Heroes of the RAF
Guy Gibson VC
by
John Fareham
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This Edition First Published 2012
Copyright © Bretwalda Books 2012
Published by Bretwalda Books at Smashwords
Copyright © 2012 Bretwalda Books
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ISBN 978-1-907791-59-8
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CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1 - An Imperial Childhood
CHAPTER 5 - An Interlude of Training
CHAPTER 6 - First Squadron Command
CHAPTER 7 - New Targets, New Directions
CHAPTER 8 - Top Secret Preparations
CHAPTER 10 - Gibsons’s Final Year
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I have enjoyed writing this book despite the frustrations inherent in establishing facts. Ignoring a tendency on the internet for people to publish opinions as facts
It seems that, despite my period of interest being the Napoleonic Wars to the outbreak of World War I, in many ways I was inevitably going to write this book. My Father flew Bombers and I grew up on more draughty isolated RAF bases than I can comfortably recall. Guy Gibson was always a boyhood hero of mine, I saw the film early and found a Pan paperback of “Enemy Coast Ahead” which I read under the covers at night it was so enthralling and it is a delight that researching him has not changed my opinion. The RAF is a small world, many of the places in this story I knew: I was born in RAF St Athan, in Glamorgan and now live a short hop away from Scampton and Hemswell, places integral to Gibson’s life, bizarrely at one point I even lived, briefly in Munchen-Gladbach.
John Fareham
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An Imperial Childhood
Perhaps fittingly for a man who would become known to some as “The Boy Emperor”, Guy Penrose Gibson was born in Simla, the summer capital of the British Raj, in the India of the King Emperor. Entering this world on 12th August 1918 Guy was the son of Alexander James Gibson and Leonora Mary, nee Strike.
It was not atypical in the Imperial days for a man to establish his career before marriage. Alexander Gibson, born 14th May 1877 in Russia, was the son of Charles John and Elizabeth Gibson. Alexander had entered the Indian Forestry Service, founded in part through the activities of his ancestor, another Alexander Gibson, who had been born in Scotland in 1800 becoming, in 1843, the first conservator of the new Forestry Service.
VICE REGAL LODGE SIMLA
The city of Simla (now Shimla) stands 7,000 feet up in the foothills of the western Himalayas. At the time that Gibson was born here Simla was the favoured summer resort for British families escaping the heat of the plains.
Leaves taken in Britain were the norm for Imperial workers to see “the Home Country” and so it was that Alexander Gibson took a holiday at Porthleven in Cornwall. Returning from her education in a Belgian Convent in 1913 Leonora Mary Strike, generally known as Nora, and Alexander Gibson met each other. Nora’s family home was on the cliffs on the north side of Porthleven. She was one of several daughters of Captain Edward Carter Strike of the Hain Steamship Company, and Emily Jane, nee Symons. In October 1913, once Nora had turned nineteen Alexander proposed and was accepted. A month later Alexander and Nora married at Porthleven Wesleyan Chapel, on 2nd December, and left for India.
PORTHLEVEN HARBOUR
Gibson's mother, Nora Strike, lived in Porthleven, Cornwall. It was here that the the 18 year old Nora met Gibson's father when the latter was on holiday in 1913. The young couple married in the village later that year, then left for India.
Nora gave birth to a son, Alexander Edward Charles on 23rd June 1915; a daughter Joan on 10th August 1916; and finally another son, Guy, born on 12th August 1918 and christened on 11th September. However, long-term domestic life in India was not always an option for young families in the Empire. Many imperial workers wanted their children educated in England and so it was that Alexander Edward went to St George’s Preparatory School in Folkestone. The other Gibson children and their mother also returned to England in 1924, Alexander senior staying in India until 1929 when he retired from service in India.
On their return to Cornwall, Guy was sent to school locally with his sister until he was old enough to follow his brother to St George’s where he stayed until 1932. He then moved on to the grand St Edwards School on the Woodstock Road, Oxford, where again he joined his brother.
Guy’s contemporaries recall him as showing much determination and being immensely energetic at games. His housemaster Freddie Yorke was later to recall Gibson as “strong minded without obstinacy, disarmingly frank, and of great charm”. The exigencies of the parental Gibson’s lives meant sometimes Guy, and his brother, used to stay with Yorke during some of the holidays. Guy was an enthusiastic cricketer, and earned his House Colours for a determined stand of some 160 runs as the inter-House underdogs. He was also a competent rugger player, but did not make the first team. Guy was recalled as a boy “devoid of nastiness”, good-natured and a great “joiner-in”. Gibson became a House Prefect and gained a good-natured and easy-going reputation not being unduly concerned with petty discipline. Gibson was also a Corporal in the School Officer Training Corps.
