3 Squadron RAAF in WW2 | Part 3
3 Squadron RAAF in WW2 | Part 3
3 Squadron pilots flew at least two, and sometimes up to six, sorties per day from their Gambut airfield, mostly bombing and strafing the advancing enemy tanks, troops and every close Luftwaffe airfield.
During all of this, Nicky Barr was appointed CO, on the 28th of May, replacing a hospitalised Bobby Gibbes who'd broken his leg and ankle after he'd bailed out from his Kittyhawk.
Bobby Gibbes:
I got shot down the first time by a rear gunner from JU88, the German bombers. They were flying in diamond, what we called diamond formation, just a triangle, and I was shooting at the gentleman in the rear of the diamond. And some nasty gunner in one of the other 88s set my engines on fire and it wasn’t very good. I had long thought of how I’d get out, so I in this case because some of the boys had tried to get out but their parachutes had caught over the back of the canopy and they were spreadeagled and couldn’t get free, and one of them survived at the last minute by getting his foot under the joystick and pulling it back and he went in flat. He survived it. I was frightened that might happen to me so I rolled on my back thinking this was the way to get out and I had wound the trim forward so when I released the joystick I was shot out like a bullet. Of course I hadn’t allowed for the aerial, I got tangled up in the aerial, I hit the tail plane or it hit me, I still have a mark on my knee when I hit the tail plane, tail fin, and I got wrapped up in this blasted aerial. And on my way down, I eventually got the aerial away from me, pulled my ripcord, and the parachute opened. And then I heard, I watched my aeroplane going down, burning fiercely on the way and I saw it hit and then I suddenly heard the roar of an aeroplane. Now one of my pilots, Dudley Park, had been shot out of his parachute in a previous dogfight shortly before this and I thought, ‘My God, they’re coming after me.’ And so I was climbing up on the shrouds trying to make myself a difficult target and then suddenly the noise built up to a crescendo and suddenly there was an almighty woof, I had actually watched this, it took the noise probably a second or two to get to me and that was a second or two of real terror.
I had been taught how to fold parachutes when I was at Richmond, I think I could still fold a parachute. But no-one ever told us how to jump, how to land. I knew we should land facing downwind, that’s about all I knew, but no-one said you should land with your knees together and legs relaxed and no-one had told me that, so I landed with legs apart, landed crosswind and broke my ankle. And I was there writhing in agony, I didn’t know whether I was in enemy territory or not and eventually, you know sort of there in great in pain and suddenly a weapons carrier came up with a lot of nondescript looking people and I thought they were Germans. And ‘cause as I say I didn’t know where I was which was north, east or west so I put my hands up and surrendered. And one of them said, “Get up chum.” And so a Pommy [English] bastard, so I said, “And don’t call me chum!” just so my dignity’s placated, they didn’t know I was a squadron leader. However they were good fellows, they accepted it, took me into the first aid post they put on a temporary splint on my left ankle which had badly broken and fibula broken and eventually I got to hospital and that was the first one.
By June the 17th, Rommel’s forces had knocked out 230 Allied tanks and caused the Allied forces to retreat, including the entire 239 Wing (which was No.3 and 450 RAAF Squadrons and RAF No.112, 250 and 260 Squadrons).
The entire Wing had to leap-frog through five landing grounds eastward to Amiriya from their Gambut base, returning almost to the Squadron's starting point eighteen months earlier.
The Australian 9th Division and their British comrades had successfully held Tobruk in 1941, but a hastily organised garrison of South African Army troops were now rapidly compelled to surrender when Rommel stormed Tobruk with his superior Panzer Divisions, on the 21st of June, 1942. By this time, the Afrika Korps had driven the Desert Air Force further east, to airfields that were out of flying range of Tobruk, so air cover for the last desperate days of the Tobruk battle became impossible.
Once Tobruk had fallen, Rommel immediately pressed eastward, however, by the 26th of June 1942, the Allies had rallied and pressed Rommel back, enabling both 450 and 3 Squadrons to advance to Sidi Haneish and allowing the Army to shore up the defence line at El Alamein. On the same day Commanding Officer Nicky Barr, parachuting from 4,000 feet from his burning Kittyhawk, landed in enemy hands, and become a Prisoner of War. When he went down, he was flying his 84th sortie, with 119 operational hours since he had joined the Squadron as a junior Flying Officer six months earlier. During this time he'd claimed a record 12 enemy aircraft destroyed, making him 3 Squadron's top ace.
