Seventieth anniversary of V-E Day - Victory in Europe Day

[Bob Womack]

I've been in a Battle of Britain phase again recently. As I have mentioned, my uncle saw the Battle of France occurring and ran across the border from the neutral U.S. to Canada and joined the RCAF. He was trained as a fighter pilot and then posted to the U.K. at RAF Hawarden where he transitioned into Spitfires. Near the end of training, at the height off the Blitz, he died in a training accident.

Anyway, I've been re-reading books about the BoB and watching documentaries and the theater release movie. Someone mentioned the support services above. I've been struck by the support work Lord Beaverbrook created to build, repair, re-manufacture, and deliver, the fighter planes at the peak of the Battle. It was astonishing. A watched a pilot being interviewed. He had been reading up on Beaverbrook's machine and was astonished to find out the breadth of it. He said that the pilots had no idea - they'd loose a plane and the next day there would be a new plane on the station, simple as that. They had no idea that written off planes and crashed planes and battle weary planes were being evaluated, chopped and combined to make new mounts that were in first-class condition. Any planes that weren't deemed restorable to full functionality were restored as Cat-B training aircraft. Which brings in my uncle's story.

My uncle trained with 57 OTU at Hawarden. There were most likely only about three or four battle-weary Spitfires on that station for all the guys to train on. My uncle's log has three planes in it. Not in it was Spitfire K9942, the oldest surviving Spitfire in the world, now at RAF Cosford. But through the Internet I've discovered that plane's records and found that this plane was on his station when he was there. That plane was battle-damaged at the beginning of the BoB while on patrol over Dungeness and then was further damaged while landing from that patrol. The damage was classified Category-B (unable to to repaired on-station but possible to be repaired at manufacturers site). While in the Beaverbrook pipeline it was deemed too damaged to return to battle but useable as a training plane. And that's how it ended up on my Uncle's station. Knowing my uncle's character from my father's descriptions, as he walked by it on the way fly the other Spits he probably lusted after it the way the rest of us would.

It is currently on static display at RAF Cosford but is apparently considered flyable but too valuable to risk. During filming of the Battle of Britain theatrical movie in 1968, the main wing spar was borrowed from this plane to make another plane flyable for the movie(!).

And finally, without knowing its background, I saw this plane in 1995 when I visited the RAF Hendon Museum.

Bob