Nobody records or recalls his academic achievements as exemplary. Recalled as interested in science, mechanics and speed, Gibson also had an artistic streak with an interest in pantomimes, music, plays, and photography – although he himself was later to comment, “Well I’m not a highbrow by any means”. Nevertheless, Gibson took his school exams and obtained his Oxford and Cambridge School Certificate with credits in English, Latin, History, French (oral), with Physics and Chemistry combined.
But Gibson, had decided he wanted to be a Test Pilot. In August 1936 entered the RAF solely in order to learn to fly, but with no intention of a long term career there. Gibson was sent to Yatesbury, Wiltshire, where the Bristol Aeroplane Company was running a new training school for the RAF. He arrived on 16th November 1936, along with 33 others, becoming part of No.6 Course. Despite a week’s extension to the course because of poor weather the pupil intake nevertheless failed to complete the full 50 hours of flying expected. Even so, on 31st January 1937, Gibson still succeeded in leaving Yatesbury as an Acting Pilot Officer - one of 28 who passed the course.
RAF UXBRIDGE OFFICERS' MESS
In the interwar years, RAF Uxbridge was a major administrative centre for the air force, hosting among other organisations the RAF School of Music, Headquarters Southern Area, Southern Area Medical Headquarters, Southern Area Barrack Stores, and the Headquarters of the Air Construction Service.
Pausing for a brief period at 24 Training Group Depot, RAF Uxbridge, to familiarise with King’s Regulations, Drill and other minutiae of service life; on 6th February Acting P/O Gibson went to No.6 F.T.S (Flying Training School) at Netheravon becoming part of No.5 course. Gibson, and other successful pupils of No.5 Course, were authorised to receive their Flying Badge on 24th May, w.e.f. 22nd May. This phase of Gibson’s life concluded when No.5 Course had their passing out parade, on
31st August 1937, presided over by Air Vice Marshal Pattinson the A.O.C. No.23 (Training) Group.
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Off to War
In common with the rest of No.5 Course, all with their flying training completed, Acting Pilot Officer Guy Penrose Gibson received a posting to an operational unit. In Gibson’s case the posting was to No.83 Squadron, flying Hawker Hinds out of RAF Turnhouse on 4th September 1937. RAF Turnhouse, some seven miles west of Edinburgh, was also home to No.603, City of Edinburgh Squadron, an Auxiliary Air Force Unit flying Hawker Fury fighters. Turnhouse now forms, in part, Edinburgh Airport.
The Hawker Hind biplane bomber had entered squadron service at the start of 1937. Powered by a Kestrel engine the Hind had a top speed of 186 mph at 16,400 feet, a range of 430 miles, and could carry a bomb load of
500 lb. At this date the Hind was the most important light bomber in RAF service, though it was soon to be superseded by the monoplane Fairey Battle and Bristol Blenheim were already entering service in 1937.
HAWKER HIND
Gibson went operational with the RAF on the Hawker Hind, one of the better biplane bombers of the interwar years. The RAF would move its Hinds to a training role before the war began, though South African Hinds fought Italian colonial forces in Africa in 1941.
Assigned to ‘A’ Flight, Gibson trained, engaged in stunts and japes, explored his ability and that of the machine - as most young pilots did - and early showed a preference for some low level flying. He was duly confirmed as a Pilot Officer in November 1937. The following March, No.83 Squadron moved to Scampton in Lincolnshire. At this date, RAF Bomber Command was organised into a number of Groups, each consisting of a number of stations and up to seven squadrons. Scampton, and so No.83 Squadron, lay within No.5 Group.
Arguably the highest profile bomber airfield in Britain, Scampton, grew out of a World War I airfield known as Brattlesby Cliff or Brattlesby, five miles north of Lincoln. It had closed after peace came in 1918, but reopened in 1935 as a reaction to increasing German militarism. In October 1938, No.83 Squadron discarded its Hinds in favour of the Handley Page Hampden. As was usual, the Squadron’s strength was 16 Hampdens with five in reserve.
The Hampden was a twin-engined, twin-tailed, aircraft with a maximum speed of 265 miles per hour at 15,000 feet and a service ceiling of 19,000 feet. Carrying their maximum bomb-load of 11,780 lbs the Hampden had a range of 1,095 miles. The Hampden’s weakness later proved to be a lack of defensive armament. There was a forward firing machine gun and a pair of guns on a scarf ring facing backward over the fuselage. Two more guns were later added in the belly behind the bomb bay. It was originally intended to have a powered turret, but no turret manufactured at the time could fit the fuselage of the Hampden so the idea was forgotten.
