yesterday I had the honour to sit with and gather experiences and stories from a real WW2 Spitfire Ace.
He is Flight Lieutenant Alan Peart, DFC, who flew for the RAF and RNZAF mainly in Spitfires. he is 80 years young.
First posting was with 610 squadron (County of Chester) 12 group in 1942, then posted to 11 group flying Spit V's in sweeps over France. He flew with Johnnie Johnson. Then flew in Algeria with the British 8th army, and shot down his first kills there (SM79 and Bf109G). Flew Mk IX's there. Saw the use of the fritz X guided missiles against the Warspite (and shot down one of the
Do217K's). Then on to operations over Italy and then to Burma with 81 squadron and spitfire Mk VIII's (which he considers by far the best mark he ever flew). Flew at Imphal and fought in his most intense battle over a forward field called Broadway (100 miles BEHIND enemy lines) where the strip was bounced by 24 Ki43's (Oscars) and he scrambled and fought them essentially alone for 40minutes before they retreated and he could land (in a very exhausted condition). All spits bar his were destroyed!
He was shot at by B-25s mitchells (mistakenly) and uttered a recorded memorable line of "Look out the bastards are shooting
at us!".
Our squad (52nd KIW stauch Friends) provided a great welcome for Alan yesterday He appeared to really love the experience, cracking up laughing at times, especially in the respone to his comments re american chatter in B-17s during the war!! "For gods sake shut up, you want to tell them where we are?" Kiwis were apparently much tighter lipped!
During the demonstartion of AH yesterday he led the squad in a fighter sweep, and despite nearly all of us biting the dust, again enjoyed it greatly and I wish you all couldve been here
to listen to his comments. There was lots of humour at our end.
Some specific tips he gave were:
The spit mk IX cruises best at 2600 rpm and should use 3000rpm for combat.
He never used tracer as it warned the enemy.
He ALWAYS made a steep sideslipping turn to land as you just never knew if there was an enemy around.
Silk scarves weren't for neck protection, they were just 'all the rage'
Johnnie Johnson was a great CO and a nice guy.
The spit had a range of about 1.5hrs without drop tanks, 2hrs with.
The radio had a range of about 100miles at 40k alt.
Yes they did regularly cruise to combat at 40k
Spread out laterally about 400 - 500yds apart and cover each other when in a fighter sweep.
Orbit the field after takeoff to formate properly.
the orders were to 'attack the enemy' so if you see 1 , go for him.
in a fighter sweep dont bother with 1 lone enemy tho, just scare him off and head for the main action.
Once battle is joined, drop the tanks and its every man for himself
untill ammo or gas is low.
The spit would turnfight in europe but B&Z in SE asia. (me109s vs
Ki43s).
Bostons were great ground attack planes, the rear gun was used to attack the ground.
The marauder was a death trap, very 'under winged' used to see them struggling into the air for miles at a VERY slow climb rate when escorting them.
Oh yeah, and americans chatter too much... LOL.
All probably obvious and sensible and what many of us do anyway but it
was great to hear it confirmed by an actual ace. (he had 6 confirmed
kills).
In his first flight offline he shot down two drones easily, something Ive seen a lot of newbies fail at.
Just one extra story:
He told me of an untold story where he was in North Africa, had just taken off with a UK pilot and they saw 12 Me109s at 9oclock. He called the attack (as that was their orders) and turned towards them. The english pilot, turned the other way and went home. So Alan fought 12 Me109s in his lone spit until they gave up out of gas or ammo.
His technique was: as they bounced him in pairs he turned under their noses but kept an eye behind for the next pair. As soon as the first pair overshot he did a tight 180 flick turn and went under the noses of the next pair. Gradually losing altitude... he wondered what would happen when he finally did run out of alt. Luckily they gave up before he did and he finally got home to the base where he found them packing his things as they assumed he was a goner...
With that and the fight against 24 oscars in Burma Id say Alan Peart was either one very skilful pilot or very very lucky. Probably both!
If anyone wants a copy of his story logon to
http://www.nzebooks.com/ and look for the book called Spitfire the ANZACS or The RAF through colonial eyes. Possibly on this page
http://www.venturapublications.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=VP&Product_Code=CW0802&Category_Code=ABMaybe Hitech could use some input from him. Certainly Mitsu could for Spitfire sounds. After all, he was actually there!
