The night hunter's prey: the lives and deaths of an RAF rear gunner and a Luftwaffe pilot

273 Pages·2016·17.386 MB·English

by  Gordon, Iain

IAIN GORDON founded and ran for This is the story of two airmen – an RAF
30 years a specialist publishing house Rear Gunner and a Luftwaffe Pilot.
producing periodicals for Army garrisons Alexander Ollar was raised in the
and establishments in conjunction with Highlands of Scotland. He became an
being Managing Director of an established exceptional sporting shot and volunteered as
Scottish weekly newspaper. He regularly an RAF Air Gunner in 1939. Helmut Lent
writes articles on military history and speaks enrolled for pilot training in the Luftwaffe as
at academic symposia in the United Kingdom soon as he was old enough. Both were men
and overseas. of integrity and honour.
Since his retirement he has written five Alec completed his first tour of 34
books on military and naval matters, four operations with 115 Squadron and was
of which have been published by Pen & awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal
Sword: Admiral of the Blue, the biography by the King. After a year as an instructor,
of a Georgian Navy admiral, was shortlisted he was commissioned and returned to 115
for the Mountbatten Maritime Prize in 2006 Squadron as Gunnery Leader. He took
and Bloodline, a study of the origins and part in the first 1,000 bomber raid and was
development of the regular formations of described by his Squadron Commander as
the British Army, has become the standard the best rear gunner he had ever flown with.
reference work in its field. At the same time Helmut was building up
an impressive score of victories as a night
fighter pilot and a national hero who was
decorated by the Führer.
In July 1942, just as both men reach the
apex of their careers, they meet for the first
time in the night skies over Hamburg. As
this fascinating book reveals, only one will
survive.
Jacket design: Jon Wilkinson
For a complete list of current titles ring or write to:
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley
South Yorkshire S70 2AS
uk £25.00 · us $39.95
E-mail: [email protected]
Tel: [phone]
Or visit our website at: uk £25.00
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Scan the QR
code foR moRe us $39.95
OVER 5000 TITLES AVAILABLE. WWII avIatIon
tItleS fRom
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk Pen & SWoRd
www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
NIGHT HUNTERS PREY jckt.indd 1 15/08/2016 17:24
THE NIGHT HUNTER’S PREY
2
By the same author:
SOLDIER OF THE RAJ
ADMIRAL OF THE BLUE
BLOODLINE
LIFELINE
3
IAIN GORDON
The
Night Hunter’s
Prey
The Lives and Deaths of
an RAF Rear Gunner and a
Luftwaffe Pilot
The Night Hunter's Prey Copyright Page 15/8/16 16:12 Page 1
First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
PEN & SWORD AVIATION
An imprint of
Pen & Sword Books Ltd
47 Church Street
Barnsley
South Yorkshire, S70 2AS
Copyright © Iain Gordon, 2016
ISBN 978 1 47388 250 8
The right of Iain Gordon to be identified as Author of this
work has been asserted by him in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is
available from the British Library.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical
including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and
retrieval system, without permission from the Publisher in writing.
Printed and bound in England by
CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
Pen & Sword Books Ltd incorporates the imprints of Aviation, Atlas,
Family History, Fiction, Maritime, Military, Discovery, Politics,
History, Archaeology, Select, Wharncliffe Local History, Wharncliffe
True Crime, Military Classics, Wharncliffe Transport, Leo Cooper,
The Praetorian Press, Remember When, Seaforth Publishing and
Frontline Publishing.
