East Fortune
It was back to ground school for the first few days as we learned all we could about the operational performance of the Beaufighter. It was used as a twin-engined night fighter early in the war and then used extensively in the mid and far east on low level ground attacks, and more recently in Coastal command for strikes against enemy shipping. I remember a cartoon in "T-EM1, the R.A.F. monthly news magazine, which showed P.O. Prune circling a small boat in his Beaufighter and he calls back to his navigator - "Should we let him have it with the tin cans (depth charges)?, the old iron fish (torpedo)?, a few rockets, or some 40mm cannon? That cartoon illustrated the Beau's versatility.
Our first day down at the flight shack was spent getting familiar with the aircraft and taking a demo ride with an instructor in a Beaufort which was an early war edition of the Beaufighter. It was used for dual instruction because there was no room in the Beaufighter for a second pilot. After a couple of circuits and bumps in the Beaufort the instructor decided that he'd had enough and climbed out after telling me to take it away. It was pretty easy to fly, however I seemed to have a lot of trouble keeping it on the runway after landing. After veering off onto the infield grass for about the third time after what I thought were perfect landings, the tower called me on the RT and said to get back to the flight shack.
I figured I was going to get the boot, but my instructor just took me over to a Beaufighter had me climb in the cockpit and then went over the various controls with me. He climbed down and wished me luck. The Beaufighter was equipped with twin 2,000 H.P. Bristol Hercules radial engines and when I opened up the throttles on takeoff the power pushed me back into the pilot's seat. It was a great thrill for me to be back flying an aircraft which had a lot of maneuverability as well as speed. After doing a few circuits and bumps, which I managed to keep on the runway, I taxied back to the flight shack confident that I had made the right decision to stay in the U.K.
After a couple of days flying solo on familiarization flights we were paired with our navigators. Art Butler, a likeable English chap from Windsor, England, was teamed with me, and we got along quite well.
-
Beaufighter formation
The next few weeks were spent on numerous flying exercises - low level formation flying, which I loved - air gunnery where we fired tracer bullets against a drogue target being towed by another aircraft - rocket firing practice against targets in the sand dunes and single engine flying. The Beau carried four rockets under each wing and when fired, one from each wing, the plane would seem to be pushed back and you could watch the rockets leave the wings like it was in slow motion. You couldn't watch for long though as you started your dive about 600 feet above the ground and pulled out at about 100 feet.
At O.T.U., the aircraft used were usually the older models which had been put out to pasture and in the case of the Beau we flew Mk 5's which were notorious for losing pilots on takeoff when one of the engines cut out. The pull from the good engine would cause the aircraft to flip over onto its back unless the pilot was very quick with the controls.
One morning we were awakened by the sound of sirens screaming. Hurrying outside I saw that the sky seemed to be filled with aircraft, specifically Lancasters of Bomber Command. Apparently several squadrons from Yorkshire, returning from a night bombing raid over Germany, were diverted to our station due to bad weather. I remember standing on the tarmac watching eight Lancs on the approach to the runway trying to land at about the same time. The poor chap in the control truck at the end of the only runway East Fortune had must have been going crazy trying to direct the traffic. Red and green flares, mostly red were being shot off in all directions. Three aircraft touched down in front of me almost simultaneously, one behind the other, while one made an emergency landing, wheels up, on the grass beside the runway. Our mess hall was pretty crowded for the rest of the day. One of our guest pilots told me at dinner that most of the aircraft did not have enough fuel to make another circuit of the airdrome and that was why most of the red flares were ignored on the approach.
At O.T.U., the aircraft used were usually the older models which had been put out to pasture and in the case of the Beau we flew Mk 5's which were notorious for losing pilots on takeoff when one of the engines cut out. The pull from the good engine would cause the aircraft to flip over onto its back unless the pilot was very quick with the controls.
One morning we were awakened by the sound of sirens screaming. Hurrying outside I saw that the sky seemed to be filled with aircraft, specifically Lancasters of Bomber Command. Apparently several squadrons from Yorkshire, returning from a night bombing raid over Germany, were diverted to our station due to bad weather. I remember standing on the tarmac watching eight Lancs on the approach to the runway trying to land at about the same time. The poor chap in the control truck at the end of the only runway East Fortune had must have been going crazy trying to direct the traffic. Red and green flares, mostly red were being shot off in all directions. Three aircraft touched down in front of me almost simultaneously, one behind the other, while one made an emergency landing, wheels up, on the grass beside the runway. Our mess hall was pretty crowded for the rest of the day. One of our guest pilots told me at dinner that most of the aircraft did not have enough fuel to make another circuit of the airdrome and that was why most of the red flares were ignored on the approach.