In September 1943, after three unsuccessful escape attempts (including one that got him all the way to the Swiss border wire), Nicky eventually escaped from a POW train and linked up with Special Forces and Partisans in Northern Italy. He was subsequently awarded a Military Cross for his assistance to Allied escapees behind the German lines and participation in partisan attacks.
After Nicky Barr was shot down, Squadron Leader Bobby Gibbes, with his broken leg still encased in plaster, immediately resumed command of 3 Squadron.
Bobby Gibbes:
The worst time I had was after being shot down, breaking my ankle, I was put in hospital out in Gaza at 6th AGH [Australian General Hospital] and they gave me a walking iron and I found I was immobile. Now I had taken my staff car up with me, I had a driver who drove me up the road to Palestine. And so I went and I complained to the commanding officer, Colonel Money, he was the chief doctor there, I said, “I’d like a posting Sir.” And he said, “Why, aren’t you happy here?” I said “No, I want to go the 1st AGH, a British hospital in Jerusalem.” Oh, he was very offended. He said, “Well I’ll send an ambulance.”
I said, “There’s no need Sir, I have my staff car here, my driver will take me up.” Of course the moment I got in the car, I went into Gaza. I sent a signal to the 1st AGH in Jerusalem where I was supposed to be going, ‘Please delete posting Squadron Leader Gibbes, now proceeding Hiriopolos for medical board, that’s Hiriopolosat Cairo.’ Of course I had no intention. Got back to Cairo.
I had a friend who was the boss of Anglo-Egyptian motors, I don’t know I think he was probably could have been partly English anyway, but he was a nice guy and I got him to make a walking iron for me. I had an iron on the bottom of my plaster and I had another fitting made that I could then sit on the floor of an aeroplane and work the rudder, the brakes, the rudders wouldn’t worry me but my toes. I couldn’t wave my left foot because of the ankles in plaster but by moving my backside backwards and forwards I was able to put on brakes so I got one of my pilots, Gordon White, to give me a check out in a Harvard [training aircraft] to make sure I could handle the brakes as I thought I could and that was successful so got a Kitty Hawk and flew it back to the desert. And when I got there the squadron had been taken over by a one of our pilots, a flight lieutenant, Nicky Barr, who had been made an acting squadron leader and he was, you know, a fantastic fighter pilot. And I went to wing and saw a chap, Marshal Tommy Elmhirst [RAF Air Marshal Sir Thomas Elmhirst] and I said, “Well Sir, I want to be in it but I obviously can’t fly, can I have a job with wing somewhere?” And he said, “Yes.” he would fix that up for me.
That day, Nicky had led a squadron the squadron out, because I obviously wasn’t able to and when I got back to the mess, Nicky was missing, he’d been shot down and captured. Clive Mayus, who was an Australian, a wing commander at that stage tried to put, he said, “Well okay, you’ve got to take over the squadron again.” And I said, “Not on your nelly, I can’t take over the squadron, I’d like to be with the squadron in some capacity but not as commanding officer because I can’t fly.” He said, “Alright.” They call me Gibby. “Alright Gibby, I’ll put a Pommy [Englishman] in.” I said, “Goodness you can’t do that, it’s an all Australian squadron!” He said, “Well what are you going to do?” I said, “Well I’ll take over.” And it was the unhappiest time I’ve ever had because sending people out to fly and operate, dangerous operations and not being able to be in it myself I found that as completely devastating and it’s the unhappiest time I had in the whole time of 3 Squadron. Ultimately of course I cheated and when I got the plaster off, I was supposed to go to Cairo for a medical board so I put it over our doctor Tim Stone. I disappeared for two or three days and went into Alex [Alexandria] and had a few grogs [drinks] and I came back and I said, “Look I’ve been,” and I. And he said, “Where’s your clearance?” I said, “They’re posting it to you Tim.” Of course I hadn’t been near.
