Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 75 continued ... When night flying, search lights were used to assist us in two ways. Sometimes when our night fighters were attempting to intercept an enemy aircraft British searchlight units would attempt to track the enemy and lead our fighters to them. The other use was to assist us in finding our base and when landing. When returning to base in adverse weather conditions we often needed searchlight assistance. The searchlight unit based at the aerodrome would create a cone of light over the centre of the field. If we could see the cone we would fly to it and by radio contact with the control tower prepare for landing. The searchlight unit would then shine a beam at an angle to mark an approach path to the runway. Flying the approach could be dangerous if the pilot strayed off course and flew into the light beam or if the light’s operator caused the beam to shine on the plane. In both cases the pilot would be momentarily blinded. If it happened when the plane was close to the ground (landing) it could cause the pilot to lose control and crash. Fortunately this never happened at our base although occasionally there were overshoots and ‘go arounds’. On one occasion, 23 Dec 41, I was blinded momentarily and landed the aircraft heavily causing some damage to the landing gear and underside of the fuselage. Fortunately it was repairable. When flying formation at night, visual contact was achieved completely through eyesight. The visual reference points were the other aircraft’s exhaust flames and sometimes a wee bit of light coming from the instruments in the other aircraft’s cockpit could be seen. It was not too difficult on moonlit nights as when up close the other aircraft’s fuselage could usually be seen. It was not easy on dark nights when relying on the exhaust flames as they gave very little if any indication of an aircraft turning and as radio silence was kept there was no verbal communication. It remained fairly quiet in our area. In January 1942 we maintained nightly patrols continuing our operations from Colerne’s satellite field Charmy Down. By flying these sorties we had aircraft in position at various points over South East England and near London in case of enemy attacks on cities, aerodromes or other targets. We were also engaged in night intruder missions over France using RAF Warmwell on the south coast of Dorset as advanced base for refueling to increase our flying range. The objective was to obtain intelligence information on rail and road transportation and other activities. Returning from a mission on January 26, 1942 after experiencing flack and strong searchlights crossing at St. Malo on returning to England, and confirming my identify, a vector to base was received. It was a reverse heading which would have taken me straight back to France. Immediately a nearby companion pilot who had escaped from Poland and joined the RAF turned on his Hurricane’s navigation lights and shouting “don’t believe, fly zero, zero, zero to England”. We both returned safely to Warmwell. I learned later that the young WAAF in the Control Centre having realized her error broke down crying in tears. During this quiet time my Squadron was tasked with other duties while continuing its operational commitments. An experiment said to be an idea proposed by Prime Minister Churchill was to employ an aeroplane equipped with radar and a powerful searchlight and accompanied by a night fighter aircraft. The idea was to locate the enemy illuminate it with the searchlight and the fighter to shoot it down. On March 8, 1942, I was assigned to accompany a Havoc aeroplane to test the idea, flying formation at night with visual contact with the Havoc being achieved completely through eyesight. While doing this I did not see the Havoc entering a starboard turn and a wing of my Hurricane collided with the tail of the Havoc. I decided to bale out of my Hurricane.I removed the escape hatch from the right side of the cockpit pulling my feet back and leaning starboard catapulted thus bailed myself out. Fortunately my trajectory took me between Hurricane’s propeller and tail. The Havoc returned to base landing safely. continued ...
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