BRISTOL BLENHEIM
A Bristol Blenheim bomber circles a burning enemy ship in the early months of the war. The Blenheim was one of the first RAF aircraft to have an all-metal stressed-skin construction with fully retractable landing gear, flaps and variable pitch propellers. Designed to be a fast bomber, it was later used as a nightfighter.
The limitations of the Hampden would not be clear until the war began. Meanwhile, the pilots were engaged in learning the new machine and probably revelling in enclosed cockpits and retractable under-carriages. In the spring of 1939 the squadron was posted back to Scotland for armament practice, bomb-aiming and machine-gun firing. Gibson then went to Hamble in Hampshire for advanced navigational training, followed by a month at RAF Northolt for joint training with Fighter Command.
Gibson went on leave in late August 1939, but was abruptly recalled to Scampton on 1 September. That day the Germans invaded Poland, and two days later British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain announced that Britain was again at war with Germany.
The first operational sortie of the war began with a Bristol Blenheim piloted by F/O A.M. McPherson and crew, from No 139 Squadron based at Wyton, Cambridgeshire. McPherson carried out a photographic reconnaissance of the German naval base at Wilhelmshaven, taking off just after mid-day. As a result, the RAF formed a bomber force of 18 Hampdens from No.5 Group. The Operational Record Book (ORB) at Scampton recording “One raid of 9 aircraft carried out, consisting of one sub-formation of 49 Squadron, 2 sub-formations of No.83 Squadron”; to be followed into the attack by nine Wellingtons from No.3 Group.
Gibson was one of those from No.83 Squadron to take part in this, the first RAF bombing raid of the war. The instructions were “Aircraft are to sweep south from VORNEES LIGHTSHIP”. The time over the target ordered “as early as possible after time of despatch” and the type of attack ordered as “low level bombing at high speed fore and aft from stern”. The orders specified an alternative target of the ammunition dump at Mariensiel, also near Wilhelmshaven.
Gibson, whose “own head was on a swivel because I had heard from one or two chaps who fought in the last war that this was the only way to survive” spotted a German Dornier 17 flying about 500 feet below them. Whilst confessing his natural instinct to attack, Gibson showed he knew the difference between heroism and rashness by staying on course. “It is written way back in the code of bomber rules,” he later recalled, “that the bomber’s job is to get to the target and back again, not to go doing any fancy stuff, and so we kept straight on”.
The Squadron flew on as the cloud ceiling descended to 300 feet and the rain continued. With cloud at 100 feet, Leonard Snaith, C/O No.83 Squadron, decided to turn back. Although the Wellingtons had returned by 22:40, the Hampdens had no such luck. Crossing the British coast after dark their flight leader got lost because all the beacons were in code mode. The crews flew around the general area of what they believed to be Lincolnshire trying to find their position. When the moon rose the Hampden pilots became neither the first nor the last generation of pilots to be grateful for two great landmarks of Lincoln - the Cathedral and the canal. Spotting, in this case, the canal, No.83 Squadron managed to find their way home.
The so-called Phoney War lasted from the fall of Poland at the end of September 1939 to the German invasion of Denmark and Norway in April 1940. While there were some military actions during this time, there was no major offensive. For R.A.F Scampton, the ORB was to show no operations at all during the month of October; and Gibson himself was not to fly on another operation until 27th February 1940. Nevertheless, the fact remained that Guy Gibson had made his first operational mission, which had shown his pluck, positive attitude, determination to complete a mission without distraction; and of course he was ‘blooded’. Gibson was blooded in another way when, he was bitten by the Station Commander’s dog, a black Labrador called “Zimba”. Given 36 hours leave Gibson was able to be Best Man at his brother’s wedding to Ruth Harris in Rugby Parish Church.
Although the RAF did carry out some bombing raids during the Phoney War, the main activity was leaflet dropping. The commander of No.5 Group at this date was Arthur Harris, later to become the commander of Bomber Command and to gain the nickname of “Bomber Harris”. After the war, Harris described this activity as supplying “the continent’s requirements of toilet paper for the five long years of the war”. However, leaflet raids and reconnaissance flights helped improve RAF navigation and other skills - less helpfully, they aided the Germans in anti-aircraft preparation as the Germans anticipated shifts from pamphlets to explosives!
