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RAF
Digby - RCAF Digby
A history : 1918 - 1978
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Woodhall Spa
Updated: 6 Mar 08
CHAPTER 3 - THE WAR YEARS
d. Sep 1942 - 1944 - RCAF Digby
On 16 September 1942, a significant change of responsibility came to Digby. It now became officially Canadian, and was known as RCAF Digby, under its new Station Commander, Group Captain MacNab, RCAF. From this time onwards more and more Canadian ground staff arrived. We know that Accounts Section for instance was jointly manned. The RAF personnel looked with awe at such things as adding machines without which their new colleagues seemed unable to manage. The decision to restrict pay issues to the level that an RAF equal would draw was apparently very unpopular with the Canadians, although they were able to draw the rest as deferred pay in Canada later. On the other hand, they took quite well to the RAP style pay parade even though they found all the saluting and ceremony rather archaic. We do know that a Canadian YMCA was established at Digby, but we are not sure where. A not very accurate article in the RAF College Journal (see Bibliography) claims that a signpost to it still existed in 1952; trace of it has since vanished, unfortunately.
Since the war in the air had now relaxed a little as far as the Home Defence Fighters were concerned, operational activity at Digby also declined. This is shown clearly in the Stations Operations Record for the period, which shows much more training activity than operations in the air. But the squadrons were engaged on fighter sweeps and night-intruder operations. No 410 Squadron arrived in February 1943 with its De Havilland Mosquito aircraft.
No 411 Squadron was moved to Kenley in March 1943 to be replaced by No 402 Squadron flying Spitfires and No 350 Squadron spent a couple of months here. In September 1943 a Mosquito of No 410 (RCAF) Squadron was on patrol over the East Coast when it encountered a Dornier. The Mosquito engaged the Dornier in combat and eventually shot it down. The Dornier was so close to the Mosquito when it exploded that the Mosquito itself was seriously damaged in the explosion, losing a lot of the covering from the fuselage, fin and tailplane. The explosion also temporarily blinded the pilot Flight Lieutenant A Cybulski, RCAF, and the aircraft, out of control, went into a dive. The navigator, Flying Officer H H Ladbrook, RAFVR, took the controls and pulled he aircraft out of the dive. He maintained control of the aircraft for several minutes until the pilot recovered his vision and flew back to base. For this exploit both crew members were awarded the DFC.
At this time a young Canadian pilot is mentioned who received a DFC
for his activities. He was Flying Officer J A Rae, later known to millions
as TV Singer/ Compere Jackie Rae.
Also in March No 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron arrived with their
North American Mustang aircraft and the Squadron, operating from Wellingore,
was engaged on anti—shipping operations. No 19 Sqn with Spitfires,
was stationed at Digby through May and June and was engaged on bomber
escort duties.
In June No 416 Squadron arrived equipped with Spitfires, and was engaged on anti—shipping ‘ramrods’ and ASR duties. With No 402 Squadron they formed the Digby Wing which acted as close escort to bombers attacking targets in France, Holland and Belgium and shipping off the Belgian and Dutch coasts.
An interesting development is noted it October 1943 when No 416 Squadron began to practice deck—landings on aircraft carriers under the auspices of the Fleet Air Arm. This went on for some time, but nothing came of the experiments as far as No 416 Squadron were concerned, However, their trials probably contributed to the later development of the Seafire.
By late 1943 Mosquito night—fighter experience had shown the need for a steeper climb, more speed at around 20,000ft and quick clearance of the ice from windscreens. Those aircraft fitted with Merlin 23s had their performance improved slightly by cleaning up the engine cowlings and sealing oil leaks in such places as the carburettor air—intake ducts. To produce temporary increases of power and a faster speed at height a nitrous—oxide (N20) — the ‘laughing gas’ of dentistry — engine—injection system was developed. The systems were installed by Heston Aircraft Ltd, on aircraft of 410 (Cougar) Squadron.
