Aircraft of the Aces 098 - Spitfire Aces of North Africa and Italy (2011).pdf

(3428 KB) Pobierz

OSPREY AIRCRAF T OF THE ACES

• 98

Spitfire Aces of

North Africa and Italy

Andrew Thomas

SERIES EDITOR: TONY HOLMES

OSPREY AIRCRAF T OF THE ACES • 98

Spitfire Aces of

North Africa and Italy

Andrew Thomas

SPREY

PUBLISHING

CONTENTS

CHAPTER 1

SPITFIRES OVER THE SANDS 6

CHAPTER 2

EL ALAMEIN AND BEYOND

CHAPTER 3

TORCH

TO TUNIS 23

CHAPTER 4

ACROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN 47

CHAPTER 5

ITALY – THE LONG FLOG 58

CHAPTER 6

OVER THE AEGEAN AND

THE BALKANS 78

CHAPTER 7

VICTORY! 83

APPENDICES 86

C O L O U R P L AT E S C O M M E N TA R Y 8 9

INDEX 95

SPITFIRES OVER

THE SANDS

pitfires made ten sorties acting as high cover to Hurricanes.

Flt Lt Sabourin and Sgt James attacked two ME 109s

southwest of Tobruk. One ME 109 destroyed.’

Thus in the dry and prosaic language of the handwritten Operational

Record Book (ORB) of No 145 Sqn for 8 June 1942 did the diarist record

the first victory of a Spitfire over the Western Desert. Joseph Sabourin,

a 27-year-old Canadian who already had three victories to his name from

flying Tomahawks with No 112 Sqn, and his wingman Sgt James had

shot down a Bf 109 over the desert some 15 miles to the southwest

of Tobruk. Sabourin had scrambled from Gambut at the controls of

Spitfire VB AB321/ZX-N at 1600 hrs, with his wingman flying

AB324/ZX-A, and they had landed back just 50 minutes later.

Eight days earlier the same pair had given the Spitfire its baptism of

fire over the desert when at dusk on 1 June, as the Battle of Gazala raged,

No 145 Sqn flew its first Spitfire mission. Having been scrambled,

Sabourin and James had damaged a Ju 88 conducting a reconnaissance

mission near Gambut. This event was also prosaically recorded;

‘Flt Lt Sabourin and Sgt James patrolled Gambut to intercept an

enemy reconnaissance aircraft. This aircraft came over every day, always

varying the time it came. No interception was made. At 1745 hrs they

took off again and damaged a Ju 88.’

With the Luftwaffe achieving a degree of ascendancy over the RAF’s

Hurricanes, Tomahawks and Kittyhawks in North Africa by early 1942,

the despatch of squadrons of the iconic and capable Spitfire to Egypt was

seen as a matter of urgency, despite demands elsewhere. No 145 Sqn was

an experienced unit within Fighter Command, and in mid-February

1942 it had left for the Middle East together with another experienced

Spitfire squadron, No 92. Pilots of the latter disembarked at Takoradi,

in West Africa, to ferry aircraft up

to Cairo, and they eventually

reassembled with the unit’s ground

party in April.

The end of April also saw

No 601 Sqn arrive in Egypt,

having come via Malta, and it too

began readying itself for renewed

operations. By then No 145 Sqn

had begun to receive its Spitfire VBs

at Helwan, on the Nile south of

Cairo, where it had worked up as

part of the Western Desert Air Force

(WDAF). These machines were the

CHAPTER ONE

‘S

Flying Spitfire VB AB326/ZX-A on

1 June 1942, Flt Lt Joseph Sabourin

of No 145 Sqn attacked and

damaged a Ju 88 that was

conducting a reconnaissance

mission near Gambut. This was the

first air combat for the Spitfire over

the desert (D

R Neate)

Plik z chomika:

Doncaster1972

Aircraft of the Aces 098 - Spitfire Aces of North Africa and Italy (2011).pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: