dinomartino1
Well-Known Member
Wing Commander James "Sandy" Sanders, was credited with destroying at least 16 enemy aircraft, several of them during the Battle of Britain.
When fighter pilots' scores were assessed after the war, Sanders's tally was almost certainly underestimated because he had lost his log book and because of an absence of records during the confusion that surrounded the fall of France.
He was educated in Genoa, Italy, where his father, a wealthy archaeologist and dilettante had settled. As a schoolboy, young Sanders developed such a dislike of fascism.
He went to school in Genoa and remembers an occasion when he was nine years old when he and his classmates had to sing the slave song from Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’ for Mussolini’s arrival at Staglieno sports arena. He deeply resented it and felt the dictator looked silly with his melodramatic poses. It was in Italy that he first got into trouble with the authorities. When he was in his late teens he faced a judicial hearing. The toilet paper in his school consisted of sheets of newspaper and at the time Mussolini was on almost every page. James was overheard to remark that he wiped his bottom with Mussolini. That was enough to get arrested. They let him off because he argued that if he was given newspaper for that purpose he had no choice but to use the Duce’s image in that way. There was no answer to that. He left Italy because he was convinced there would be a war and he wanted to join up. Challenging authority had become natural to him so, ultimately, did fighting dictatorship.
Sanders could not have had a more propitious start. After receiving a short service commission in November 1935 and completing his flying training, he was posted after a year to No 111 (Treble One) Squadron, which was equipped with Gloster Gauntlet biplane fighters.
In early 1939, the celebrated Harry Broadhurst had taken over 111 Squadron from John Gillan. In common with most of the Squadron, ‘Sandy’ Sanders took a dislike to his new C/O, whom he regarded as a prima donna. Broadhurst was an extremely good pilot, but his men disliked the way he would talk about his aerobatic skills, especially by doing a roll off the top of the loop on take-off, as he had done at the 1938 Hendon air display, in a machine with the guns removed to make it lighter. So one grey Sunday morning in September, Sandy took off in a Gauntlet with the guns still in it to do the same thing, just to show that anyone could do it.
Unfortunately, the war had just started and a number of senior officers were arriving at Northolt for an important conference just as Sandy was carrying out his stunt. Being by now a very experienced pilot, he completed an immaculate roll off the top of his loop in the unmodified aeroplane. When he landed, in recognition of his skill and sense of timing, Broadhurst put him under arrest. He took him to the then AOC 11 Group, Air Vice- Marshal Gossage, to decide what to do with him. Gossage knew Sanders’ mother, so he just asked the young man what he would like to do. Sandy replied that he would like to go to France. ‘Off you go then,’ the AOC replied. So he was posted to 615 Squadron, which was earmarked for duty in France.
His punishment was what he had asked for, but it was in fact a double insult. Though an RAF regular, he had been posted to fly with Auxiliaries. And despite his being one of the most experienced Hurricane pilots in the RAF, this meant he had to fly Gladiators. However, he did go to France, for on 15th November 1939, 615 lined up at Croydon along with 607 Squadron to head for Merville. There was an official inspection before they left, and appropriately enough 615’s Honorary Air Commodore, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, turned up with his wife to see his boys safely off.
Gladiators were armed with two machine guns at the sides of the cockpit and one under each wing, at about waist height. These guns could only be cocked for action on the ground. The pneumatic system which operated them was unreliable and even rocking the wings could set them off. As 615 were escorting their ground crews in two Ensign aircraft, and were expecting to fly into action, they had their guns cocked.
Sandy was leading the flight, so Churchill and Clementine naturally chose his machine for a close inspection. Churchill being Churchill showed a particular interest in the guns. His wife sat in the cockpit asking ‘What is this?’ and ‘What is that?’, and as Churchill was bending over in front of the machine gun under the wing, she started fiddling with the firing mechanism. Fighter pilots need to have fast reactions, and Sandy was a very good fighter pilot. So it was that he may have saved the future Prime Minister from a premature demise at the hands of his spouse, and thereby changed the course of World History.
On 10th May, the Wehrmacht launched its offensive in the West. In the ensuing chaos, a lot of aircraft and equipment were abandoned as airfields were hurriedly evacuated. 615 Squadron operated from four aerodromes in eleven days, and as the BEF withdrew to Dunkirk Sandy only just made it back to England. On a patrol near the Franco-Belgian border he shot down a Dornier Do 17 but was hit by return fire and crash-landed near Valenciennes, suffering a severe blow to the head which almost knocked him out. Despite being half concussed, he made for the station and got a train, but it was attacked near Béthune, so he got out and walked into the town with his parachute on his back. He met a German tank coming the other way, so he left his parachute in a doorway and hitched a lift to Abbeville in an RAF lorry. There at about 2 o’clock in the morning he found a long-nosed Blenheim bomber parked on the edge of the aerodrome. He had never flown a Blenheim or any other twin-engined aircraft before, but he nevertheless decided to use it to try to get back to England. The night was pitch black. There were no lights in the aircraft, there was no flare-path, he could not see the instrument panel and he did not know where the starter buttons were. While Sandy was fumbling around in the dark, a number of other people had hopped on board the three-man Blenheim before he managed to find what he was after and take off. He was in fine pitch, the undercarriage was locked down, and he could not do more than 110 mph or get above 700 feet.
