Sniper of the Skies: The Story of George Frederick 'Screwball' Beurling, DSO, DFC, DFM Read online

  First published in Great Britain in 2015 by

  Pen & Sword Aviation

  an imprint of

  Pen & Sword Books Ltd

  47 Church Street

  Barnsley

  South Yorkshire

  S70 2AS

  Copyright © Nick Thomas 2015

  ISBN 978 1 78159 314 1

  PDF ISBN: 978 1 47386 666 9

  EPUB ISBN: 978 1 47386 665 2

  PRC ISBN: 978 1 47386 664 5

  The right of Nick Thomas to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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  Contents

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction: George Beurling

  Chapter 1 To the Stars the Hard Way

  Chapter 2 Training for War

  Chapter 3 Fully Operational

  Chapter 4 First ‘Kill’

  Chapter 5 The Besieged Island

  Chapter 6 The July Blitz

  Chapter 7 More Scrambles

  Chapter 8 At Readiness

  Chapter 9 Surviving the Final Blitz

  Chapter 10 The Wounded Hero Returns

  Chapter 11 No. 403 Squadron RCAF

  Chapter 12 Fit For a Hero

  Chapter 13 No Place to Rest for a Hero

  Selected Bibliography

  Acknowledgements

  I am very much indebted to the dedication and research of numerous aviation historians who have gone before and whose works are listed in the bibliography. Also to the Squadron Intelligence Officers and Squadron Diarists who compiled contemporary records which have been extensively drawn on from the microfilms held at Kew.

  My sincere thanks are also extended to Squadron Leader ‘Tony’ Pickering, AEA, who allowed me to quote his recollections of Beurling’s flying and shooting abilities, as did the late Flight Lieutenant R.F. Sellers, AFC, RAFVR, while the late Wing Commander M.M. Stephens, DSO, DFC and Two Bars and Wing Commander P.B. ‘Laddie’ Lucas, DSO and Bar, DFC, were generous, not only with quotes, but also in the loan of original photographs, as were the family of Group Captain A.H. Donaldson, DSO, DFC and Bar, AFC.

  In the late 1990s, I was fortunate enough to acquire a substantial archive of material related to Beurling, including a family photo and cuttings album (latterly owned by his uncle, Gustav Beurling). This has proved invaluable in my research. Most of this material has been attributed when quoted. However, a number of clippings from this source were un-ascribed and it has not been possible to credit the original sources, for which I apologize in advance.

  A book on Malta’s war would have been severely lacking without photographs illustrating the dangers and suffering endured by the military and civilian population. To this end I have indeed been most fortunate in being able to source material from, perhaps, one of the most important private archives on the subject. I should therefore like to acknowledge the generosity of Paul Lazell, for permitting me to use a number of photographs taken by his late father, Sergeant William ‘Bill’ John Lazell, 7th Regiment, 27th Battalion, Royal Artillery. Sergeant Lazell, who deserves special mention, served on Malta between 24 July 1941 and 5 March 1944, fighting throughout the worst of the Malta Blitz, operating radar and serving on a heavy anti-aircraft battery. The importance of Bill and his comrades in the campaign cannot be emphasized enough; their radar information proved the difference between success and failure (making their mobile units prime targets for the enemy), while their fortitude and accuracy as gunners made them a formidable force, bringing down scores of enemy aircraft – they were the unrecognized aces on Malta. While stationed on Malta, Bill carried a 35mm camera with him everywhere he went, creating a unique record of the siege. Bill’s images include enemy action in the air and on the sea, as well as action on the ground. As a Serviceman, Bill had unique access to the RAF infrastructure and was able to capture images of the Controllers at work in the ‘Ditch’, and of the gunners and radar operators at their stations, as well as being present at the unique presentation of the island’s George Cross.

  Paul has produced an online archive of his father’s work which may be viewed at www.paulsww2photographs.webeden.uk. Paul may be contacted via: paulsdads [email protected]

  Introduction

  George Beurling

  George Beurling was born in Verdun, Canada, in 1921. His family were good, honest working-class people, who raised their five children under the doctrine of the Plymouth Brethren.

  From a very early age, Beurling knew what he wanted to do and that was to become an aviator. Mentored by a bush pilot named Ted Hogan, Beurling quickly gained experience in the second seat. By the age of 12 he had ‘handled the controls’ and, with Ted’s help, gradually built up his hours in the pilot’s seat.

  There were no easy stepping-stones to Beurling’s goal, no Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, Auxiliary Air Force, or government sponsored flying schools. In order to further his aims, Beurling was eventually forced to leave school and take up full-time employment just to be able to afford one flying lesson a week.

  When war came, Beurling was already an accomplished pilot, but he was refused entry into the RCAF due to having not completed his schooling. Instead he worked his passage to Britain onboard a munitions ship in order to enlist in the RAF (a hazardous journey he had to repeat in order to collect the necessary paperwork required for entry into the Service).

