Battle of Britain & France - Battle Pilots

[Iain Torrance]

Martin

Thanks very much for your list, by my count we now get the total up to thirty-one volunteers from Fairey Battle Squadrons who received BoB Bar (25 my list plus your extra 8 then less 2 double-counts)

Double counts are Boulding and Martin.

I have done checks on the others you mention but note Allton and Smythe were only at 98 Sq (the reserve squadron)

- Agree no record of Boulding flying operationally with 142 Squ from ORB.
- Can’t find anything in the ORBs for Black, Paterson or Clarke
- Agree Haywood for 88 Squ - ORB confirms for 13 June and he also crashed on take-off on 27 May
- For Martin there is a record of a Sgt Martin flying operationally as a pilot in the 226 ORB, earliest ref 13 May, but that’s an obvious red herring as J.C. Martin was a PO.

Of course doesn’t mean they all never flew operationally in France, just that there’s a need to find evidence. Be grateful if others can help on that.

Interesting point is that the criteria to be accepted as a volunteer for fighter command obviously did not include having operational experience !

Kind regards

Iain