COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

CHAPTER SIX DYING REICH
stages. There would be little need for VCP in the immediate future.
Much had been happening at Mill. Word had come through that
Allan Smith was a prisoner of war. Denys Gillam had been posted to
Group Headquarters. Partly, it was said, to prevent him from flying on
ops. Not that it did much good because he continued to visit us as
often as possible, borrowing an aircraft and a number two, and quietly
disappearing to war. We had seen it all before while he was
commanding the Wing.
Gillam was a legend. Flying Spitfires in the Battle of Britain.
Bringing the Hurribomber into action. First Typhoon Wing Leader.
Commandant of the Special Low Attack Instructors School. The most
highly decorated British fighter pilot and undisputed master of ground
attack. More than 2,000 operational sorties to his name. He had
nothing to prove. Yet Mike Bulleid remembers flying with him less
than a fortnight from the end of the war. No wonder that we were
proud to have served under his command.
Johnny Wells, promoted to Group Captain, was now commanding
the Wing and the CO of 266 Squadron, Johnny Deal, had become Wing
Leader in his place.
The really bad news was that Derek Erasmus, whose leadership had
done so much for 193 Squadron, had been lost on a low level attack
against the main V weapon railhead at Raalte in Holland. There was
a lot of cloud in the target area and hardly anything had been seen. No
obvious flak or power lines. Just an aircraft, diving into the ground,
after releasing its bombs. Perhaps he had been caught by an exploding
tanker, hit by his shells on the run in. But even that is conjecture. His
death will always remain a mystery.
193's new Commanding Officer was plump, ebullient, and
prematurely balding, with a nose which must have been well and truly
broken earlier in his career. 'Butch' - and the nickname matched his
looks - had joined up, in the late thirties, on a short service
commission and had been given command of his first Typhoon
squadron back in 1942. He was posted, without a break from ops, to
lead another squadron and only went on rest after 'D 1 Day. One way
and another he had been around for a long time.
When he joined us at Mill his main preoccupation seemed to be
that of playing himself into a post war permanent commission. The
contrast with Derek could hardly have been greater.
Sadness at Derek's death turned swiftly to regret that 193 had not
been entrusted to Jimmy Simpson. Maybe he was almost tour expired
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