So I couldn’t fly because I had a fairly stiff ankle and the squadron doctor Tim Stone had not cleared me to fly so I used to park, get one of the boys to park an aircraft near my tent and he’d be on the trip flight, but he’d come and sit in the tent and I’d sneak into the aeroplane and fly it. So I was flying illegally for a while but no one woke up to it, and you know, that way I was happier.
Kenneth McRae:
That was at Amariya. And he had it in plaster. He came back after three weeks, and he said, ‘I’m ready to fly’. And I looked at his leg, I said, ‘When?’ He said, ‘Tomorrow”. So we had to fix up the, build the pedals up so he could fly.
The same night Gibbes had resumed command the Squadron retreated, yet again, from an advancing enemy, to reach the safety of behind the El Alamein Line, two days later.
Rommel, now a Field Marshal, faced the Allies with his 15th and 21st Panzer Divisions under the air cover of Bf 109s from II and III Gruppe, JG 27 and Italian MC-202s from 4 Stormo. While 3 Squadron assisted in supporting the Eighth Army, including Australia's 9th Division, who had arrived from Syria.
For the next few critical weeks, the defence of El Alamein was a touch-and-go situation, particularly for 3 Squadron. They flew continuous operations escorting Boston light bombers from the South African Air Force's No.12 and 24 Squadrons and Baltimores from No.223 and 55 RAF Squadrons. After a successful escort to target, the Kittyhawks would dive-bomb and strafe the targets as well before escorting the bombers home.
On the 22nd July, 1942, No.3 squadron's 1,000th bomb was dropped by Sergeant Keith Kildey, at the crescendo of the "First Battle of Alamein", which effectively stopped Rommel’s advance.
The build-up of forces at Alamein continued with Rommel lamenting his long and vulnerable supply-chain, stretching all the way through Tobruk and across the Mediterranean. Despite General Claude Auchinleck's recent success in the First Battle of Alamein, his earlier Western Desert retreat had suffered some disorganisation and his counter-attack against Rommel had run out of momentum. Consequently, he fell from favour and was replaced as Commander-in-Chief Middle East Forces by Sir Harold Alexander. Around the same time Lieutenant-General Bernard Montgomery became the new 8th Army Commander - a turning point for the Middle East, due to Montgomery’s outstanding and energetic leadership in the months that followed.
3 Squadron resumed the fight on the 20th of August, with Bobby Gibbes' leading the Squadron back into action, performing armed reconnaissance and bombing sorties within the El Alamein area. Ten days later the enemy attacked the El Alamein line at dusk, outnumbering the Allied forces, the strong divisions of Panzers were eager to capture supplies of petrol and other vital equipment and stores.
Rommel’s objective was to secure the Alam-el-Halfa Ridge before advancing north to the sea and capturing El Alamein. However Rommel became seriously ill and was hospitalised back in Germany, and the Allied defence was well prepared with the Desert Air Force holding air superiority. New aircraft had arrived, as well as the US 57th Fighter Group with their own Curtiss P-40s.
Mitchell B25 medium bombers had also arrived with the US Air Force, and this increased air-power released 3 Squadron from bombing. On the 8th of September Sergeant Garth Neill earned his Distinguished Flying Medal for shooting down firstly a Stuka, then a Bf l09, probably destroying another and finally chasing a third 109 over the tents of a German camp at ground level before it crash-landed near the camp.
On the 15th, the Desert Air Force lost eleven aircraft during some intensive aerial combats, two of them from 3 Squadron. The German ace, Marseille claimed seven of these in the eleven minutes between 1751 and 1802 hours. One of the pilots who went down was Flying Officer Jackie Donald who became a Prisoner-of-War (parachuting onto the top of an Italian mess-tent!) and another was Sergeant Scribner who was killed in action. The fighting continued for five weeks and among the losses was Marseille himself – on the 30th of September his cockpit filled with smoke due to mechanical failure, and the aircraft had lost power when he decided to bail out. His chest had struck the vertical stabiliser which either killed him or knocked him unconscious – his parachute did not deploy.