He did not know how much petrol he had, but he made for his old station at Northolt, came in over the Western Avenue and landed safely in semi-darkness just short of the mess at about a quarter past three. As his grateful passengers got out, he went to find the duty officer. There was nobody there. The whole airfield was deserted. So he got on the phone and a WAAF answered. He asked for the Station Commander, only to be told that he was not to be woken before 8 o’clock. After all he had just experienced, and with his head still throbbing, Sandy became quite vociferous and told her to put him through. When the Station Commander answered, Sandy went for him. ‘How dare you!’ he said. ‘Do you realise that I’ve just landed and there’s not a soul around and we could have been the Germans?’ ‘Do you realise who you are talking to?’ asked the Station Commander. ‘I don’t care,’ came the reply. ‘What do you mean by saying you are not to be disturbed till 8 o’clock? Do you think the Germans are going to wait till you’re our of bed?’ So Sandy was put under arrest again for showing a lack of respect and insubordination.
Squadron Leader Squadron Leader J G Sanders, poses on Supermarine Spitfire LF Mark IXB, MH819 "Red Rose III", at Squires Gate airport, Blackpool, Lancashire, before flying it to Biggin Hill, Kent, to join No. 485 Squadron RNZAF. The photograph was taken on the occasion of the presentation of three Spitfires ("Red Rose II, III and IV") to the RAF by the Lancashire Constabulary at Squires Gate. Sanders was a noted fighter pilot himself, having shot down 16 enemy aircraft (5 of them at night) between 1939 and 1941, poses on Supermarine Spitfire LF Mark IXB, MH819 "Red Rose III", at Squires Gate airport, Blackpool, Lancashire, before flying it to Biggin Hill, Kent, to join No. 485 Squadron RNZAF. The photograph was taken on the occasion of the presentation of three Spitfires ("Red Rose II, III and IV") to the RAF by the Lancashire Constabulary at Squires Gate. Sanders was a noted fighter pilot himself, having shot down 16 enemy aircraft (5 of them at night) between 1939 and 1941
Pilots of No.615 Squadron RAF wait for the order to scramble At Abbeville. Sitting (left to right); Flying Officer B P Young, Flying Officer R Gayner, Pilot Officer T C Jackson and Flying Officer L E Fredman: standing (left to right); unknown, Flying Officer P Collard and Flight Lieutenant J G Sanders.
Winston Churchill, this photo is from the machine gun incident visit.
.
When fighter pilots' scores were assessed after the war, Sanders's tally was almost certainly underestimated because he had lost his log book and because of an absence of records during the confusion that surrounded the fall of France.
He was educated in Genoa, Italy, where his father, a wealthy archaeologist and dilettante had settled. As a schoolboy, young Sanders developed such a dislike of fascism.
He went to school in Genoa and remembers an occasion when he was nine years old when he and his classmates had to sing the slave song from Verdi’s ‘Nabucco’ for Mussolini’s arrival at Staglieno sports arena. He deeply resented it and felt the dictator looked silly with his melodramatic poses. It was in Italy that he first got into trouble with the authorities. When he was in his late teens he faced a judicial hearing. The toilet paper in his school consisted of sheets of newspaper and at the time Mussolini was on almost every page. James was overheard to remark that he wiped his bottom with Mussolini. That was enough to get arrested. They let him off because he argued that if he was given newspaper for that purpose he had no choice but to use the Duce’s image in that way. There was no answer to that. He left Italy because he was convinced there would be a war and he wanted to join up. Challenging authority had become natural to him so, ultimately, did fighting dictatorship.
Sanders could not have had a more propitious start. After receiving a short service commission in November 1935 and completing his flying training, he was posted after a year to No 111 (Treble One) Squadron, which was equipped with Gloster Gauntlet biplane fighters.
In early 1939, the celebrated Harry Broadhurst had taken over 111 Squadron from John Gillan. In common with most of the Squadron, ‘Sandy’ Sanders took a dislike to his new C/O, whom he regarded as a prima donna. Broadhurst was an extremely good pilot, but his men disliked the way he would talk about his aerobatic skills, especially by doing a roll off the top of the loop on take-off, as he had done at the 1938 Hendon air display, in a machine with the guns removed to make it lighter. So one grey Sunday morning in September, Sandy took off in a Gauntlet with the guns still in it to do the same thing, just to show that anyone could do it.
Unfortunately, the war had just started and a number of senior officers were arriving at Northolt for an important conference just as Sandy was carrying out his stunt. Being by now a very experienced pilot, he completed an immaculate roll off the top of his loop in the unmodified aeroplane. When he landed, in recognition of his skill and sense of timing, Broadhurst put him under arrest. He took him to the then AOC 11 Group, Air Vice- Marshal Gossage, to decide what to do with him. Gossage knew Sanders’ mother, so he just asked the young man what he would like to do. Sandy replied that he would like to go to France. ‘Off you go then,’ the AOC replied. So he was posted to 615 Squadron, which was earmarked for duty in France.