For a complete list of Pen & Sword titles please contact
PEN & SWORD BOOKS LIMITED
47 Church Street, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S70 2AS, England
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.pen-and-sword.co.uk
5
Contents
List of Illustrations..............................................6
Equivalent Service Ranks..................................10
Prologue.............................................................11
1. ‘One of the Boys’..............................................17
2. Early Days ........................................................36
3. First Blood.........................................................52
4. ‘The Boys who bombed Berlin’........................69
5. ‘Two Birds dead in the Air’...............................97
6. Instructor............................................................98
7. Rise of the Nachtjagd......................................117
8. Area Bombing.................................................130
9. The First 1,000 Bomber Raid..........................145
10. Showdown.......................................................159
11. High Noon of the Nachtjagd............................178
12. Oak Leaves, Swords and Diamonds................195
13. Aftermath.........................................................204
Epilogue...........................................................226
Appendices
A. RAF BOMBERAIRFIELDS..................................246
B. USAAF BOMBERAIRFIELDS.............................248
C. NACHTJAGD STRUCTURE...................................250
D. VICKERSWELLINGTON MK III..........................252
E. MESSERSCHMITTBF 110 F................................254
Index................................................................256
6 THE NIGHT HUNTERS PREY
List of Illustrations
Page
1. Memorial to the Canadian crew of a Wellington bomber........................13
2. Pilot and Co-Pilot of a Wellington Bomber.............................................17
3. Wg Cdr Norman George Mulholland DFC.............................................19
4. Navigator in a Wellington Bomber..........................................................20
5. Rear Gunner in a Wellington Bomber......................................................21
6. Ruins of the City Centre of Rotterdam 14th May 1940...........................23
7. Plan of Central Cologne bridges over the Rhine.....................................26
8. The three distinctive arches of the Südbrücke.........................................27
9. Wellington Mk.1 Bombers of 75 (NZ) Squadron....................................29
10. HM The King with crew members (newspaper cutting).........................32
11. King’s talk with Sydney Airman (newspaper cutting)............................33
12. The ruins of Cologne in 1945..................................................................35
13. Alec aged about twelve............................................................................36
14. SSCity of Yorkin the Suez Canal............................................................37
15. Alec and his sister Mary with their grandfather.......................................39
16. Alec aged about seven.............................................................................40
17. Outside the summer house at Kilkerran...................................................42
18. An early photograph of the village of Pyrehne........................................44
19. Heinkel He72 Kadett...............................................................................46
20. Arado Ar72..............................................................................................47
21. Messerschmitt Bf109s in France, 1940 (top)...........................................49
22. Junkers Ju88(centre)...............................................................................49
23. Messerschmitt Bf110s(bottom)...............................................................49
24. Helmut Lent playing cards as he awaits a call to scramble.....................50
25. A Polish PZL24 fighter aircraft. .......................................................53
26. A Junkers Ju52/3m flies over Helmut Lent’s Me Bf110..........................54
27. A captured Messerschmitt Bf110C-4.......................................................57
28. Edinburgh RAFVR Intake September 1939............................................58
29. Recruit Taining School Padgate February 1940......................................59
30. ‘A’ Squad No. 8 Bombing and Gunnery School, Evanton, May 1940....60
31. Sgt Parrott and his two “star pupils!” .....................................................62
32. Westland Wallace.....................................................................................63
33. Guidance from the Gunnery Course Manual...........................................64
34. AC1 Ollar with his newly acquired Air Gunner’s brevet........................65
35. Alec and Nessie at their wedding 22nd July 1940...................................67
36. The wedding announcement in ‘The Scotsman’ (inset)...........................67
37. An aerial view of RAF Marham 1944.....................................................69
ILLUSTRATIONS 7
38. Crash landing at Hillsden 14th August 1940...........................................71
39. Short Sunderland Flying Boat (top).........................................................73
40. Bristol Blenheim Mk IV Light Bomber (bottom)....................................73
41. Sgt Norman Stent.....................................................................................74
42. Sgts Ollar, Palmer, Woor, Stent and Wessels, Marham 1940..................75
43. Rear Gunner of a Wellington bomber......................................................77
44. ‘The Boys who bombed Berlin’ (left)......................................................80
45. ‘The Boys who bombed Berlin’ (right)...................................................81
46. ‘The Boys who bombed Berlin’ (newspaper cutting).............................82
47. ‘The Boys who bombed Berlin’...............................................................83
48. HauptmannWerner Streib.......................................................................85
49. Armstrong-Whitworth Whitley Bomber c1940.......................................86
50. Sgts Woor, Forrester, Stent, Ollar, Peters and Palmer .............................87
51. The pilot in the cockpit of a Messerschmitt bf110..................................88
52. Sgt Cecil May..........................................................................................91
53. Plt Offs Petley and Currie; Sgts Ollar, Davidson, Mooney and May......92
54. Sgts Archie Roberts, Allan Richardson and Jimmy Somerville..............94
55. Propaganda leaflets dropped over Germany by Bomber Command.......96
56. The ruins of Coventry Cathedral, 16th November 1940.........................99
57. Advanced Gunnery Refresher Course, RAF Stradishall, 1941.............101
58. ‘Nine young Men’ (newspaper cutting).................................................102
59. Alec’s notification of DFM Award........................................................105
60. Gunners cleaning their Guns (Picture Post cutting)...............................106
61. The King and Queen’s visit to RAF Stradishall, March 1941...............107
62. Instructors and Trainees, Stradishall (top)
Sgt Max Schonbach (bottom)................................................................108
63. Instructors at Stradishall, 1941..............................................................109
64. Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands in 1942......................................110
65. Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday gift to the Dutch people..........................111
66. Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday gift to the Dutch people..........................111
67. The crew which delivered Queen Wilhelmina’s birthday gift...............112
68. ‘Surprise for Hitler’ sweet packet..........................................................115
69. ‘St. Nicholas’s Eve 1941’ sweet packet.................................................115
70 Plt Off A J S Ollar DFM, RAFVR.........................................................116
71. Focke-Wulf Bf200 Kondor, ‘Scourge of the Atlantic’...........................118
72. Short Stirling bombers...........................................................................120
73. Dornier 215............................................................................................121
74. Handley-Page Hampden medium bombers...........................................122
75. Knight’s Cross of the Iron Cross............................................................123
8 THE NIGHT HUNTERS PREY
76. Handley-Page Halifax............................................................................126
77. Air Mshl Sir Richard Peirse...................................................................128
78. Professor F A Lindemann, later Lord Cherwell....................................131
79. Air Chf Mshl Sir Arthur Harris..............................................................132
80. Assembly of Wellington bombers..........................................................134
81. A Fraser-Nash FN20 4-gun tail turret....................................................135
82. Sqn Ldr (later Wg Cdr) A G S Cousens.................................................136
83. Plt Off John Frederick Stock.................................................................137
84. John Stock being rescued from his ditched aircraft...............................138
85. Alec........................................................................................................140
86. A Wellington of Central Gunnery School..............................................141
87. The First 1,000 Bomber Raid................................................................148
88. The First 1,000 Bomber Raid................................................................149
89. Armourers loading a bomb into a Wellington........................................151
90. De Havilland Mosquito..........................................................................153
91. A group of 115 Squadron aircrew in 1942.............................................154
92. Messerschmitt Bf110 of Zerstörergeschwader 1...................................155
93. Adolf Hitler decorates three of his ace pilots........................................156
94. Sefton Delmer of the Political Warfare Executive.................................157
95. OberstWerner Mölders..........................................................................158
96. Sgt William Martin Kostyshyn RCAF...................................................160
97. Aircrew of a Wellington bomber board their aircraft ...........................163
98. Wellington X3662 of 115 Squadron......................................................165
99. Oberleutnant PrinzEgmont zurLippe-Weissenfeld..............................166
100. OberleutnantRudolf Schoenert.............................................................167
101. Messerschmitt Bf110.............................................................................168
102. A flight of Wellington bombers.............................................................171
103. Commemorated in Perpetuity................................................................175
104. The final page of Alec’s Flying Log Book............................................176
105. Dornier Do24 flying boat.......................................................................179
106. The Telegram that every wife and mother dreaded...............................179
107. First letter from Wg Cdr Cousens..........................................................180
108. Second letter from Wg Cdr Cousens.....................................................183
109. Boeing B17 Flying Fortress...................................................................185
110. Consolidated B24 Liberator...................................................................185
111. Norden Bomb Sight...............................................................................186
112. OberleutnantHans-Joachim Jabs..........................................................187
113. Schrage Musik (diagram)......................................................................190
114. Heinrich Prinz zuSayn-Wittgenstein.....................................................191
ILLUSTRATIONS 9
115. American Mustang fighter.....................................................................192
116. Junkers Ju88...........................................................................................193
117. V1 Flying Bomb, the ‘Doodlebug’ (diagram).......................................195
118. Cockpit of Junkers Ju88.........................................................................197
119. Oak Leaves with Swords and Diamonds...............................................198
120. Lent with Walter Kubisch his crewman and friend ...............................199
121. Helmut Lent...........................................................................................200
122. Göring, speaking at the Service of Remembrance for Lent ..................202
123. Letter from Air Ministry Casualty Branch.............................................206
124. Runnymede Air Forces Memorial..........................................................209
125. Plt Off Ollar’s memorial tablet at Runnymede......................................209
126. Memorial plaque at North British and Mercantile Insurance................210
127. Silver tray presented to Mrs Stock by officers of 524 Squadron...........211
128. Memorial notice for Flt Sgt William Kostyshyn RCAF........................212
129. Sgt Glafkos Cleredes.............................................................................214
130. Plaque on 115 Squadron Memorial........................................................215
131. 115 Squadron Memorial at former RAF Witchford...............................216
132. Aircrews outside Marham hangars in 1940...........................................217
133. The same spot today..............................................................................217
134. The restored ‘Loch Ness’ Wellington at Brooklands.............................219
135. Wellington undergoing restoration at Cosford.......................................219
136. Australian airmen with Major Schnauser’s Messerschmitt Bf110........221
137. Museum at former Luftwaffe Airfield, Deelen, Netherlands.................222
138. Messerschmitt Bf110 at RAF Museum, Hendon...................................223
139. Junkers Ju88 at RAF Museum, Hendon................................................223
140. Motorcycles at the ‘Deelen Dump’........................................................224
141. Luftwaffebarrack block at Deelen.........................................................225
142. Former nightfighter hangar at Deelen....................................................225
143. Luftwaffe officers’ mess at Deelen.........................................................225
144. ‘God punishes England’ World War 1 German postage stamp.............226
145. World War 1 recruiting poster................................................................227
146. German ‘Gotha’ World War 1 long-range heavy bomber .....................228
149. Rotterdam City Centre after the German raid on 14th May 1940.........230
150. Albert Speer, the German Minister of Production.................................235