  Initially frustrated by having to begin pilot training from scratch, Beurling quickly demonstrated his ‘natural’ abilities, both as a pilot and as a marksman and was able to train his eyes to change focus and to pinpoint distant targets with extraordinary speed and accuracy.

  Despite some trials and tribulations, Beurling passed out of his training course and Operational Training Unit, and was posted to No. 403 Squadron. Here, he flew Spitfires over enemy-occupied Europe on sweeps and escorts, also making occasional scrambles. His flying record was not unlike that of a 100 other pilots and he was frequently to be found flying as ‘Tail-end-Charlie’, the most vulnerable position in the entire formation; a role he fulfilled without dissent.

  Things changed for Beurling when No. 403 Squadron became solely an RCAF unit and he was obliged to transfer away to No. 41 Squadron. Despite being a seasoned pilot, Beurling once again found himself flying at the rear of a formation. This role had nearly cost him his life while with No. 403 Squadron and, when he was put in a similar position with his new unit, he was fo
rced to break formation with a crippled Spitfire. Nevertheless he managed to damage one of his attackers; this he did with only half of his guns still working.

  This action left Beurling being accused of leaving the rest of his section exposed, although he insisted that he only broke formation because he was under attack and had a damaged Spitfire. His CO evidently agreed. A second incident followed three days later, when his CO and the rest of the Squadron initially ignored his radio message warning of an imminent attack (no-one else could see the enemy, only closer friendly aircraft and dismissed his warnings). The late manoeuvre carried out by his CO would have left Beurling as an easy target, so he broke formation and turned defence into attack, destroying one of the enemy and partially breaking up the attack. From this moment, his fate was sealed and he was ostracised by most of the Squadron and accused of being a ‘loner’, a label which stuck for the rest of his career. A few weeks later, Beurling learned of an overseas posting and stepped in to take the place of an unwilling pilot.

  Beurling was posted as a relief pilot to the besieged island of Malta. Here he joined No. 249 Squadron, flying Spitfire Mk Vcs out of Takali airfield. Within weeks, the enemy had turned their full attention on Malta in what was dubbed the July Blitz.

  In a matter of a few days, Beurling had claimed his first victory and, in the space of a four month tour of combat operations, he would destroy twenty-seven enemy aircraft, with a further nine damaged. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal and Bar, before being promoted as a further acknowledgement of his bravery and devotion to duty. As a junior officer, Beurling was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Distinguished Service Order. This latter award caused some controversy, as the DSO was considered a medal awarded for leadership and Beurling did not command in the air. However, it was argued that in the same way the great aces of the First World War had led by example, so had Beurling. His CO, ‘Laddie’ Lucas, joined Group Captain Donaldson in stating that Beurling was tireless in his combat, and always remained very positive in front of his fellow pilots and the ‘erks’.

  Douglas-Hamilton recalled that the young Canadian, ‘was generally smiling, and nearly always in what is popularly known as “good form”’, a sentiment which is echoed, time after time, by his contemporaries on Malta.

  Yet Beurling had not led a charmed life; during his time fighting out of Malta, his own Spitfire was damaged on several occasions, and he was forced to crash-land or bail out and was wounded twice. Despite his exertions and wounds, Beurling never showed his tiredness or battle fatigue. Beurling’s extended tour of operations only came to an end due to the concerted efforts of his doctor, CO and the personal intervention of the AOC.

  If caught in the gun-sight of an enemy (the Malta pilots regularly faced odds of five, ten or twenty to one), Beurling could throw his Spitfire around like no other pilot. One of his tricks was to pull back so hard on the ‘stick’ that his aircraft would stall violently and be thrown over onto its back before entering a spin – a move no enemy pilot could follow and which few Spitfire pilots dared emulate. Another method of dropping out of combat like a stone was to simultaneously push both ailerons and the rudder into a turn. Beurling was expert at turning defence into attack and, on one occasion, when faced by four enemy aircraft firing at him in a pincer movement, he deliberately flew into the Macchi Mc 202’s rounds rather than take the cannon shells of the Messerschmitt Bf 109s. His gamble paid off.

  Beurling had been accused of being a ‘loner’ while flying with No. 403 Squadron, and it was said that the air battle over Malta suited his mentality. From this the idea has grown that he was allowed to just go off and shoot down enemy aircraft at will. This is far from the truth. Over Malta No. 249 Squadron generally flew in pairs, something his flight commander Laddie Lucas drummed into Beurling on day two. The young Canadian took his leader’s words onboard and was never reprimanded for disobeying this rule, nor any other order. He was not guilty of waging a private war, as the island was limited in its 100 octane fuel supply and every sortie had to count. No-one, not even Beurling at the height of his prowess as a fighter-ace, had licence to roam freely and shoot down enemy aircraft. When Beurling’s Spitfire suffered radio failure (a valid excuse to act alone) he duly returned to base. If Beurling was scrambled, he followed the Controller’s orders and the same went for air tests, or any other authorised flight; if given a vector, he obeyed orders, otherwise he landed. Moreover, Beurling was a team player and constantly saved the lives of his fellow pilots in combat, on more than one occasion being shot down as a result. His ‘kills’ were largely attained while fighting in a general dogfight, hence they were witnessed by his pals and allowed. Occasionally Beurling became separated and his ‘kills’ were downgraded to ‘probables’ or ‘damaged’, but that was true of any fighter pilot.