HANDLEY PAGE HAMPDEN
Guy Gibson went to war in the Handley Page Hampden, the newest and most modern bomber in the RAF in 1939. The crew accommodation was notoriously cramped, so the Hampden came to be nicknamed The Flying Suitcase by airmen.
Although some in No.83 Squadron did more offensive operations, often anti-naval patrols, Gibson was not one of them and he described this period as “Standing by, Standing to, Standing down”. The period of operational inactivity was a period in which Gibson met Eve Moore, at a party in Coventry, a city Gibson had gone to in order to visit his brother.
Evelyn Mary Moore was in Coventry as a dancer with the revue “Come out to Play” which was having its provincial premiere there at Coventry’s New Hippodrome. The daughter of Ernest Edward Moore and Edith, nee Cole, who were in shipping at Penarth in Glamorgan, Eve was some seven years older than Guy but he summed her up as someone “who could discuss books, music and places. Most people who discuss these things well don’t look so good, but this girl really was attractive”.
Back at Scampton the weather was proving an obstacle. The Squadron ORB records the grim tale: “Feb 1st -13th No flying possible, weather conditions prevailing during this period made operational work flying impossible aerodrome unserviceable owing to ice and snow.” So it was perhaps a relief when the squadron transferred to Lossiemouth for anti-naval activities. Gibson himself arranged matters so his aircraft was flown up meaning he could take a train ride to Scotland because Eve was appearing in her show at Glasgow at that time.
HAMPDEN AND MINE, 1940
The Hampden was the only RAF bomber able to carry naval mines. Gibson was one of many Hampden pilots sent out to drop mines into German shipping lanes - missions known in the RAF as "gardening".
Gibson describes the activities in this period as if on an idyllic holiday “Sometimes we would do a little flying,” adding “I have never seen so much sea in my life with so little in it”. The 29th February 1940, however, was to be a day when perhaps the squadron wished it had remained an empty sea. The No.83 Squadron ORB contents itself with the observation on 29th February: “8 aircraft carried out sweep. 1 aircraft dropped bombs on an unidentified submarine, result unknown, following officers and pilots took part S/Ldr Threapleton, F/O Mulligan, F/O Johnson, F/O Ross. F/O Gibson, Sgt Jenkins, Sgt Ollason”. There was more to tell however, not least the fact that astute readers will have spotted that the numbers do not match (Sgt Sewell was also on the mission and was flying L.4057). Rather more unfortunate was the fact that the submarine was British.
Receiving orders to do a sweep in a 20-mile radius, eight Hampdens took off around 11.20. S/Ldr Threapleton’s aircraft spotted a submarine, and opening his bomb doors dived on it. Later Threapleton was to state he was merely doing a full practice with the opportunity presented to him. However Sgt Ollason, who had also spotted the submarine, thought Threapleton had failed to drop his bombs because of his approach angle and therefore decided to attack the submarine himself. Ollason dropped his bombs, missing by 150 feet. Sgt Jenkins then fused his bombs but did not drop them, commenting afterwards that he felt his attack position to be unsatisfactory. Between eight and ten minutes later, Jenkins spotted another submarine. “Receiving no recognition signal I assumed it was an enemy craft, and not having any orders to the contrary I decided to attack and dropped two ‘B’ bombs at the target.” Harris, still in charge of 5 Group, later pointed out in the investigation, that this second submarine was indeed German.
Although Gibson said, “it was an unfortunate affair and was really no-one’s fault but in the squadron records it is still written as a black mark” the RAF and Admiralty were less forgiving. The later Investigation Report concluded, inter alia, a failure to brief properly, poor W/T (Wireless Transmission) communications and protocols were to blame. The RAF response would be to impose tighter control over its men in the air. No.83 Squadron had meanwhile returned to Scampton on 19th March 1940.
Bomber Command strategy neither inclined them to, nor were they especially capable of, heavy attacks. In part this was because of the limited range and payload of British bombers, in part because the war was still being fought overtly and primarily against military targets. Therefore Gibson laid mines, attacked railways, bombed oil refineries and other targets. He wrote “These early raids were haphazard; we could choose our own route; we could bomb from any old height; sometimes we could carry whatever load we wished; we could go off at any time. We were individuals, but to tell the honest truth we were not very efficient.”
