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THE BENTLEY PRIORY BATTLE OF BRITAIN TRUST APPEAL CHARITY AUCTION Cunningham being introduced to H.M. The King, Middle Wallop, May 1941 By Royal Command Having bagged another He 111 on the 3rd of May Cunningham and Rawnsley barely had time to spare to don their ‘Sunday best’ for a Royal Visit; King George VI visited 604 Squadron at Middle Wallop on the 7th May; he was introduced to Cunningham and then ‘went on down the line and confronted Jimmy Rawnsley, asking him what his score was. Jimmy, somewhat taken-aback hastily did some mental arithmetic and replied, ‘Er-nine, Sir’. Whereupon, the King asked him to get another one tonight, especially for him.’ (ibid). Once the King’s car had departed 604’s crews rushed off to change before quickly getting into the air, ‘Although a little behind time, the first patrols climbed into their Beaufighters and headed for the Channel at full power. When John reached patrol height and was in position, he throttled back and called Starlight. The King had arrived, and the Royal Command Performance was about to commence. Obligingly, the Luftwaffe had provided a bandit, and it was ‘on with the show’. (ibid) The King had been driven off to Starlight (G.C.I. unit at Sopley) to be shown how it worked by Chief Controller Squadron Leader John ‘Brownie’ Brown, ‘the bomber was far out over the English Channel, but heading in the direction of the Royal Party. Brownie had plenty of time to stage-manage the opening sequence. He vectored John on to ‘three three zero’, and then ‘three one zero’. Jimmy’s eyes were glued to his cathode-ray displays, thankful for a clear picture, but there was no contact. Brownie gave John the final vector.... and told him that he was now three miles behind the bandit. John opened up the engines, and the time was rapidly approaching for Beaufighter R-Robert to take centre-stage. In the darkened caravan at Starlight, the King peered over Brownie’s shoulder at the glowing PPI tube... the players in this scene, came closer together as each crept slowly across the tube. Nothing broke the tense silence but an occasional crackle from the loud speaker. Finally, the blobs seemed to merge into one. The audience waited, fascinated... John caught sight of the bandit. Now it was John’s turn to take centre-stage. The light was still too bright. The Moon was shining down behind them, and the sea shimmered silver. John considered that the bandit might spot them against the sea, so he decided not to go straightin. The coastline was coming up, and inland the ground would be black and would hide them. Accordingly, he planned to wait until the bomber was over the land. The Controller suggested to his audience that they might like to go outside, where there was a chance of witnessing the interception. As they were going down the steps from the caravan, they could hear the sound of aircraft engines high in the southern sky. The bandit played its part to perfection, seemingly oblivious of what was coming up behind. John positioned R-Robert just below and behind the target - a big black Heinkel. Slowly he pulled the Beau up until he was dead astern, and still slightly below. At that tense moment he brought the gunsight to bear, and still the Heinkel hadn’t noticed. Then he pressed the firing button. The crescendo of guns opened the final act as John pulled away, to avoid hurtling wreckage. A flickering glow lit the inside of the Heinkel, and - like most Heinkels when seriously hit - its wheels dropped down, the hydraulics shot through. Flying alongside, the Beaufighter crew watched the glow expand through the skin, as engulfing flames took over. Mortally wounded, the He 111 shuddered, and curved over into a steepening dive, flames streaming behind. The curtain had come down on this Royal Command Performance, leaving R-Robert to return home to have its twelfth Swastika painted on the tail fin.’ (ibid) Cunningham went to sleep that night only to wake the following morning to the news that R-Robert was no more; another crew had been scrambled in it during the early hours, they destroyed a Heinkel but had been shot up in the process; the crew baled-out and R-Robert crashed to the ground. WWW.SPINK.COM
September 6, 2012 - LONDON Column Control Head, believed to have been salvaged from the wreckage of Cunningham’s R-Robert A Leader Of Men In March Cunningham had been awarded the D.F.C., quickly followed by the D.S.O. the following month; he destroyed another Heinkel 111, 1.6.1941 and was promoted Wing Commander and CO of 604 Squadron in August of the same year; despite the growing number of his achievements at such a young age, his commitment and perfectionist approach to flying remained clear, ‘promotions and decorations were an achievement, but part of the job. They were nice to have, but didn’t make any difference to me. I had survived so far, and was grateful for the recognition. Lots of people were being killed, and one could not look ahead. Of course, I was thankful to be alive, but mastering the use of radar was a whole-time occupation, and left one little time to think of one’s career and decorations.’ (ibid) Cunningham continued to inspire the squadron with his record, when on the 22nd August he destroyed another He 111, during a ‘free-lance’ off Wells; however, he was to prove that he was mortal the same night; during an attack on another Heinkel, which he damaged, he took fire to his port engine; despite being out to sea he managed to limp home with one engine spluttering and the other on fire. Cunningham’s dedication to his men was obvious by the time that he personally put into training them - he not only wanted them to be in the best position to achieve, but also ultimately to survive, ‘when new pilots arrived on the Squadron from a OTU, and were confronted with the Beaufighter, they were invariably apprehensive. Word had got around that the awesome machine was a death-trap, and that an engine failure was inevitably fatal. John accordingly made a practice of taking every new crew for a demonstration trip in his own aircraft when they first arrived. The new pilot stood up behind John in the front, and his operator squeezed beside Jimmy in the rear. John would take off loaded with four people, and as he climbed out across the boundary hedge he would cut one throttle right back, and complete a single-engined circuit with one prop idly windmilling. But the show was not over, because he would then take off in company with another aircraft, and demonstrate an interception and an attack. This would lead to a steep curved landing approach, with power in hand, which enabled him to keep a look out below and behind, before flattening out for touch-down. Such approaches were nerve-wracking to the young pilots, but John’s comment was, ‘It’s better to step out of the wreckage at the far end of the flare-path than to be dug out at the near end.’ Unquestionably, however, he proved the versatility of the Beaufighter this way, and generated a much greater eagerness and confidence in the aircraft on the part of his new crews to get on with their own flying.’ (ibid) Two ‘Aces’ - A Fight To The Death Cunningham and Rawnsley tried to stay at the forefront of every new advance with the A.I. system, spending large amounts of time interacting with the scientists of units such as the TRE (Telecommunications Research Establishment) and the FIU (Fighter Interception Unit); these commitments combined with the new German system of blind bombing which enabled the bombers to navigate to their targets, bomb it, and return without leaving cloud cover, lead to a temporary slowing of ‘trade’; the pair destroyed a Ju 88, 1.9.1941, and damaged a He 111 by day, 4.2.1942. On the 23rd May, ‘John had a unique and memorable duel with a Heinkel 111. Drizzling clouds covered hills, and layers of cloud went up to 20,000 feet. Having studied the weather reports, KGr. 100 [a specialist German bomber unit] decided to ‘have a go’. John was called, and took off at four o’clock in the afternoon, with the cloud base frighteningly low. Soon 31
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