His punishment was what he had asked for, but it was in fact a double insult. Though an RAF regular, he had been posted to fly with Auxiliaries. And despite his being one of the most experienced Hurricane pilots in the RAF, this meant he had to fly Gladiators. However, he did go to France, for on 15th November 1939, 615 lined up at Croydon along with 607 Squadron to head for Merville. There was an official inspection before they left, and appropriately enough 615’s Honorary Air Commodore, the First Lord of the Admiralty, Winston Churchill, turned up with his wife to see his boys safely off.
Gladiators were armed with two machine guns at the sides of the cockpit and one under each wing, at about waist height. These guns could only be cocked for action on the ground. The pneumatic system which operated them was unreliable and even rocking the wings could set them off. As 615 were escorting their ground crews in two Ensign aircraft, and were expecting to fly into action, they had their guns cocked.
Sandy was leading the flight, so Churchill and Clementine naturally chose his machine for a close inspection. Churchill being Churchill showed a particular interest in the guns. His wife sat in the cockpit asking ‘What is this?’ and ‘What is that?’, and as Churchill was bending over in front of the machine gun under the wing, she started fiddling with the firing mechanism. Fighter pilots need to have fast reactions, and Sandy was a very good fighter pilot. So it was that he may have saved the future Prime Minister from a premature demise at the hands of his spouse, and thereby changed the course of World History.
On 10th May, the Wehrmacht launched its offensive in the West. In the ensuing chaos, a lot of aircraft and equipment were abandoned as airfields were hurriedly evacuated. 615 Squadron operated from four aerodromes in eleven days, and as the BEF withdrew to Dunkirk Sandy only just made it back to England. On a patrol near the Franco-Belgian border he shot down a Dornier Do 17 but was hit by return fire and crash-landed near Valenciennes, suffering a severe blow to the head which almost knocked him out. Despite being half concussed, he made for the station and got a train, but it was attacked near Béthune, so he got out and walked into the town with his parachute on his back. He met a German tank coming the other way, so he left his parachute in a doorway and hitched a lift to Abbeville in an RAF lorry. There at about 2 o’clock in the morning he found a long-nosed Blenheim bomber parked on the edge of the aerodrome. He had never flown a Blenheim or any other twin-engined aircraft before, but he nevertheless decided to use it to try to get back to England. The night was pitch black. There were no lights in the aircraft, there was no flare-path, he could not see the instrument panel and he did not know where the starter buttons were. While Sandy was fumbling around in the dark, a number of other people had hopped on board the three-man Blenheim before he managed to find what he was after and take off. He was in fine pitch, the undercarriage was locked down, and he could not do more than 110 mph or get above 700 feet.
He did not know how much petrol he had, but he made for his old station at Northolt, came in over the Western Avenue and landed safely in semi-darkness just short of the mess at about a quarter past three. As his grateful passengers got out, he went to find the duty officer. There was nobody there. The whole airfield was deserted. So he got on the phone and a WAAF answered. He asked for the Station Commander, only to be told that he was not to be woken before 8 o’clock. After all he had just experienced, and with his head still throbbing, Sandy became quite vociferous and told her to put him through. When the Station Commander answered, Sandy went for him. ‘How dare you!’ he said. ‘Do you realise that I’ve just landed and there’s not a soul around and we could have been the Germans?’ ‘Do you realise who you are talking to?’ asked the Station Commander. ‘I don’t care,’ came the reply. ‘What do you mean by saying you are not to be disturbed till 8 o’clock? Do you think the Germans are going to wait till you’re our of bed?’ So Sandy was put under arrest again for showing a lack of respect and insubordination.
Squadron Leader Squadron Leader J G Sanders, poses on Supermarine Spitfire LF Mark IXB, MH819 "Red Rose III", at Squires Gate airport, Blackpool, Lancashire, before flying it to Biggin Hill, Kent, to join No. 485 Squadron RNZAF. The photograph was taken on the occasion of the presentation of three Spitfires ("Red Rose II, III and IV") to the RAF by the Lancashire Constabulary at Squires Gate. Sanders was a noted fighter pilot himself, having shot down 16 enemy aircraft (5 of them at night) between 1939 and 1941, poses on Supermarine Spitfire LF Mark IXB, MH819 "Red Rose III", at Squires Gate airport, Blackpool, Lancashire, before flying it to Biggin Hill, Kent, to join No. 485 Squadron RNZAF. The photograph was taken on the occasion of the presentation of three Spitfires ("Red Rose II, III and IV") to the RAF by the Lancashire Constabulary at Squires Gate. Sanders was a noted fighter pilot himself, having shot down 16 enemy aircraft (5 of them at night) between 1939 and 1941
Pilots of No.615 Squadron RAF wait for the order to scramble At Abbeville. Sitting (left to right); Flying Officer B P Young, Flying Officer R Gayner, Pilot Officer T C Jackson and Flying Officer L E Fredman: standing (left to right); unknown, Flying Officer P Collard and Flight Lieutenant J G Sanders.
Winston Churchill, this photo is from the machine gun incident visit.
.