On a later occasion, an Aeracobra aircraft was doing circuits. A young newcomer decided to take this chance to practice his aim, and began following the aircraft with his Lewis gun. After a couple of circuits he decided to try squeezing the trigger. Unfortunately for him and to the great consternation of the pilot, someone had previously loaded the gun for a test firing and some rounds remained in the magazine. The aircraft was hit by about a dozen rounds, fortunately without any real damage being done. The enraged pilot landed in great haste, and the soldier was court martialled shortly afterwards
During these years the role of the aircraft at Digby had been changing. Originally the duties, as befitted the aircraft types (Hurricanes, Spitfires, Beaufighters) had been defensive. New offensive tasks were added — Intruder Operations, Anti—Shipping Patrols, Fighter Sweeps and the delightfully—named ‘Rhubarbs’ — for the latter the idea seemed to be that an aircraft patrolled a section of enemy territory and if anything moved the aircraft attacked it. In 1943, in fact, No 410 Squadron claims to be the first squadron to fly over a sortie over enemy territory in Mosquito aircraft, which was used for ‘Ranger’ and night intruder operations. The aircraft were still used in defence and a Mosquito of No 410 Squadron is recorded as having destroyed a Dornier aircraft which was attacking Imingham Docks.
1944 - Preparations for D-Day
1 mar 1944 Coleby 2882 LAA Sqn RAAF
15 Mar 44 2898 AA Sqn RAuxAF to Wellingore
2953 Squadron -
Formed at Wellingore in June 1943, in the Light Anti-Aircraft role, later
moving to Bolt Head and disbanded in October 1943.
Banned from mess! Kings Regs, 2000 in a field.
Some feeling of the scale of the preparations for D-Day and how the impacted every corner of Lincolnshire can be felt in the number of RAF Regiment Squadrons to process through Digby in the months leading up to Operation OVERLORD. On 14 Apr 1944, 2815, 2882, 2892, 2894 and 2896 Sqns arrived at Digby and departed just one week later on 20th.
1944 again saw much movement among Digby squadrons. No 504 (County of Nottingham) Squadron returned and engaged in Bomber Escort and Fighter Sweeps. No 310 (Czech) Squadron spent a couple of months here as did No 350 (Belgian) Squadron; both squadrons were equipped with Spitfires and flew convoy patrols and offensive sweep Sorties. No 410 was still at Coleby Grange, and on the night 19/20 August 1944 made the first kill with the new Mosquito NF 30. Despite this success, the NF 30’s exhaust system gave the Squadron a lot of trouble necessitating the grounding of all NF 30s just after they entered service; this ban was lifted following an interim mod to the outer exhaust shrouds, but this was followed by further trouble with the inner shrouds and eventually louvred shrouds were fitted to all HF 30’s retrospectively.
November 1944 saw some unscheduled visitors. Some 30 USAAC Flying Fortresses returning from a daylight raid on Berlin failed to make their home base (believed to have been in Norfolk) and landed at Digby. These visitors remained for some weeks, and the strain on Digby’s facilities was very great. Beds were in short supply and the Americans were loathe to split up into the RCAF 3 mess system for meals. As a result the Airmen’s Mess had to cope with nearly 300 extra meals 3 times a day for a while. At least one Fortress was badly damaged and a mobile USAAC Mobile Maintenance Team added to the problems. However, it was the weather rather than damage that delayed the Fortresses’ departure.
Even with minimum fuel, the Fortress’ take off run was so long that the American pilots had to wait for the wind to blow from the NW to give them the longest possible run. Even so, the occupants of Scopwick Lodge Farmhouse were evacuated for the exercise. The story has it that this precaution was just as well, as the fortresses cleared the chimney pots by only a few feet. Fig 8 shows 2 of the aircraft on the ground at Digby.
Air-sea rescue duties were carried out by No 116 Squadron flying Airspeed Oxfords, while Nos 527 and 528 with Bristol Blenheirns did calibration flying as well as interception duties. Their calibration was to assist GCI and radar sites to greater efficiency. By the end of the year the weather was so poor, in fact, that the only flying from Digby was by aircraft involved in calibration.
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Digby memorials
Sector Ops Room Museum
Digby Oral Histories:
Geraldine Poulton
- Ops Room WAAF
Peggy Balfour - Ops
Room WAAF
"A
history 1917 - 1978"
Foreword
Introduction
1917 - Aug1919
Inter-War Years
1919-1926
1927-1937
1937-1939
World War II
1939-1940
1941
Jan - Aug 1942
Sep 1942 - 1944
1945
Return to Training
1945 - Jan 1948
Feb - Mar 1948
Mar 1948 - 1953
A cadet remembers
The Signals Era
Jan 1955 - Dec 1961
Dec 1963 - 1978
1955 - the Signals Era
Digby
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A
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