Wg Cdr Murray – Part 3
207 Squadron – RAF Waddington
The squadron had reformed on 1 November 1940 the CO Wg Cdr N C ‘Hetty’ Hyde had gone with a number of officers and NCOs to learn about the Manchester at Boscombe Down.
‘The first crews found it was very difficult taking a new aircraft and getting it read for operational use, as many design issues had to be ironed out and modifications made before it could take to the skies over Europe. On 24 February 1941, …’
By the time Flying Officer T C Murray arrived on 5 April 1941, 207 Squadron had experienced technical faults and poor performance making it clear the Manchester was not the great leap forward promised. Things were made no better when the CO was shot down in a raid on Kiel, he was sent to Stalag Luft III where he assisted in the Wooden Horse escape. This was followed by the Manchester being grounded while the suspicion that the wrong alloy had been used to make the main bearings in the engines was investigated. On 1 May
Thos had the first of six training sorties prior to his first operation flying L7381 EM-R.
‘My first operation was to Mannheim on the 9th May 1941, which was a successful operation. There were three aircraft operating from the squadron, two went to Berlin but as I was inexperienced I was sent to Mannheim on which I dropped a cookie (4,000 lb bomb). After the war I knew exactly what damage I did on the target as the Germans kept very good records of raids and the damage caused.’
Troubles with the ill-fated Manchester were far from over.
‘On the 15th May, Thos picked up a Manchester from Boscombe Down but shortly after the whole fleet was grounded again, on the 17th May, mainly due to the same old engine trouble and it was decided to carry out intensive training flights to monitor engine behaviour. Thos took off on the 24th May on one such sortie.
‘By now losses were beginning to rise inexorably, so Group gave the unprecedented instruction that wireless operators, should it be possible, were to transmit in clear. FLK – for flack, FIT for fighter or ENG for engines to indicate the cause of their loss!
In that month it was decided to fly one Manchester (L7393 EM-V) continually on triangular cross countries around England until one engine failed with the hope we could get one back and Rolls Royce could analyse the cause.
It was the turn of my flight commander Squadron Leader Mackintosh to have a go, he had turned north of Land’s End towards the Isle of Man, when halfway to the Welsh coast the starboard engine failed, caught fire and he feathered the prop. The nearest airfield was Perranporth, a small fighter strip about 40 miles away. He couldn’t maintain height but he ordered the crew to chuck out the guns and drop the dummy bomb load to reduce weight. Fortunately, they just made it back. They roared down the runway where he retracted the undercarriage in an effort to stop. He careered through a hedge and finally the starboard wing hit a parked lorry which finally stopped them. So Rolls Royce had their engine. I had to fly down and pick the crew up the following day.’
The book contains and extend passage on Tucker’s view of the Manchester, I will just quote from the first two paragraphs.
‘We converted to type on the unit. My first impression was that it was a very big aircraft compared to the Hampden. Although it was pleasant to fly, light on the controls, it was colossally underpowered. The senior staff had a great belief in the engines. When they first did a run up when they were testing the aircraft they put barriers behind it to stop people getting blown over by the prop wash. In reality, nothing like that happened. Our training was on the squadron and not that methodical, we learnt as we went along. These were desperate times so the aircraft was rushed into service long before it was fit and whilst it had many teething problems. The Manchester was light on the ailerons, lighter than the Lancaster but unfortunately not at all reliable.
The first Manchester we had was the three tail variety; this had a problem with tail flutter. I had to return from one operation because the rear gunner got really worried that the tail was about to come off, although I didn’t feel it through the controls. A number of aircraft were lost because of it. Later they extended the fins and had just the twin tail adding about 12 feet to the tail. That was not the worst of the problem, the propellor feathering system was unreliable and could fail to feather or they would suddenly lock into fine pitch.’
Tucker was soon to get a vision of the future courtesy of the co-located 44 squadron.
‘A most welcome interlude occurred on the 4th October 1941 when Peter Burton-Gyles and I were able to get our hands on the prototype Lancaster which had just been loaned to 44 squadron as they were the first to be re-armed with the aircraft.
Lancaster BT308 was basically a three finned Manchester with the wings extended to accommodate its four Merlin engines. The extra throttle and pitch controls were just metal tube alongside the Manchester controls. With no turrets, radio or navigational equipment it was empty aa a shell an as light as a feather. It took off like a startled stallion. It flew happily on one of its four engines and in steep turns with both inside engines feathered. What a tonic after the lumbering Manchester.’
Tucker’s good friend Peter Burton-Gyles would go on the be CO of 488 squadron and of 23 squadron. He has been listed as missing in action since he failed to return from a mission flying Mosquito DB.VI HJ832 with P/O Eric John Layh RAAF on 10 December 1943. They disappeared over the sea en route to attack rail/road targets in the area of Genoa-Milan-Turin.
When Tucker told me the story of flying BT308 he imparted that using the additional throttles was painful, if I recall correctly drawing blood through his flying glove.
I will post more extracts but if you want to get ahead or indeed read the whole book, then you can download a pre-publication version of
Suitcase, Vultures and Spies in pdf format from
https://www.markhillier.net/about-the-book.php. You need to scroll down past the picture of the cover to find the link. Please note that this is a pre-proof reading (and I suspect pre-copyediting) version.
The hard copy of the book was sold to raise funds for the RAF Benevolent Fund, so I ask that you comply with Mark’s request to make a suitable donation to either RAFA or the Benevolent Fund.