Angus Mansfield - Barney Barnfather: Life on a Spitfire Squadron

For Grandad I wish I had listened some more

First published in 2008
This edition published in 2010

The History Press
The Mill, Brimscombe Port
Stroud, Gloucestershire, GL 5 2 QG
www.thehistorypress.co.uk

This ebook edition first published in 2011

All rights reserved
Angus Mansfield, 2008, 2010, 2011

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EPUB ISBN 978 0 7524 6832 7
MOBI ISBN 978 0 7524 6833 4

Original typesetting by The History Press

What do you remember of someone you last saw over sixty years ago? For me Barney was a dependable guy. Down at the flight line in Sicily, there he was in bush shirt and shorts, wearing his service cap with his reddish face around a bristly moustache. That was in Sicily during the summer of 1943. We had to contend with a hot climate with gusty winds, corned beef for meals, which melted off the plate, and living in tented accommodation with buckets of water to wash in; conditions in which it was not easy to keep smiling or to hear a snappy remark thrown in. But that was Barney, and thats the way we found him to be in his ten months with the Squadron.

In his five years war-time service with the RAF, Barney would carry out three tours of operational flying in Britain, Malta, Sicily and Italy, interspersed with two tours of instructing, preparing new boys for their own tour of duty. Undoubtedly he found his time in 72 Squadron very fulfilling. In a unit in which there were air crew from most countries of the Empire, we all found him to be very much one of the boys and a competent pilot to whom one could look for guidance.

The man with whom he shared a nickname, Group Captain Barney Beresford OC 324 Wing, signed off Barneys log book in October 1945 with the assessment: Rated as exceptional as a fighter-bomber pilot and a flight commander.

My first book has taken several years of research and I am indebted to a great many people for helping me. In addition to RAF and Squadron Records, my grandfathers Flying Log Book and those of others, personal diaries and first-hand anecdotes have been included as well as selected photographs from my grandfathers own collection. I thank the other pilots who willingly shared their memories, plus the US National Archive and Imperial War Museum Archive.

To anyone I have inadvertently omitted, may I apologise in advance, but I would in particular like to express my thanks to the following:

The RAF Ibsley Historical Group led by its Hon. Secretary Mrs Vera Smith, who put a request for information into its newsletter and also gave me permission to quote from her book on RAF Ibsley, So Much Sadness So Much Fun. She put me in touch with Keith Gamble, a former 234 Squadron pilot now living in Australia, who sent me photographs and his diary, and also with Foster Fisher, another former 234 Squadron pilot, who was shot down in April 1942 and became a POW. He now lives in Canada and gave me permission to quote from his recollections, which are also included in Veras book about RAF Ibsley.

Bill Simpson, co-author of 603 Squadron The Greatest Squadron of them All with David Ross and Bruce Blanche, gave me permission to use information from their book about the squadrons time in Malta. He also put me in touch with Jack Rae, now living in New Zealand, who was able to recall his time on the island and in hospital, and in turn gave me permission to quote from his own book Kiwi Spitfire Ace.

Don Ross, now a retired USAF major general living in Nevada, learnt to fly at RAF Aston Down with 52 Operational Training Unit, near Stroud in Gloucestershire, at the same time that my grandfather was an instructor there. By his own admission he terrorised the pubs in Stroud, but was also willing to share his wartime diary and photographs.

Rodney Scrase has been good enough to write a foreword, share his memories and his log book and put me in touch with other 72 Squadron veterans such as Tom Hughes and its Membership Secretary Tom Docherty. Lloyd Snell, a Canadian radar mechanic with 43 Squadron, which formed part of 324 Wing alongside 72 Squadron in Sicily and Italy, was also willing to share his wartime diary and photos.

Chris Shores and Brian Cull have both written several books, and their advice and willingness to help an amateur like me is much appreciated.

The National Archive at Kew and the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth deserve a mention as they willingly help anyone attempting research even if they do not have all the answers.

Finally, this book would not have come to fruition without the help of Jonathan Falconer, who read and re-read the manuscript, made changes and suggestions and knocked it into the format you see now. Without him and everyone at The History Press, including Jane Hutchings and Abbie Wood, this book would not have been possible.

Experienced pilots from Malta had been sent back to Gibraltar to meet up with the aircraft carriers USS