  What Beurling did do, which enabled him to stand out from the crowd, was to sit in his cockpit awaiting the scramble, keen to get even a few seconds height advantage in a battle climb, by reducing his scramble time. Due to fuel shortages, the Controller was forced to wait until the very last moment before giving the scramble, as he had to be certain that a raid was not a feint. It was also vital to only use the minimum number of aircraft to effectively deal with the threat, so as to hold back a reserve in order to tackle the next raid.

  Sometimes, Beurling’s extra minutes in the air meant that he and his wingman had the advantage of height over the rest of the formation. He used this to the Squadron’s advantage and would act as spotter or come down on enemy fighters, who were aiming to catch the Spitfire pilots out, by attacking from above and out of the sun. On other occasions, Beurling waited until he spotted the most highly skilled enemy pilot – and dived down to take him on.

  When he did go into combat, Beurling used his ammunition sparingly, lining up his enemy at close range before pressing the gun-button, often shooting down or badly damaging two, three or even four enemy aircraft in a single sortie. His keen eyesight, steady nerve, and mastery of deflection firing quickly made him Malta’s highest scoring ace; this despite bouts of Malta Dog, a type of dysentery brought on by the siege conditions.

  On 14 October 1942, Beurling once again came to the rescue of one of his pals, although this time he was shot down and wounded in the heel. Evacuated to Gibraltar, Beurling could not escape the drama and was one of a handful of tour-expired pilots to survive an air crash.

  Having left his homeland as an anonymous deckhand on an ammunition ship, Beurling returned a national hero, having been front-page news since the end of July 1942. He then embarked on a tour of Canada promoting War Bonds. His fame meant that he was treated like a movie star, something that was ruthlessly exploited by the RCAF and politicians. It was through a series of interviews (by a press used to spinning wartime propaganda) and his semi auto-biography Malta Spitfire (written by Leslie Roberts, but based on seventeen days of interviews), that the world got a glimpse of the complex character that was George Beurling.

  Beurling was a journalist’s dream and the press hung on his every word, which meant that they didn’t filter – such was Beurling’s fame and the need for patriotic accounts of the war, that any off-the-cuff comment was turned into a story and, to the modern reader, Beurling’s comments may sound blood-thirsty. Meanwhile, the unguarded words of fellow aviators, whose paths had crossed Beurling’s at one time or another, were used as the basis for articles. Like Beurling, their quotes were full of bravado, but this was what circumstances demanded. The press latched on to anything that would sell papers; Beurling was tall, handsome and dashing, with steely blue eyes and tousled hair, which, alongside his casual appearance and dislike for authority, all played into their hands. So too did his abstinence from both alcohol and cigarettes, which were extolled in one paper as great virtues.

  At a time when the whole of mess life revolved around alcohol, Beurling explained his decision to abstain from drinking and smoking by pointing out that those around him who did indulge, often had briefer, less eff
ective tours.

  However, Beurling’s abstinence precluded him from the high-jinks of mess-life, which was dominated by heavy drinking and drunken games. While this had been no obstacle in Malta, back in the UK it meant that Beurling stood out from the crowd, and the press made much of quotes that Beurling was a ‘loner’, both in the air and on the ground, that he was untidy in his dress, and that he could be deliberately awkward and an anti-disciplinarian.

  Bruce West later wrote:

  ‘It was during this triumphant tour that the press of Canada, with the best of intentions, often gave this bewildered kid a rough ride. He was outspoken and often the things he said – although they didn’t sound so bad coming from Beurling – looked not so good in cold print.

  ‘He hated discipline and perhaps that went with his love of the sky, and its lack of restrictions and barriers. He could never be rated as a shining example of what the well-dressed officer should wear. His regulation flat hat ceased to be a regulation flat hat shortly after Beurling had donned it.’

  As to the accusation of never being correctly dressed, in the Malta theatre, as in North Africa, the Far East and elsewhere, there was little call for mess or parade dress. Under extreme combat conditions there was no need for rank badges; the officers and NCOs automatically showed each other due respect. Meanwhile, without the ‘erks’, the aircraft would not get up off the ground. Beurling did, however, balk at the idea of being made an officer and refused to wear the rank badges, and remained in the NCO’s quarters for as long as he could.

  Beurling was often heard referring to things as being ‘Screwball’ and this stuck as his nickname, although the press at the time preferred to adopt his boyhood nicknames of ‘Buzz’ or ‘Buzzey.’

  Despite hating the role of promoting War Bonds, Beurling was at least able to give lectures to fellow aviators, and pass on his experiences and his theories on deflection shooting, with many seasoned combat pilots later giving testimony to the value of his tuition.