Then, on 9 April 1940, Germany suddenly launched unprovoked invasions of Denmark and Norway. Denmark surrendered after just six hours, but Norway fought on. Gibson was among those sent up to drop mines in the areas being used by German invasion ships attacking Norway. Because the code names for the seaways were those of flowers or vegetables it was, perhaps, inevitable that sowing mines was called “gardening”. In an eight-hour flight, on 11th April 1940, Gibson flew on a mission where mines were laid in the Great Belt (one of the three straits of Denmark that connect the North Sea and the Baltic), flying on to do a reconnaissance of Kiel Harbour to check on shipping, then to Middelfart in occupied Denmark to check on railway movements. Two days later the squadron received news that, in the Great Belt area troop ships had sunk.
On 14th April, Gibson flew, in appalling weather, back to Middelfart. Flying low, in the rain, Gibson headed towards the target before steadily dropping through the clouds. There is a pilot’s phrase “fluffy clouds have hard centres”, in this case they had wet ones. Gibson almost hit the sea, and hastily levelling out he saw the Middelfart Bridge looming up ahead of him. He flew straight underneath the central arch only to be fired on by a flak ship. Gibson recorded that his Hampden’s bottom rear gunner returned fire as Gibson dropped his mines, then headed for cloud cover. Facing strong head winds, Gibson took two hours to reach Holland, then two hours more passed before he touched down at Manston in Kent.
A few missions in support of the British troops fighting in Norway followed, mine-laying in the Oslo Fjord and Kiel Canal before Gibson did his first attack on a German land target. On 10 May the main German assault in the West smashed into France, Belgium and Holland. The Allied armies were reeling back in some confusion and although the true magnitude of the German success had not yet become clear to the Allied high command, it was felt that a major air offensive aimed at targets in Germany was warranted. On 17th May 1940 Gibson took off to bomb an oil refinery at Hamburg, one of 130 aircraft attacking German targets that night. Arriving when there was already a glow from one burning oil tank Gibson later recalled that, on his first run, diving down under the most intense light-flak he had then seen, the stack of four 500lb bombs did not release. Straining for every ounce of engine-power Gibson regained height to 5,000 feet in order to attempt a second run. By then, however, smoke was obscuring the oil refinery.
When eventually they were able to spot the target Gibson at a much steeper angle, with the Hampden reaching 320 mph. He released his bombs accurately, but the effort required to pull out from the dive was too much for Gibson, despite having both feet on the instrument panel. A hurried application of the tail-trim tabs by the co-pilot produced the desired result. Shooting out at 2,000 feet over Hamburg, Gibson became an obvious target for flak, and a searchlight locked on to him. Gibson opened fire and soon despatched the searchlight. However, in the reflected light of the burning oil refinery, and mistaking a large piece of metal flapping on the wing for a fire, Gibson pressed the emergency signal to “abandon aircraft”. Luckily for him the signal did not work and so gave Gibson time recognise his mistake. England definitely called ever more pressingly. Typically England was under fog when they arrived and after failing to put down at Scampton, Gibson landed at Abingdon in Berkshire.
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Gibson DFC
Gibson’s next raid was also the RAF’s second ‘100 bomber plus’ raid, on the night of 21st/22nd May 1940. By this date the French front had been smashed wide open by the Germans at Sedan and panzers were surging west along the Somme Valley toward the Channel. The British Army in northern Frane and Belgium was in danger of being cut off from the rest of France. In an attempt to assist the French army, 124 aircraft were sent to attack railways and related transport targets. Gibson was one of six from No.83 Squadron, sent to attack the railway bridge over the Schelde-Maas canal, which mission he successfully completed hitting it directly with two 250lb bombs before landing at Mildenhall in Suffolk.
GUY GIBSON
A portrait photo of Guy Gibson in RAF uniform. Gibson was a noted pipe smoker who often trailed the scent of his favoured blend of pungent tobacco in his wake.
On 25th May, Gibson successfully dropped delayed action bombs into a railway tunnel near Aachen from a very low height. Flying along over the railway lines below tree-level Gibson and his crew finally spotted the cliff looming up before them and pulling the stick back began a steep climb. Releasing two bombs at the commencement of the climb, Gibson avoided the cliff-face and the bombs exploded inside the tunnel precipitating a collapse. With two bombs left Gibson flew to the next tunnel on the map, about ten miles further on, only to discover that his second reconnaissance flare would not release itself. Co-pilot P/O Watson held an Aldis lamp shining forward to act as a spotlight. At 200 miles an hour the crew pressed on with this extempore arrangement and again released the two bombs as they began the climb. Clearing the 400-foot chalk face of the hill by a few feet the crew again blocked the entrance, and turned for home thankful no enemy fighters had been around.
