Place
Time
Pilot
Base
RAF pilot Squadron Leader Roy Dutton DFC walked onto RAF Station Kirton-in-Lindsey, North Lincolnshire in early April 1941 as the first Commanding Officer and the first member of the newly created RAAF No.452 (F) Squadron, which was
the first Australian squadron to form in Britain during the Second World War in accordance with Article XV of the Empire Air Training Scheme. On 8th April the first draft of personnel arrived on Station and over the next three weeks more personnel and sixteen war weary Mk.1a Spitfires were delivered to undertake an accelerated three week training regime. By mid-May 11 Group Fighter Command deemed the Squadron proficient enough for limited operations and, after replacing the old Mk.Ia machines with newer Mk.IIa Spitfires, was assigned to provide the tedious but essential defensive patrols for convoys in the English Channel. The Squadron’s first operational mission occurred on 22 May 1941 when Australian pilots SGT I.A.L Milne [P8038] and SGT A.C Roberts [P8085] flew an uneventful 45min defensive convoy patrol. For the next six weeks the squadron was confined to convoy escort duty interspersed with many spurious scrambles, whilst frustrating and monotonous to the pilots the duty gave the pilots valuable experience in a relatively benign war time environment. Moreover, it allowed Fighter Command to withdraw an experienced squadron from convoy duty and employ it in a more suitable area of operations.
By late June 1941 the focus of Fighter Command operations were the skies above occupied France and Belgium, where large numbers of fighters escorted a small number of bombers. The aims of the policy were twofold: to destroy large numbers of Luftwaffe fighters; and, to assist Russian forces by forcing the Luftwaffe to withdraw forces from the Eastern Front and deploy them to the Western Front to meet the RAF threat. To achieve the stated aims the RAF required as many fighters as possible and as part of the realignment of RAF fighters 452Sqn was withdrawn from convoy patrols and pitched into the air battles of northern France and Belgium.
On July 11 fourteen Spitfires departed Kirton-in-Lindsay at 1050hrs to take part in their first Circus Operation (Circus No.44). After refuelling at West Malling they were airborne at 1358hrs and formed up with 24 other Spitfires from 65Sqn and 266Sqn to form No11 Group Wing. The Wing crossed the French coast near Dunkirk at 1445hrs and a short time later eight Bf109 fighters who were seen by FLTLT Paddy Finucane [P8038] who immediately called in the threat and broke away from the 109s. Finucane skillfully slipped in behind the German leader and fired a three second 90 round burst into it after which the German pilot baled out and the 109 dived vertically into the ground. SGT A.C Roberts in P7562 failed to return and was listed as MIA, which was changed in July after word was received that Roberts was a POW. After their first taste of mass combat the squadron returned to intensive training and patrolling until they moved on 21 July 1941 to RAF Station Kenly, Surrey located much closer to the action where they were thrust into the thick of the aerial
RAF pilot Squadron Leader Roy Dutton DFC walked onto RAF Station Kirton-in-Lindsey, North Lincolnshire in early April 1941 as the first Commanding Officer and the first member of the newly created RAAF No.452 (F) Squadron, which was the first Australian squadron to form in Britain during the Second World War in accordance with Article XV of the Empire Air Training Scheme. On 8th April the first draft of personnel arrived on Station and over the next three weeks more personnel and sixteen war weary Mk.1a Spitfires were delivered to undertake an accelerated three week training regime.
By mid-May 11 Group Fighter Command deemed the Squadron proficient enough for limited operations and, after replacing the old Mk.Ia machines with newer Mk.IIa Spitfires, was assigned to provide the tedious but essential defensive patrols for convoys in the English Channel. The Squadron’s first operational mission occurred on 22May 1941 when Australian pilots SGT I.A.L Milne [P8038] and SGT A.C Roberts [P8085] flew an uneventful 45min defensive convoy patrol. For the next six weeks the squadron was confined to convoy escort duty interspersed with many spurious scrambles, whilst frustrating and monotonous to the pilots the duty gave the pilots valuable experience in a relatively benign war time environment. Moreover, it allowed Fighter Command to withdraw an experienced squadron from convoy duty and employ it in a more suitable area of operations.
By late June 1941 the focus of Fighter Command operations were the skies above occupied France and Belgium, where large numbers of fighters escorted a small number of bombers. The aims of the policy were twofold: to destroy large numbers of Luftwaffe fighters; and, to assist Russian forces by forcing the Luftwaffe to withdraw forces from the Eastern Front and deploy them to the Western Front to meet the RAF threat. To achieve the stated aims the RAF required as many fighters as possible and as part of the realignment of RAF fighters 452Sqn was withdrawn from convoy patrols and pitched into the air battles of northern France and Belgium. On July 11 fourteen Spitfires departed Kirton-in-Lindsay at 1050hrs to take part in their first Circus Operation (Circus No.44). After refuelling at West Malling they were airborne at 1358hrs and formed up with 24 other Spitfires from 65Sqn and 266Sqn to form No11 Group Wing. The Wing crossed the French coast near Dunkirk at 1445hrs and a short time later eight Bf109 fighters who were seen by FLTLT Paddy Finucane [P8038] who immediately called in the threat and broke away from the 109s. Finucane skillfully slipped in behind the German leader and fired a three second 90 round burst into it after which the German pilot baled out and the 109 dived vertically into the ground. SGT A.C Roberts in P7562 failed to return and was listed as MIA, which was changed in July after word was received that Roberts was a POW. After their first taste of mass combat the squadron returned to intensive training and patrolling until they moved on 21 July 1941 to RAF Station Kenly, Surrey located much closer to the action where they were thrust into the thick of the aerial
