Gerald Edge, Hurricane Ace

[knusel]

Good evening Gentlemen,

I stumbled over Gerald Edge in Andrew Thomas' excellent OSPREY volume "Gloster Gladiator Aces". Are Hurricane total of 18+2sh would secure Edge a rank within the top ten of Hurricane scorers.
But you think that his official total was lower ?

Have a nice Wednesday,

Michael

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

From Ian Piper's "We Never Slept" The Story of 605 Squadron. Gerry Edge's own words:

A raid on the 9th (May, 1940), gave a few 605 pilots the opportunity of facing the enemy. One Dornier was shared between Ralph Hope, Gerry Edge and Graham Austin of Dunnet Head*.

Gerry Edge recalls;

"We had a deal of experience in Convoy patrols which could be tiring in bad weather and in night flying but I only had one contact at night just south of Scapa Flow, getting in a 5 second burst, but he dived away very steeply into cloud and I lost contact. A Heinkel 111 landed on Wick aerodrome with bad damage from the starboard quarter, which was the direction from which I attacked.

On 9th May we were ordered to search for a bandit said to be approaching Scapa Flow from the south-east. I took off with F/O Austin and F/O Hope, as my numbers two and three respectively and patrolled on a line about five miles east of Wick to five miles east of Catcall Isle. There was a deal of cloud about above 3,000 ff over the coast. After approximately 1.20 hours, F/O Hope called on the radio and said he was low in fuel and I gave him a course for Wick*. After a further twenty minutes going north, F/O Austin was also detached*. I flew on but when crossing Portland Firth, I saw a speck in the distance to the south-west. I turned towards it, but soon saw it was flying due east towards some cloud over Wick. I turned south and intercepted it over our dispersal point on Wick aerodrome. The rear gunner was firing at me and the tracer seemed to be coming straight at me but swerved away as it came close. I held fire until I was very close, too close as my screen was immediately covered with oil from his starboard engine.

As I broke away, P/O Austin* came in on my starboard wing and fired at it as it vanished into cloud. I knew the cloud ended about ten miles east of Wick so I set off East to the far side of the cloud. About a minute later after arriving , a Dornier 17 came out of the bottom of the cloud half a mile west of me and almost immediately a parachute opened behind it. The starboard engine and wing of the Dornier was on fire and it crashed into the sea. The parachute followed and landed a few hundred yards to the west of it. I guessed a course for Wick which I held carefully so that I could find the wreck again and fortunately arrived over Wick harbour. I landed at base, refuelled, and I was airborne again at 1355 hrs. I obtained permission to return to the wreckage and lead the Rescue Launch to the airman who had bailed out. I found the wreckage and circled round over the parachute, unfortunately the boat crew saw the wreckage first and stopped and collected pieces and I tried for about twenty minutes to lead them to the man in the water who was still alive. I asked base on the radio to ask the Navy to tell the skipper to go 250 yards to where I was circling, but the Navy refused, saying the message had to go in code. I was becoming vexed and pretending to be even more so I said to tell the Navy they would have to be quick or I would sink their ****** boat. The message was then sent in clear and the boat moved across to the airman. He was alive when pulled aboard, but died as they reached the harbour. On returning to base, I pressed for this procedure to be overhauled as it was hard enough losing this life unnecessarily but as we spent most of our time flying over the sea it was not very reassuring to consider being in that icy water while the Navy sent messages in code.".

See:
"We Never Slept" The Story of No. 605 (County of Warwick) Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force 1926 - 1957.
Piper, Ian (Comp.)
Tamworth:Author,1997(rep.)
pp.54-5

* Note contradictory comments, and the strange reappearance of F/O Austin!

Col.

[knusel]

Good evening Col.,

that's a moving report that sounds as if it was a half-share.
Where can I get a valid statement about Edge's definite final total ?

Have a nice Thursday,

Michael

[knusel]

No matter what the decimal of Gerald Edge's other shared kill is, he is the 7th ranking Hurricane ace. But I would like to know the decimal anyway.

HURRICANE TOP ACES
NAME/NAT/KILLS/ HURRICANE KILLS
1. Marmaduke Pattle SA 50,67 [50+2] 35,33 [35+1]
2. Frank Carey GB 26,2 [25+3] 26,2 [25+3]
3. James Lacey GB 28 23
4. Michael Crossley GB 21 [20+2] 21 [20+2]
5. Geoffrey Allard GB 20,83 [19+5] 20,83 [19+5]
6. William Vale GB 31,5 [30+3]* 20,5 [20+1]
7. Gerald Edge GB ??? [18+2] ??? [18+2]
8. Karel Kuttelwascher CZ 18,48 [18+2] 18
9. Albert Lewis SA 18 18
10. William McKnight CA 18 [17+2] 18 [17+2]