, underwent further training for several more months, at the end of which he was assessed by the CFI as ‘Average’, but with no areas of fault.

  It was the RAF’s policy at this time for pilots to be versed in the intricacies of aerial navigation, and so the next challenge that Donald was to face came when he presented himself at the School of Air Navigation, RAF Manston, Kent, to attend No. 43 Short Navigation Course. On 4 November 1938, Squadron Leader R. J. Cooper, CFI at Manston, signed off his logbook, which now showed that he had flown over fifty hours on navigation.

  Despite the urgency to train as many pilots as necessary to keep pace with the increase in the German Air Force, RAF prewar pilot training was not hurried, and only after he had been under training for over a year was Pilot Officer Donald Barnard, now a qualified pilot, considered ready to join an operational RAF squadron.

  His first posting was to No. 215 (Bomber) Squadron at RAF Honington in Suffolk. The squadron had been formed at Coudekerque in France from No. 15 RNAS Squadron during the last year of the First World War, but was disbanded in October 1919 after an existence of barely eighteen months. As part of the prewar expansion of the RAF, however, it was re-formed from ‘A’ Flight, 58 Squadron, at RAF Worthy Down in October 1935, and was equipped with the lumbering, two-engined Vickers Virginia Mk X.

  Commanding Officer of 215 Squadron when Donald joined, on 5 November 1938, was Wing Commander Sylvester Lindsay Quine MC, who had seen active service in the First World War with the 3rd Cheshire Regiment and Royal Flying Corps.14 Relinquishing his commission in the Cheshires with effect from 24 October 1919, he was appointed to the RAF with an impressively early service number of 08062. He continued to serve in the RAF after the First World War, and was promoted wing commander in May 1937. By November 1938, he had under his command two squadron leaders, three flying officers, and thirteen pilot officers, the most junior of whom were Donald and Pilot Officer Norman Leonard Lewis.15

  On 215 Squadron, Donald was introduced to the Handley Page Harrow, a large, two-engined aircraft with a fixed undercarriage, which, as one distinguished author put it, was ‘frankly a stop-gap; designed as a transport, it was pressed into service as a bomber in 1937 purely to meet the exigencies of expansion. In its original rôle it continued to do good service until 1944, but all the Bomber Command squadrons converted to Wellingtons in 1939.’16 Donald flew solo on the Harrow within a few days, but continued to learn his trade by flying with other squadron pilots ranging in rank from sergeant to wing commander.

  Only a few weeks into his time on 215 Squadron such was the lack of serviceable aircraft that it was proving impossible to maintain training requirements; on 9 February 1939, Wing Commander Quine accordingly annotated Pilot Officer Barnard’s logbook with the entry: ‘On attachment to No. 75 (B) Sqd. Progress to date limited by shortage of aircraft.’

  Possibly on leave for the rest of the month, Donald joined 75 Squadron on 1 March 1939, which, conveniently, was also based at Honington and was also flying the Harrow. The commanding officer this time was the famous 1920s High Speed Flight and 1929 Schneider Trophy pilot Wing Commander David D’Arcy Alexander Greig DFC, AFC.17

  Donald’s time was spent on night flying sorties, including practising flare dropping and navigation, along with camera and bombing exercises. At the end of May 1939, Donald had accumulated a grand total of just over 300 hours’ flying. His flying progress was marked by the addition of another red-ink entry stamped into his logbook on 9 June 1939: ‘Qualified 1st Pilot Night on Harrow aircraft with effect from 9.6.39’. This was a most significant endorsement for Pilot Officer Barnard, as he was now permitted to fly the stately aircraft as first pilot in both day and night situations.

  Donald’s time on 75 Squadron was to be short, for he was posted on 19 June 1939 to 99 (Madras Presidency) Squadron at RAF Mildenhall, also in Suffolk. Here he converted onto the twin-engined Vickers Wellington bomber, popularly known as the ‘Wimpy’ after the Popeye cartoon character J. Wellington Wimpy. The squadron was the first to be fully equipped with this modern bomber, which was able to fly close to 245 mph and to carry a larger bomb load over a greater distance than other types, both of which were important developments. Though the fitting of a single Browning machine-gun in the nose was also considered to be a significant improvement, the ammunition feed systems to it and to the twin rear guns were not very effective.

  By now, June 1939, there was no hiding the fact that war with Germany was imminent, and conversation in the squadron mess when Donald joined would certainly have been full of the impending crisis.18 There was no hiding the fact, too, that aircrew at this advanced stage of training would almost certainly be involved in the inevitable conflict, and they did not have long to wait for, at eleven o’clock on Sunday, 3 September 1939, two days after German forces attacked Poland, war was declared on Germany, with Donald still under training.

  On 4 September, however, he was back with 215 Squadron, which had become a Reserve Squadron two days earlier. Further training exercises in the Wimpy were undertaken, and he qualified as ‘1st Pilot daylight’ on that aircraft on 10 October 1939.

  Donald Barnard taking off in Harrow K6947 on 11 April 1939. This aircraft was destroyed when it crashed into high ground at Kincardineshire in 1943.