HAMPDEN AND CREWS
The crews of two Hampdens pose in front of one of the bombers for a formal RAF press photo issued in 1939. At this date more than 220 Hampdens were in service with eight squadrons in the RAF. It would be phased out of operational service by 1942.
On 26th May Gibson again attacked railway targets behind the German lines, then on 30th May he went back to Hamburg and on 9th June he was “gardening” again. There then came two of the few times in his career Gibson would not find the target. Failure to locate Givet, on the Franco-Belgian border, led to the bombing of Flushing (Vlissingen) aerodrome in south-west Holland instead; followed, in turn, by the failure to locate Hirson in Northern France and bombing a road junction.
Gibson’s flight log-book for this period is missing, but he copied one entry into his memoir as: “June 13, 1940 - Hampden L.4070 - Pilot: self and crew - duty: bombing Ghent and England (nearly) - time: 7.5 hours”. Gibson had bombed Ghent and was returning home under cover of darkness when caught by heavy searchlight/gun concentrations in low cloud. Gibson thought they were over Dunkirk, so flew due west looking for the French coast. Daylight came and they had not found the French coast. Spotting an aerodrome, and still having a bomb left, Gibson went into the attack, but pulled out when he recognised the airfield as RAF Harwell in the distinctly English Royal County of Berkshire!
By this date the evacuation of the British army from Dunkirk was over and the German panzer spearheads were driving deep into France. Paris fell on 14th June and France surrendered on 25th June. The collapse of France meant Britain now stood alone against the Nazi hordes. The only striking force that could readily make contact with Germany was the RAF. As part of the RAF strike force, and beginning to show his leadership qualities, Gibson was promoted to be a Flying Officer the announcement appearing in “The London Gazette” on 16th June 1939.
Gibson continued to attack specific targets, rather than mine-laying, throughout June. The first week of July 1940 saw Gibson take part in the RAF switch to increased attacks on shipping. Key targets were the battlecruiser Scharnhorst at Kiel and the battleship Tirpitz, still under construction at Bauhafen Basin. It was during the attack on the Scharnhorst that Gibson dropped the first 2,000lb bomb of the war, during the night of 1st/2nd July. Gibson determinedly made six shallow dives from 6,000 feet but an unexpected three-second delay in the bomb release mechanism meant the bomb over-shot and landed in the town. Nevertheless, the RAF did hit the Scharnhorst on that raid.
On 9th July it was announced that Gibson had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). The citation read, “In the course of eleven long-range operational flights, mostly at night, including raids on enemy plants and lines of communication, this officer has shown outstanding ability and devotion to duty. During one attack his aircraft hit an enemy balloon cable which cut through to the main spar of his starboard wing and then broke away. On the night of the 23rd May, 1940, he obtained two direct hits on a bridge over the Maas Canal; two nights later he successfully dropped delayed action bombs into a railway tunnel from a very low height. Flying Officer Gibson has at all times set an outstanding example to other pilots in his squadron by his enthusiasm, resourcefulness and courage.”
Three more raids in July took Gibson to a leave which he spent in Cornwall with Eve. Returning to his squadron in August Gibson found many of his colleagues were no longer there and he was scheduled for operations. Gibson reveals attacking one E-boat and shooting up a Dornier 17 that very day – earning a ‘probable’ from Bomber Command.
Weather contributed to a failure unusual for Gibson throughout his career when he undertook to be on a solo mission from his squadron to attack the battlecruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst on 28th August 1940, with the battleship Bismarck as his secondary target. Gibson reported 9/10 cloud at 2,000 feet above Gneisenau and Scharnhorst with 10/10 cloud at 6,000 feet over Bismarck. He returned with his bombs.
Early September saw four more raids – including the only time Gibson ever failed to complete a mission through technical problems when he returned, on 11th September 1940, with engine troubles. More happily, Gibson earned promotion to Flight Lieutenant on 3rd September, the promotion promulgated in “The London Gazette “of 19th November.
By this date the Battle of Britain had begun. As Fighter Command was heroically holding the line against German airborne attacks as part of Hitler’s invasion plans, so Bomber Command attacked the barges that the Germans intended to use to carry their men and panzers across the Channel. The tactics of Bomber Command meant, basically, each bomber squadron had a specific port to attack, and each aircraft assigned an area within it. On 15th September 1940, Gibson’s target was a basin in Antwerp harbour. The British did not know it but it was on this day that the German High Command postponed plans for the invasion of Britain. In the event the invasion never took place.
