bentley priory - Spink

September 6, 2012 - LONDON
Visit of H.M. The Queen and H.R.H. The Duke of Edinburgh
to RAF College Cranwell, June 1970
The Blitz and Beyond
With the Blitz now in full swing, 264 moved to Rochford
where the irrepressible Basil Embry had been asked to form a
Night Fighter Wing, and Hughes and his fellow pilots quickly
came under the great man’s spell - on one occasion, as the
unmistakeable sound of a stick of bombs advancing across the
airfield to the dispersal shattered the night, Embry remained
seated at his desk writing a report, while his pilots dived for
cover under assorted furniture: he was still there when they
emerged with red faces. On the night of 23 November,
Hughes and Gash damaged another He. 111 and, in the new
year, having carried out further night patrols from Rochford
and Debden, the Squadron moved to Gravesend, but it was
not until it had relocated to Biggin Hill in March 1941 that
they gained their next victory, an He. 111 destroyed on the
night of the 12th-13th - ‘it was so hard-hit that I didn’t try
to follow it down and it struck the ground with a big flash
somewhere near Horsham but in open country.’
A couple of weeks later, Hughes was notified that he was to
be awarded the D.F.C., while Fred Gash was awarded the
D.F.M., the gallant duo duly celebrating the news with a few
pints at their favourite pub in Bromley.
Meanwhile, operations continued apace, and after damaging
another He. 111 on 8 April, Hughes experienced ‘the most
exciting night sortie’ he ever had in a Defiant, when, two
nights later, he destroyed a Ju. 88 over Selsey Bay, after
giving his aircraft a ‘bootful of right rudder’ and dropping to
100 feet to catch his prize - so low, in fact, that he was able
to admire the expanding wave pattern left by his adversary’s
final impact. Hughes continues: ‘This just about wound up
our time at Biggin Hill for we were ordered to move yet
again, this time to West Malling which is near Maidstone. I’m
sure we were all sad to leave because there was something
rather special about Biggin. You felt you were at the hub of
things. It had become famous in the hectic days of the Battle
of Britain - the most heavily bombed of all airfields. People in
pubs would insist on buying you a drink if they heard you
were flying from it. Our operational flying was exciting and
sharing the base with outstanding Spitfire squadrons such as
66, 74 and 92 was inspiring - whilst we were still on the
defensive, they were beginning to carry the daylight battle to
the enemy with sweeps across the Channel.’
Thereafter, until his next posting, Hughes had no serious
encounters with the enemy, although he completed in excess
of another 50 operational sorties in the period leading up to
his transferral to No. 125 Squadron, a Beaufighter unit, in
January 1942. Delighted to be transferred from West Malling
to Aldergrove in Northern Ireland to carry out sorties in
defence of his hometown, Belfast - his father was pleasantly
entertained when Hughes ‘beat-up’ the family home from
chimney height. Even happier was his marriage to Pamela
Harrison, which occasion was marked by a low-level fly-past
of three squadron Defiants and, on his return to England, his
investiture with his D.F.C. at Buckingham Palace - ‘I
presented the beautiful silver cross in its satin-lined box to
Pamela after the ceremony’.
As a recently promoted Flight Lieutenant in No. 125
Squadron, Hughes missed the ‘inimitable Fred Gash’, but he
established good partnerships with other Observers and
Radar Operators following his arrival at Colherne in the
Spring of 1942. In fact Hughes, by now a Flight
Commander, claimed another convincing victory, a Ju. 88
destroyed off Hook Head, on the 27 June, the squadron’s
first success, and one which was celebrated in style with his
station C.O., David Atcherly, twin of “Batchy” - a typically
Atcherly-led affair that led to Hughes’ one and only
experience of ‘flying under the influence’ the following day.
Then on 4 November he shared in another Ju. 88, east of
Stonehaven, with Pilot Officer Ben Gledhill as his Radar
Operator, a memorable occasion on account of Hughes’ dog,
“Scruffy”, being present on the same occasion. With a
reasonable number of flying hours to his credit, “Scruffy”
finally claimed a “kill” - and was duly rewarded by the
addition of a small brass swastika to his collar.
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