W/Cdr. Basil Embry, 23 May 1940.

[Martin Gleeson]

Dear all,

According to ‘VALIANT WINGS’ by Norman Franks (page 191) Wing Commander Basil Embry’s Blenheim L8777 suffered severe damage to the port wing on 23 May 1940 during a raid by 107 Squadron. The damage is not recorded in the 107 Squadron ORB or Appendices, nor in the Wattisham ORB.

Furthermore according to the 107 Squadron ORB for May 23rd the unit only despatched six Blenheims on one raid that day, and neither Embry or L8777 are listed among the pilots and aircraft. However he flew L8777 on two missions during May 22nd, with all the six aircraft from the second raid landing at Manston late on the 22nd and returning to Wattisham early on the 23rd. L8777 does not feature in the 107 Squadron ORB as being flown operationally again for the rest of May 1940.

I assume Norman Franks used Embry’s autobiography ‘MISSION COMPLETED’ as his source (he lists it on the bibliography page). Unfortunately I do not have a copy of ‘MISSION COMPLETED’. If someone has a copy could you please check it for me ? What date does Embry give for the raid during which L8777 was damaged ? And does he state that he flew it back to Wattisham the next morning in this damaged condition ?

Any help would be much appreciated . I have already posted this appeal on the RAF COMMANDS forum.

Regards,

Martin Gleeson.

[SteveR]

I have the White Lion edition from 1976. A couple of things of interest from Chapter 10: France, 1940.

p. 149: "...and from the 20th to the 26th the squadron carried out two operations each day." He then goes on to describe what happened to him on the 22nd, which I'll get to in a minute.

pp. 150-1, after describing the 22nd, "The night before I had slept in my clothes on the floor of a store building at Manston because on returning from a late evening mission we had been told there was low mist covering Wattisham... " He then states that at first light he flew back to Wattisham, refuelled and rearmed, and set off at once on the "ill-fated flight" (meaning that of the 22nd).

As to the 22nd, he covers it on pp. 149-150. It's a bit long to type out here, so the short version is that the formation ran into bad weather with low clouds, the formation broke up, and Embry went on to the target alone. There he received a direct flak hit in the port wing, "...and the hole in it was as big as a grand piano." He describes the difficulty flying the almost uncontrollable aircraft, which was losing height, and so he landed at the nearest airfield, Hawkinge.

Unfortunately, he doesn't give the aircraft's serial; also, it seems he flew only the one mission on the 22nd.

So Manston on the night of the 21st, back to Wattisham on the morning of the 22nd, flew a mission that day in which he was hit by flak in the port wing, landed at Hawkinge.

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Martin,

The amazing book "The Battle of France, then and now" do list this incident and confirm the serial as L8777, on the page 349.

Port wing damaged by AA West of Boulogne and force-landed at Hawking at 12:30PM. Aircraft damaged but repairable.

I remain must humbly yours.

A.

[Adriano Baumgartner]

DATE 23 May 1940 (forget to inform that!)

EMBRY certainly is one of the most amazing Air Warriors of the RAF. I do cherish his memories as one of the fantastic books I have read.

[Larry]

Another book that is interesting to read about Basil Embry is his account of his escape and evasion in WINGLESS VICTORY published in 1953.

[paulmcmillan]

All reading the above it appears that Embry confirms he was at Manston the night before mission 'I had slept in my clothes on the floor of a store building at Manston' - we know that 107 Sqn landed on the 22nd May 1940 at Manston "with all the six aircraft from the second raid landing at Manston late on the 22nd and returning to Wattisham early on the 23rd"

then Embry says ill fated mission - It must have been the 23rd and ORB is wrong - He would have remembered (or his log book would have recorded) staying away from the base and travelling back and then going on the mission

Paul

[Martin Gleeson]

Gentlemen,

Thank you all very much for your replies. Based on the book extracts from Steve and reviewing again the primary source material that I have access to it seems May 23rd was the correct date for this damage. So Embry was wrong in his book stating it occurred on the 22nd , but also the 107 Sqn. ORB lacks any detail for Embry’s flight of six aircraft on the 23rd and subsequent damage.

The 107 Squadron ORB (AIR 27/841, page 104-105 & 128), the 107 Sqn. Appendices (AIR 27/847, p. 229 & 232) and the Wattisham ORB (AIR 28/897, p. 61) all record he led the 6-aircraft raid on the German divisional HQ late during the evening of May 22nd . All agree the six aircraft landed at Manston at 21.40 hours and that all returned to Wattisham at 08.25 hours on the morning of the 23rd . Unfortunately I do not have a copy of the Wattisham Appendices for May 1940 (AIR 28/899), these might contain key signals to help resolve this issue.

As mentioned in my original post the 107 Squadron ORB (F.540 & F.541) only records one raid on May 23rd with six Blenheims led by F/Lt. Clayton. No reference to Embry or L8777. I have found the 107 Sqn. ORB for 1940 to be usually very reliable and detailed, but it seems likely now that details of the six-Blenheim flight led by Embry were omitted in error for the raid on the 23rd , possibly due to Embry and others landing away from their home base. It is worth noting that Embry and his crew flew L8777 on all six raids on May 20-22nd inclusive, and on earlier missions too. Clearly ‘their’ aircraft.

However the 107 Squadron Appendices (p. 230 & 231) and the Wattisham ORB (p. 61) record that 12 aircraft of 107 Sqn. left Wattisham at 10.15 or 10.45 hours (no names or serials) for a raid to the forest of Boulogne area. The other bomber squadron at Wattisham (110) flew no operational sorties on May 23rd . Nine Blenheims landed back at Wattisham at 13.10-13.40 hours, but the other three landed at Hawkinge at 13.15 hours. Embry’s aircraft must have been one of these. It is remarkable that Embry and his flight were ready to take off again for a raid only two hours after landing back at Wattisham.

I would also add the following, part speculation on my part and part circumstantial evidence. I strongly suspect that Embry flew the damaged L8777 back to Wattisham from Hawkinge later that day. Repair facilities at Wattisham, an established bomber base, would have been better than at Hawkinge and this was his favourite aircraft. If L8777 had been left at Hawkinge it would almost certainly have been listed in the 49 M.U. ORB (AIR 29/1008), which had the task of recovering crashed and damaged aircraft from the south-east of England. No mention of it there. There is a photo in ‘VALIANT WINGS’ showing a Blenheim wing after being removed from a fuselage. It is stated to have been from Embry’s L8777 and it does have a massive hole as per his account in his book. I suspect also this photo was taken at Wattisham. The Form 78 for L8777 gives no indication of damage or repair around this time. L8777 was back being flown operationally by 107 Squadron by late October 1940.

Thanks to all again.

Martin.

[Adriano Baumgartner]

Dear Martin, just for curiosity...is EMBRY's Logooks stored or preserved somewhere (RAF Museum, IWM)? It would be fantastic to see a deep biography of this fantastic airman covered or supported by his Logbooks entries (photos, etc.). His memories (books) are wonderful, but not supported by RAF Logbooks or RAF documents, so on the Historical aspect, we (readers) loose a bit of the cross-checking and matchings.

Adriano

[Adriano Baumgartner]

sorry: ....ARE Embry's Logbooks"....(big mistake on my part here...I was thinking of his Logbook that cover this mission, then changed my mind to ALL his RAF Logbooks)...so on the plural

[Martin Gleeson]

Hello Adriano,

His entire medal collection, ceremonial sword and his flying logbooks were sold by his family during April 2007 at Spink auctioneers in London. Apparently to an 'agent', presumably on behalf of an unknown client. Hopefully some day they will come into the public domain.

Regards,

Martin.