During another raid to the Channel ports, on 20th September, Gibson’s aircraft was hit by flak just after a successful bombing run. One piece of lethal shrapnel missed Gibson’s boot by half an ince, then tore off the toe-strap on the rudder bar. The rudder bar span forward, striking F/Sgt Houghton on the head and rendering him unconscious. The aircraft was otherwise undamaged, and Houghton soon recovered.
DORNIER DO17
Gibson became one of the few RAF bomber pilots to be credited with a "probable" air victory when he and his Hampden crew attacked a Dornier Do17, one of the fastest and most numerous bombers in the Luftwaffe at the time.
The next raid on 23rd September was a new Bomber Command record and Gibson’s last operation with No.83 Squadron. For the first time over 200 aircraft, 209, were airborne on one night, and uniquely, at this point in the war, the main bombing strength, 129 aircraft, was sent to one city - Berlin. The Operational Orders for the night advised: “The moon will be two hours old over the target area at 23:45. The concentration of effort tonight is planned in retaliation of indiscriminate attacks in London. It is reported that the civilian morale has been greatly affected by our bombing”. The raid was not wholly successful. With poor weather all the way to Berlin crews had to navigate by dead-reckoning. Although parts of Berlin were hit, bombing was scattered and largely ineffective.
Gibson was now at the end of his tour of duty. With Oscar Bridgeman having been shot-down and becoming a P.O.W. in Germany, Gibson was the last one left in the squadron from the beginning of the war, and he recorded a degree of melancholy when he went to bed that night. By surviving a full tour Gibson had earned a rest from operational duties, and the RAF expected Gibson to pass on his experience to others.
The RAF ran a number of Operational Training Units (O.T.U.) to prepare new crews for the realities of combat flying. One such unit was No.14 O.T.U. based at Cottesmore, and Gibson was to go there for his next base.
The unit ORB records on 26th September “F/Os Gibson, Withers and Murray and P/Os Lewis, Pinchbeck, Smith, Redpath and Mills reported on posting from Scampton and Waddington - exchange of operational areas”. There is no more mention of him until 10th October, “F/O Gibson posted to 16 O.T.U. Upper Heyford”. With an elegant symmetry the ORB for Upper Heyford records, on 10th October 1940, F/O G.P. Gibson (Pilot) arrived from No.83 Squadron for flying duties”.
No.16 O.T.U. was tasked with training night bomber crews, for which the unit was equipped with Hampdens and Herefords (a variant of the Hampden with uprated engines). Gibson’s log book for his time with No.16 O.T.U. has not survived, but he would have spent a lot of time in the air with new crews. The final entry for Gibson in the ORB records “26.11.1940 Flying Officer G.P. Gibson. (Pilot) of the screened staff was posted to 58 O.T.U. for flying duties”. In fact by this date he had been flying for a fortnight with 29 Squadron in Fighter Command!
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Into Fighters
Gibson himself recalled, “...one day in October I received a blunt telegram from the Air Ministry: ‘ Report to 29 (F) Squadron Digby for Flight-Command (Flying) Duties. Forthwith.” The ORB for Digby records on 13th November, “...F/Lt G.P. Gibson arrived from Hexford on posting to 29 Squadron ...”and, predictably, Gibson’s first entry in his No.2 (and only extant) Flying Log has him swiftly up in the air flying, on the 15th, doing an Ammunitions and Explosives (A/E) test.
BRISTOL BEAUFIGHTER
Gibson spent most of his time with RAF Fighter Command flying Beafighters. The long range and capacious fuselage of this aircraft made it ideal for service as a radar-equipped nightfighter. It was the main RAF nightfighter for two years from the autumn of 1941.
RAF Digby is near Scopwick in Lincolnshire, just over 11 miles from Lincoln. No.29 Squadron, at the time of Gibson’s posting, had been flying Bristol Blenheims, but was now re-equipping with the Bristol Beaufighter.
The Beaufighter first flew on 17th July 1939, entering service with the RAF on 2nd April 1940. Powered by two Hercules XI engines, developing a maximum speed of 335 mph, the Beaufighter was a potent weapon. With a service ceiling of 27,000 feet and armed with six Browning machine-guns firing .303 ammunition as well as four 20mm cannons, and an AI (Airborne Interceptor, a radar detection system) system the Beaufighter was well suited as a night-fighter. When No.29 Squadron completed transfer to the Beaufighter Mk IF it meant the beginning of squadron operations by a technically competent night fighter.