  215 Squadron’s Handley Page Harrow K6948 ‘T’, flown by Donald Barnard from November 1938 to June 1939.

  Six days after he had qualified, a detachment from 215 Squadron went to RAF Jurby on the Isle of Man. Donald, flying in Wellington L4390, took just over an hour and a half to complete the journey. On 27 October, he flew with Squadron Leader J. B. S. Monypenny19 to RAF Aston Down, Gloucestershire, in Wellington L4385, though it is not known what their business was there.

  Donald rejoined his squadron, which was now at RAF Bassingbourn in Cambridgeshire, but only for a few days before he was again detached, on 7 November 1939, to 148 Squadron at RAF Harwell,20 which was then in Berkshire, 148 having been a ‘Group pool’ squadron since early in the previous year. Donald’s time at Harwell ended in January 1940 when, once again, he returned to 215 Squadron at Bassingbourn where, as a measure of his status on the squadron, he was employed in the instruction of ‘under training’ aircrews.

  With the significant reorganisation that had been taking place within the RAF as a result of the need for more pilots, pressure was mounting to introduce a faster training programme. One of the ways in which this was to be manifested was the creation of Operational Training Units (OTUs), where airmen could finish off their training before being sent to a frontline operational squadron. In consequence, Donald found himself posted, with effect from 4 April 1940, to No. 11 OTU, not surprisingly at RAF Bassingbourn, which he joined on 6 April.

  Though his logbook records many flying sorties with crews under training, this was a frustrating time for him. Here he was fully trained and raring to go, but all he could do was read about RAF bomber operations against the enemy.

  Donald goes to war

  Donald’s patience was soon to be rewarded, however, when, having been promoted flying officer on 6 August 1940 (seniority 25 July), he made another request to be assigned to operational duties. This time, on 14 August 1940, it was granted with a posting to No. IX (B) Squadron at Honington.21 Its commander, Wing Commander Ernest Alton Healy (16053), was yet another of those experienced, long-serving RAF officers who were to provide the backbone of the frontline squadrons in the early months of the war.22 He had been promoted wing commander on 12 March 1940, and appointed to command IX Squadron on 24 July.

  IX Squadron, then serving in No. 3 (Bomber) Group, was operating the Wellington bomber, an aircraft so frequently flown by Donald that his confidence in it must have been sky high. As second pilot to a Pilot Officer Hoey he joined an experienced crew, and late in the evening of 16 August climbed into Wellington T2505 for his first operational sortie of the war, one for which he had waited a very long time. Their target was Gelsenkirchen in the Ruhr region of Germany. T2505 took off at 2240 hours on the night of 16 August and returned safely at 0404 hours the next morning, though Donald was suffering slightly from a fragment of an anti-aircraft shell that had struck his head.

  99 Squadron at RAF Mildenhall, August 1939, in front of an Mk 1 Wellington Bomber. Pilot Officer Barnard is standing in the middle row, furthest left.

  An artist’s impression of Barnard’s sixteenth bombing raid on Gelsenkirchen on 10 November 1940.

  Despite his first completed operation being ‘in the bag’, there was still a long way to go before his first tour of duty could be finished. The powers that be had decided at a conference at RAF Hospital Rauceby that a tour of operations would be limited to 200 hours, which in effect meant having to fly between twenty-five and thirty operations.23

  A newly appointed flight commander to IX Squadron, Squadron Leader S. G. Pritchard, was looking for a second pilot, and he selected Donald. Their first flight together was on the night of 17/18 August, when Bomber Command made what they hoped would be a concerted effort by just over 100 Blenheims, Hampdens and Wellingtons to bomb five airfields in Germany and The Netherlands. One of the participating Wellingtons, R3296, with Squadron Leader Pritchard and Donald aboard, took off at 2040 hours on its way to bomb Diepholz aerodrome. Unable to locate the target through 10/10ths cloud, however, they returned safely at 0510 hours.

  Even after a year of war, bombing at night was still extremely problematic for Bomber Command crews, who not only had to navigate their way to a point in the sky several hundred miles away but who then had to place their bombs on the practically invisible target several thousand feet below. Bomber Command operational crews were no doubt heartened by the truth-bending but morale-boosting message from Air Marshal Sir Richard Pierse:

  Signal addressed to the Air Officers Commanding Nos 2, 3, 4, and 5 Groups from the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Bomber Command, on the 18th August 1940.

  Heartiest congratulations to all Groups, Stations and Squadrons on the outstanding success of their recent operations.

  With the Luftwaffe attempting to obliterate the RAF before the German Army could attempt its invasion of Britain, it was Honington’s turn to suffer three serious aerial attacks. The first, on 17 August 1940, resulted ‘in a number of seriously ill, dangerously ill and fatal casualties’.24 The second, at 1615 hours on 19 August, was by a single bomber which dropped high explosive and incendiary bombs. Slight material damage was inflicted, but eight service personnel were killed and a further sixteen were seriously injured. Most of the casualties had been caught in the open as they crossed the parade square on their way to the mess hall. A third raid, on 28 October, delivered by a solitary Dornier Do17 at 1825 hours, resulted in heavy damage to the north-west wing barrack block. Two Wellingtons received significant damage, several bomb craters were formed across the aerodrome, one hangar roof was badly holed, and again further casualties were caused to the airfield contingent. The Luftwaffe were to attack RAF Honington no fewer than sixteen times during the Second World War.