Amazing Airmen. Ian Darling
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The Dornier’s pilot was Flying Officer Robert Zehbe. He bailed out of his aircraft and landed near the Oval, the cricket stadium in south London. Police took him to a hospital, but he died the next day. Two other members of his crew bailed out and survived. Two died on board.
After he had attacked the Dornier, Ogilvie flew back to his base, but he didn’t stay there very long. His squadron flew again during the afternoon. At the end of the day, Ogilvie wrote that 609 Squadron had destroyed four Dorniers, probably destroyed another four, and had damaged several others.
Ogilvie had a successful, exhilarating day. He could prove he had fired at the Dornier because a camera synchronized with his Spitfire’s eight machine guns recorded the attack. However, his exhilaration was tempered when he learned that one of his fellow flyers, Pilot Officer Geoff Gaunt, had been shot down. Gaunt was Ogilvie’s roommate.
Although neither the King nor the Queen saw the battle above their palace on September 15, Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands did.
Queen Wilhelmina left the Netherlands on a British destroyer on May 13, 1940, a few days after German troops invaded her country. While in England she became a symbol of Dutch resistance to Nazi Germany.
Wilhelmina watched the battle from her London home. The fighter aircraft that shot down the German bomber impressed her. She asked one of her aides to write to the British Air Ministry to congratulate the pilot and his squadron. The ministry forwarded the queen’s note to 609 Squadron, which gave it to Ogilvie.
The squadron’s diary mentions the confusing nature of the battle over London that day, stating, “Who shot what seemed to be rather vague.” Considering the number of fighter pilots in the air, several could have attacked the Dornier bomber before Ogilvie.
One such pilot was Sergeant Ray Holmes, who flew a Hurricane with 504 Squadron. Holmes had been firing at several bombers when he approached one from behind. He thought the bomber was heading for Buckingham Palace. He pushed the firing button. Nothing happened; Holmes was out of ammunition. He made an instant decision to ram the bomber. He let a wing of his Hurricane hit the Dornier’s tail fin. Part of the tail broke off.
The collision also damaged Holmes’ plane. He bailed out, landed on a roof, slid off it, and ended up in a garbage bin. But Holmes was safe, and he returned to his base at Hendon in the northern part of London.
That very morning, Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who had taken over from Chamberlain, went to the headquarters of No. 11 Fighter Group in Uxbridge, a town just west of London. He wanted to see how the RAF fought German bombers that crossed the Channel. No. 11 Group covered southeast England.
In his book about the Second World War, Their Finest Hour, Churchill describes what he saw that day. The group’s operations room was a small theatre, fifty feet (fifteen metres) underground. Churchill looked down on a large map of the south of England. About twenty men and women moved discs on the map that represented planes in the air. Information about the flight paths of German aircraft flowed from radar units and the Observer Corps. The observers were trained to look for enemy aircraft and to report what they saw. On one wall in the room a blackboard listed all the squadrons in No. 11 Group. Lights flashed on it to show the state that the squadrons were in. A red light meant the squadron was fighting the enemy.
When Churchill first entered the room, he didn’t know whether he would see any raids plotted on the map. But during the morning, the plotters moved the discs a lot. The Luftwaffe was sending wave after wave of bombers. The lights showed that the RAF pilots were airborne — Pilot Officer Keith Ogilvie was one of them.
Churchill turned to Air Vice Marshal Keith Park, who directed the fighters, and asked, “What other reserves have we?” Park provided a straightforward answer: “There are none.” The RAF had put every available fighter into the sky.
Churchill found his experience at No. 11 Fighter Group’s operations room to be exhausting. He returned to his home and slept. When he woke up, he asked about the day’s battles. His secretary told him the RAF had shot down 183 German planes compared to a loss of forty.
Two days later, on September 17, Hitler postponed Operation Sea Lion indefinitely. The fighting was far from over, but the Royal Air Force had succeeded in defending Britain.
In the days and months that followed, RAF fighters continued to patrol the skies, watching for German bombers and fighters.
On September 24, 609 Squadron flew to intercept a raid headed for Southampton. The pilots spotted anti-aircraft fire over the Isle of Wight in the English Channel and flew toward the island. Ogilvie saw about a dozen Dornier 17s. He attacked one at about 20,000 feet (6,000 metres) and set its port engine on fire. The Dornier dove straight down. Ogilvie waited for it to crash into the Channel. Much to his surprise and embarrassment, the bomber levelled off and flew away.
Ogilvie raced after it. As he approached the Dornier, it shot oil from a flame-thrower in its tail, but it failed to ignite and coated his windshield instead. The oil prevented Ogilvie from seeing the bomber well enough to fire at it. He almost rammed it, but instead ended up firing at the Dornier until he ran out of ammunition and had to return to Middle Wallop. He suspected the Dornier also returned to its base across the Channel.
Around noon the next day, the squadron flew near Bristol in southwest England. It confronted a large formation of German Dornier and Heinkel bombers, escorted by Messerschmitt fighters. Ogilvie fired at a Dornier and knew that he hit it when glycol, a liquid coolant, streamed from its two engines.
Suddenly, Ogilvie heard a loud noise. A Messerschmitt 109 had fired at him, putting a hole in his starboard (right) wing. He then saw the 109 close behind him; it fired again. Bullets hit various parts of Ogilvie’s Spitfire. One went through his tail, one hit his radio, and another hit his port wing.
Despite the damage, Ogilvie flew away from the fighter and pursued the German bombers. He lost sight of the Dornier he had previously attacked, but found another one, which he fired at. Smoke spewed from an engine, but he couldn’t shoot it down because he ran out of ammunition and had to return to his base. When he landed, his Spitfire almost turned over because the wheel on his port side no longer functioned properly. The bullet that hit his wing had punctured a tire that retracted into the wing when the Spitfire was airborne.
On September 26, the squadron flew again at 4:00 p.m. It attacked a force of sixty German bombers and a dozen fighters over Christchurch, not far from Bournemouth. Ogilvie confronted a Messerschmitt 109 and fired at it, but it dove away. He then found a Heinkel bomber, got close to its tail and fired. He could see yellow flashes as the bullets hit the bomber. The gunner fired back. Several bullets bounced off the Spitfire’s wings. One went through the main spar that supports the wings, but Ogilvie kept flying. He had to end the attack when he was out of ammunition again. Discouraged, he flew back to his base.
The following day, just before noon, the squadron was called upon to attack German bombers and fighters heading for Bristol. Ogilvie flew behind Pilot Officer Mick Miller. A Messerschmitt 110 fired its cannons at Miller. Immediately afterwards, Miller’s Spitfire collided with the German fighter. There was a terrific explosion, a sheet of flames arose and then a column of black smoke. Ogilvie saw the wing of the Spitfire flutter to Earth. Miller was dead.
Ogilvie pulled up, saw a Messerschmitt 109, and pushed the button to fire. Another sheet of flames arose, and the 109 descended to the earth.