Sgt. Fairweather & Des McMullen. Happy to be alive after their Defiant was hit by friendly flak
Sgt. Fairweather & Des McMullen. Happy to be alive after their Defiant was hit by friendly flak
_________________________________________________ Distinguished Flying CrossLondon Gazette 1 October 1940 - Flying Officer Desmond Annesley Peter McMULLEN (40002) - Since the commencement of hostilities, this officer has been continuously engaged on operational flights, including the Dunkirk operations, the protection of shipping and intensive air fighting over this country. He has destroyed seven enemy aircraft and shared in the destruction of others. He has displayed high qualities of leadership and determination. _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________
_________________________________________________ Air Ministry, 7th March, 1941 Bar to Distinguished Flying CrossActing Flight Lieutenant Desmond Annesley Peter McMullen, D.F.C. (40002) — No. 151 Sqn. _________________________________________________ The following is quoted from an email I received from son Roddy: " ... in addition to Sergeant Fairweather, I would like to mention another exceptionally brave turret gunner who also flew with my father in Defiants..he was an intrepid man whose life would make a great plot for a movie. This chap was Sid "Timber Toes" Carlin. I learned a lot that I hadn't known previously about "Timber Toes" from a gentleman called Gill green who replied to a comment I left on the web site aeroflight.com Sid Carlin was much admired by his fellow servicemen but whenever he was detailed to fly with my father it caused my mother no end of angst! As you probably know, Defiants, when seriously damaged, were virtual "death traps" for turret gunners. Even a strong, fit and healthy turret gunner had a major struggle bailing out successfully and "Timber Toes" disability would have made this an even harder task. The trouble was, as my mother told me, there was an unwritten rule amongst Defiant pilots that they would not bail out of a damaged aircraft and leave their turret gunners to their fate. Hence there was a significantly low number of surviving pilots and gunners from Defiant crashes which indeed is borne out by the official RAF statistics.
By the way it is ironic to add that my father told me the flak that damaged the Defiant in the picture I sent you was caused not by the enemy but by our own AA Gunners! Those poor gunners were not too brilliant at aircraft recognition in daylight - let alone during a night time German bombing raid during the Blitz. Also, the AA shells took a few seconds to reach the height at which they exploded so it was nigh on impossible for the gunners to avoid hitting friendly aircraft. My father said that all night fighter pilots were aware of this and could hardly blame the AA gunners if they accidentally were shot down by them! Similarly, many AA gunners were traumatized by the knowledge that their efforts often ended up hurting or killing our own pilots.
Apparently Sid Carlin started his military career as an infantryman in WWI and was invalided out after an accident (presumably the one in which he lost some toes and gave rise to his nickname). He then paid for private flying lessons and volunteered and was accepted for service in the RFC. Gill goes on to say that he rose to be C.O. of 85 Squadron before being shot down and taken prisoner. Between the wars he worked on Arab Dhows off the East African coast! During WWII he volunteered again and in this war he became a turret gunner in Defiants. Alas, during a Luftwaffe attack on his airfield he chose to climb into a parked Defiant and fire back at the German fighters rather than running for cover and consequently lost his life (maybe his disability gave him no choice)
Another anecdote I would like to mention concerns my grandmother (the lady in the background of the other picture I sent you of my father) and a friend of hers, Therese, (who had been a member of the Belgian resistance and who escaped to England after an arrest warrant was issued for her for being part of a resistance unit that mined a road near Bruge, disabling a German staff car and seriously that injured a German Corporal and Major). Both of them volunteered as drivers to deliver hot food to the AA gunners during the Blitz. Incidentally, the photo I sent you was my grandmother's "second" visit to Buckingham Palace. Her first visit was when she was presented in 1899 as a debutante to Queen Victoria! Her third visit was to deliver food to the AA Batteries stationed on top of and in the grounds of the Palace! She sure had a close call in WWII too...one night she and Therese were delivering meals to an AA Battery atop a building in the Old Holborn area of London when a German bomb exploded about two blocks down the road they traveling, peppering their vehicle with dust and lumps of concrete. Once they realized they were unharmed and their vehicle was O.K. they turned it around to find an alternate route but another German bomb promptly landed about two blocks down the other end of the road. Thankfully they were still O.K. but now the vehicle was now completely trapped by all the debris. She and Therese (both were about 60 at the time) manually carried the two 50lb "hay boxes" filled with the gunners' hot food over the rubble and half a mile down the road to the AA Battery where they then hauled it up several flights of stairs to the building's roof and were warmly greeted by the hungry gunners and given a tot (or two) of rum to calm their nerves! I asked her if she and Therese had been scared by the bombing but she said they were far too angry at the Germans to feel scared ...truly a pair of indomitable women!! She and Therese remained life long friends and I remember visiting Therese with my grandmother in Brussels (where she lived after the War) in the mid 1960's when they were both in their eighties! My grandmother died in 1975 in her mid nineties and remained an active and independent woman until a year or so before her death.
After the War my father broke his leg very badly while playing rugby for an RAF team. After a series of operations and protracted stay in hospital with his injured leg in traction he ended up with one leg shortened by two inches causing him chronic pain and resulting in a perpetual limp. Remarkably it did not result in his being released from the RAF and they even kept him on flying duties. He retired in 1957 after a three year "dream posting" to Malta where he was the official liaison officer between the RAF and USAF bases there. The only tough part of his assignment came during the days of the "Suez Crisis" in 1956 when the Americans wouldn't support the British and French against "Colonel Nasser"...ironic that I'm writing you this when Egypt is front and center in the world news again, eh? Malta was probably a "reward posting" for the end of a long and distinguished service career. After my early childhood in Malta we settled in the village of Kirdford, Sussex in the 1960's. I can clearly remember a few times when his old war time friends would come and visit us there – including Douglas Bader (apart from the “swagger” when he walked you wouldn't know he had no legs), Al Deere (his C.O. in 54 Squadron - and whose son, John, I went to school with), Brian Kingcome and several others. Douglas bader, who smoked a pipe, would often tap the ashes out against one of his artificial legs making a "tinny" sound that amused me greatly!! Despite my father's own injured leg, he and Douglas Bader even played golf together ...reputedly Bader was an excellent golfer - even without legs! I fondly remember a charity village cricket game in nearby Dunsfold, Surrey in those days, in which the late and great English Test Cricketer, P.B.H. May played (he lived in the village). My Dad and Douglas Bader both acted as umpires. When an appeal for LBW against Peter May was turned down by Bader, the bowler, inevitably I suppose, complained that he didn't have a leg to stand on!!!"
_________________________________________________ Victories Include :
For more details on claims, see Aces High 2nd Ed & Aces High Vol 2 _________________________________________________
_________________________________________________ --- English Aces --- _______________________________________________ |
Thanks to son Roddy for the pics !
On
these pages I use info from the London Gazette Archives,
Newspaper articles via the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation (CMCC)
as well as other sources both published and private
