260 Squadron Fighting Strategies

Heroes Remember

260 Squadron Fighting Strategies

Transcript

We may have not had the best air plane, but we knew how to react when the109's came and how to confront them, you see. We flew in sections of four at that time, see, finger four. And the squadron would be split up from a twelve into three fours and if we were attacked, they...our defence was a turnabout into the enemy, a 180, you see. And the thing, secret was when to call it and how steep to turn and make everybody turn together, whether you could see the enemy or not. Just stay together, you see. Come out together, go back in together and so that the Hun would be facing the four air planes if he kept pursuit his attack, see. And this would break up, thwart their attacks most of the time. They would be down in small numbers normally. Two, four. Mostly though you had a sharp shooter with his number two, see. They might come over in a gaggle of eight, ten, twelve, but they’d break up in two’s and so you had to keep track of the whole sky. They loved to...they would always get above and come down, you see. He would pick on the guys at the back, see. Fire and pull up. Roll off the top and come back down again. This was the tactic. So they loved to do this, like when we were escorting the bombers. As we’d turn over the target and the flak was coming up and they’d have the sun behind them, you see. This is when they loved to come down cause, you could have a hard time keeping track of them. And you had to be able to see all this going on. You had to see them before the attack. You had to see them coming and keep track of them in the air. And you know, it isn’t that simple to just to go shoot down somebody. You’ve got to get in to position. So you arrange it so you make it very difficult for him or he puts himself in jeopardy in doing it or he just, he has to break off. We could out-turn them and they knew this, so they would not pursue the turn. They’d pull back up again. You couldn’t climb after them; you’d stall out and they would just follow you down. You had it if you tried to follow them. And you might get one guy pulling up but his buddy would get you, you see. And if there’s any stragglers or anything like that, they would be shot down.

Description

A very complete look into Allied and Axis air combat (dog fighting). Mr. Edwards describes the strengths, weaknesses and strategies.

James Francis Edwards

Mr. Edwards was born on a farm near Lockwood, Saskatchewan on June 5th 1921. His father, a First World War Veteran, kept horses until the depression forced him to move the family to Battleford where he became an insurance salesman. His mother had been a nurse during the First World War. In June 1940, Mr. Edwards enlisted in the Air Force. He was sent to the Brandon, Manitoba to do his Initial Training, then to Edmonton, Alberta for Flying School. After completing Flying School, Mr. Edwards was sent to overseas. He was assigned to 55 Operational Training Unit in Osworth, England where he flew Hurricanes. From there he was posted to Africa to take part in the Desert Campaign. Among many battles and operations, he took part in the El Alamein Battle (Egypt) and the Tunisian Campaign. In Egypt, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant. After a period in Cairo running a gunnery school, he was called back to combat in Italy. There he fought in the Battle of Ortona and Anzio and he was given his own squadron, the RAF 274. He was shot down on his first flight as squadron commander. Surviving, he and his crew were sent back to England to take part in D-Day. He would also fight in Holland and Germany. In total, Mr. Edwards served two tours of duty, flying over 360 missions. He had more than 19 confirmed kills. After the war was over he returned to Canada and continued service with the air force retiring as a wing commander.

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