As a flight lieutenant in Fighter Command, Gibson was a Flight Commander – something that in Bomber Command would have required him to have the rank of squadron leader. Entering the Mess at The Grange, Wellingore, Gibson records he did not feel heartily welcomed. Over and above his feeling that, as a “bomber boy” he felt he was alien to the others, Gibson later wrote that the morale in the squadron was seriously defective. Old hands had been flying regular operations and not shot anything down, so, inter alia, the squadron seemed over-looked for commendations, and Gibson himself was replacing a highly popular acting Flight Commander.
Nevertheless Gibson’s life was definitely changing. Gibson had recently become engaged to Eve. Guy and Eve had also acquired their own dog – a black Labrador named “Nigger”. Nigger was allegedly a handful. One of Gibson’s colleagues called him ‘the black bastard’, and others regarded him as a pest. Gibson, however, loved the dog and recalled him as “A great flyer was Nigger; he used to go up on nearly every patrol. I think it made him thirsty and he liked beer.”
Gibson’s first patrol was 19th November 1940, when he flew a Blenheim on an uneventful operation. On 22nd November Gibson recorded in his Flight log “To Cardiff (To be married!)”. Gibson and Eve were married at All Saints Church, Penarth, in Glamorgan on 23rd November 1940. A honeymoon followed before Gibson returned, with Eve, to Lincolnshire, putting up at The Lion and Royal having been unable to find a house. At this stage, being in Fighter Command, Gibson was able to live with his wife but he did later comment it seemed hard on her sitting around waiting.
Gibson was back in the air, testing himself on the new Beaufighter. His first actual Beaufighter operation was on 10th December when he chased an on-board radar “blip” for fifteen minutes until it was identified as friendly by the controller on the ground. The following day saw action when, during a morning patrol, Gibson chased a Junkers Ju88 over the sea at about 1,500 feet some 60 miles east of Mablethorpe. Firing two short bursts at approximately 800 yards range Gibson chased the German into cloud. Because Gibson saw no damage he made no claim – it was a characteristic of Gibson’s debriefs that he did not give consciously over-creative accounts of his activities.
Three uneventful patrols followed, then on 21st December Gibson witnessed a Junkers Ju88 shot down by light AA guns near Manby. Later that night Gibson spotted an enemy aircraft caught in searchlights over Horncastle. Gibson at once began to stalk the intruder, but was unable to close before it escaped into the dark. Uneventful patrols followed, the weather at the beginning of 1941 being so bad Gibson recalled that the squadron flew only one night sortie in the whole of January.
It was not until 4th February 1941 that Gibson was next in combat. Gibson generally now flew with Sergeant James and together on this night they started a patrol at 18:35. Patrolling at 10,000 feet, Gibson received vectoring directions from base to go to the Mablethorpe area, making an AI blip at 19:08 when investigating a flare. Spotting an aeroplane in searchlights, at 19:19, Gibson went over to investigate but discovered it was another Beaufighter. Patrolling between Grimsby and Spurn Head between 7,000 and 9,000 feet, Gibson followed a line of flares and, at 19:55, spotted an enemy aircraft - illuminated by the flares it had dropped. Gibson closed to 500 yards before firing a three-second burst but contact was lost in the night sky when the flares went out.
However, James had re-established an AI contact and Gibson followed it, but contact was again lost in manoeuvres. The German aircraft dropped another line of flares, each flare burning brightly for about 15 seconds dropping 1,000 feet behind the enemy aircraft in multiples of six. Following similar tactics as he had earlier, Gibson approached and saw the same, or a similar, aircraft in stark reality at 20:05; Gibson closing to 200 yards before giving another three-second burst. On neither occasion was return fire received nor any result of firing noticed. Because of this action, Gibson made his first entry in the Squadron ORB since his arrival. It is perhaps worthy of comment that, outside Hollywood, whilst an aircraft may be hit it does not necessarily crash, or indeed may do so later on; equally Gibson’s C/O, Charles Widdows, shot a Junkers Ju88 down with 22 rounds. Gibson himself was to comment of his air-firing “...though I wasn’t good, I was not completely bad”.
It was during this period that Gibson records the improvements in the Airborne Interception device. AI relied on teamwork between the pilot and the observer, with the latter operating the instruments that helped locate other aircraft. There was also a strong interface with the Operations Room who, unlike in Bomber Command, could usually see the bigger picture because fighter operations involved aircraft solely flying over England or local waters.
RAF DIGBY OPS ROOM
The Sector Operations Room at RAF Digby, Lincolnshire, has been preserved as it was in 1939. It would not have looked very different when Gibson served here in 1940.