Alan Righetti:
… it was 22nd of October 1942. Battles on the frontline were really solid but the big offensive hadn't started. When I arrived at the squadron, I met one chap in particular that I knew and Johnny Hooke was there, which was great because he'd been a great mate right through. He'd already got 20 or 30 hours up while we'd been doing our cruising on the Blue Nile. So I had an awful lot to learn and I was chatting to him, and a fairly solidly built but only five feet four airman came in with his jacket on, and said, "Who are you?" I said, "Righetti sir!" "Oh! I'm Bob Gibbes, how do you do? Now, you'll be on the next flight." "Right sir!" "Have you ever dropped a bomb?" "No sir!" "OK well you're off it but you'll be on tomorrow morning." That was my introduction to 3 Squad.
The next morning I took off on my first op [operation] and Bob Gibbes said, "Now Alan! You just hang on to my tail wheel. You fly behind me." We flew what they call "fluid sixes". The leader, "Shabby" was our squadron call-sign. "Shabby Red Leader", which was Bob, Bob Gibbes or the "Boss" as he was always called. Nobody else was called "Sir" but he was always the "Boss" or "Sir". So he flew in the middle of the six and his number two right behind him, and then he had another aircraft on his left, and one on his right slightly higher, about 200 yards out from him, and a little bit ahead. They each had a number two behind them, so that meant that all the aircraft in that six could weave to look for enemy aircraft. So they weaved and your head went right around the full circle as you were searching the skies whilst he could navigate. So he kept straight and level virtually and did the navigating. So for a new boy the thing was to hang on to his tail wheel and he'd get you through. The first flight we took was quite a hairy one, as they called it. We ran into 109s [Messerschmitt] and we had quite a dogfight, and a lot of chaps there had been there 20 or 30 hours, and never seen enemy aircraft, and not fired their guns but I got into a dogfight the very first time, and followed the Boss down in a big spiralling turn. Six of us were escorting bombers, so we were a bit tied to that. Anyway, it was a very hectic flight for my very first operational flight and I was flying an old 'Kitty 1' with an Allison engine in, and the Boss was flying a 'Kitty 3', which was quite a bit faster. So I had to over-boost a lot to try and keep with him but after we got through the dogfight and chased this 109 down, we turned for home, got the bombers home all safely, and I landed right behind the Boss, taxied in and he said, "Bloody good show Righetti!" So, I'd made it! Then that night 800 guns opened up on the line and the Battle of El Alamein was underway.
El Alamein - A Major Turning-Point of the Second World War
At 9.40 p.m. on the 23rd of October, 1942, Montgomery's offensive at Alamein commenced with more than 1,000 British guns releasing the greatest artillery barrage since World War I. However, despite all his materiel and command advantages, Montgomery's Alamein offensive failed to break through.
Alan Righetti:
For the first time, that's October 24th on, we started to gain the offensive. In the desert of course, we had been going up and back under Wavell. All the troops had advanced right up to Benghazi. We were holding Tobruk and then Churchill took away half the troops to try to defend Greece and Wavell couldn't hold on with that, so they were seesawing backwards, and forwards in the desert all prior to this but we had not really inflicted a defeat on the Germans until El Alamein. Life became very exciting and I found that an experience you would never really want to have missed. It was so exciting. Everybody was concentrating so hard on getting the job done. We were in a theatre of war where we weren't hurting anybody except each other, two armies. We weren't destroying villages and the sorts of things that were happening in Europe. It was a good war. We escorted bombers a great deal. We ground-staffed. We dive-bombed on armed reconnaissance flights. We did a multitude of different jobs. The biggest disadvantage we had was the Kittyhawk was a fighter bomber and a fighter bomber is equipped to do all these different sorts of jobs. It is quite a heavy aeroplane, big heavy aeroplane. Our opposition, the 'Messerschmitt 109' particularly, is just a specialised fighter.
3 Squadron's Kittyhawks continued to provide bomber escort and ground-strike missions over the following week. On the 28th of October, 1942, Bobby Gibbes, flying the Squadron's only Kittyhawk Mark III, shot down an Me 109, bringing the Squadron's tally to 200 aircraft destroyed, or so they thought, (It would be later found that it was only the 175th claim).
