Five Italian divisions with 200 tanks crossed the frontier and occupied Sollum and the 7th Armoured and 4th Indian Divisions started a withdrawal. Its plan was to fight a delaying action back to Mersa Matruh and stand and fight there. The following morning Italian forces crossed the frontier wire and AOC 202 Group ordered a withdrawal of the detached flight at Sidi Barrani to Qasaba. After the hasty withdrawal from Sidi Barrani, the AOC ordered a party to return to destroy fuel and ammunition supplies. In effect, this amounted to a commando raid and was a new departure for the squadron. This small, and daring, operation was led by the flight commander, Flt Lt J. R. Wilson. The fuel dumps were destroyed together with cases of 25-lb incendiary bombs and 4,000 rounds of small arms munitions.
On 20 September the squadron was ordered to send two aircraft to operate from the Siwa Oasis under the command of Colonel Bather, head of the British Military Mission. Two Lysanders, one flown by Flight Lieutenant Legge with Sergeant McCue and the second by Pilot Officer D.B.M. Druce and Sergeant F.J. Muldowney, left that afternoon. Once established at Siwa, daily morning
and evening Tac R sorties were flown to monitor activity in the Giarabub area. Other sorties were tasked to meet specific requirements when the movement of enemy transports was reported.
Back on the main front the flying effort increased as the Italians became more aggressive. Squadron pilots also took opportunities to attack once they had carried out the essential Tac R task. On 28 September Pilot Officer Roberts and Sergeant Lord found a very large concentration of transports near Sidi Barrani. On the return flight Roberts attacked a large lorry with the front gun and after a short burst, the lorry blew up. During an afternoon sortie Webber found what appeared to be a series of fuel dumps which he attacked with his gun. His gunner, Leading Aircraftman Payne, also opened up but no fires were started. The following day, Flight Lieutenant E. Black was undertaking a Tac R over the Sofafi area in the south when he found two columns of sixty open trucks, which he attacked with 20-lb bombs believing that he had damaged four. His aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire and badly damaged. He managed to return to the advanced landing ground at Minqa Qaai’m. Black and his gunner Sergeant Dixon were uninjured but the aircraft was written off.
On 15 October the squadron suffered its first casualties of the war. Druce and Muldowney took off from Siwa on a Tac R sortie. Three CR.42s attacked the low flying Lysander, which took violent evasive action before it crashed. The bodies of the two airmen were recovered the next day and were buried at Siwa. Muldowney had been one of four gunners on the squadron who had recently been made a sergeant. On 7 November Siwa came under a sustained attack from six Savoia S.79 and six Breda Ba.65 ground attack aircraft bombers escorted by up to eighteen Fiat CR.42 fighters. The landing ground was hit and one of the squadron’s Lysanders blew up as a result of machine-gun fire. Two days later the remaining aircraft and the ground party returned to Qasaba.
208 Goes To War Page 1 2 3
