bentley priory - Spink

THE BENTLEY PRIORY BATTLE OF BRITAIN TRUST APPEAL CHARITY AUCTION
Hughes with H.R.H. The Prince of Wales at RAF Cranwell
The Mediterranean Theatre of War
Posted to No. 600 Squadron, another Beaufighter unit, in
the Middle East in January 1943, Hughes teamed up with
Pilot Officer Laurie Dixon and quickly gained a “double-kill”
on the 23rd - a brace of Ju. 88s over Philippeville on the
Algerian coast. Hughes takes up the story: ‘A model
interception followed with Laurie calling out “Contact” at
two and half miles range. His north-country voice came
through calmly and confidently and his instructions soon
produced a ‘visual’ on a Ju. 88. Having identified it from
dead underneath so that our aircraft would be against the
darkest possible background, I throttled back very carefully
so as to avoid a gush of flame from my exhausts and gently
raised the nose. At about 150 yards range, the gunsight came
up to the dark silhouette of the 88, and I pressed the gunbutton.
The effect of the concentrated fire of the four cannon
was awesome - H.E. strikes all over the fuselage and engines
made the bomber sparkle like a giant firework. A huge fire set
in and it peeled over to port and went straight down from
12,000 feet to the sea. I reported the kill and the controller
replied: “Good show! I have a further customer for you.
Vector 060 - same angels.” What followed was virtually a
mirror-image of the first interception and combat. Laurie’s
directions were quite first-class - I had chosen a winner! After
the second 88 was in the sea, the controller said: “Well done!
That seems to be all the customers this evening. Return to
base and pancake. Steer 230. Good night!” A winner indeed
and the the commencement of a highly successful
partnership, and one which continued in spectacular style on
12 February when Dixon’s calm instructions and Hughes’s
marksmanship resulted in the destruction of a Cant Z1007
bomber - ‘the whole fuselage brewing up with an internal fire
until it looked like a ghastly Hallowe’en pumpkin lantern, the
jagged holes shot through the plywood skin creating a bizarre
pattern. It exploded in the air, breaking into two large
pieces.’
Five days later, Hughes was handed a copy of a signal
notifying him that he was to be awarded a Bar to his D.F.C.,
while Laurie Dixon was to receive the D.F.C. Remaining
actively employed with No. 600 up until December, a period
that encompassed moves to Malta, Sicily and Italy, he flew a
further 40 or so sorties with Dixon, and claimed seven further
confirmed victories, the majority of them around the time of
the Sicily landings. First to be downed was a Ju. 88 east of
Tunis on the 26 April, after a ‘tremendous night dogfight,
round and round, and up and down ... the 88 exploded in a
enormous mushroom of flame which starkly lit the adjacent
countryside’. Having then gone down with enteritis, Hughes
was cured after 10 days by a treatment the Squadron M.O.
described as a mixture of ‘two of sand and one of cement’.
Certainly he was back in form by the time the squadron
moved to Luqa, Malta, at the end of June, he and Dixon
downing a He. 111 over Augusta on 12 July, and, a little over
a week later, a Ju. 88 off Cape Corranti. But his greatest claim
to fame occurred on 11 August, when he destroyed three Ju.
88s over Catania. Hughes takes up the story: ‘I was on patrol
north east of Catania when a determined attack was mounted
on a clutch of Spitfire airstrips at Lentini. These were liberally
scattered with incendiary and fragmentation bombs. Bill
Pratley at the G.C.I. put us into contact with a Ju. 88 which
never saw us was smartly sent down in flames. Pratley then
put us on to another Ju. 88 which did see us and tried to
evade; three of my cannon jammed but I was lucky enough
to knock it down with a one second burst from the fourth
cannon and the machine-guns, using a lot of deflection. We
saw this crash and then Laurie re-cocked the cannon. He had
no sooner got back to his tubes than he picked up a third Ju.
88 without help from the G.C.I. - this one was happily
wending its way home after dropping its bombs. Laurie
produced another copybook interception. I hit the Hun in
the starboard engine but it refused to burn. The top gunner
sprayed tracer around us hitting my starboard wing and
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