Operation: Scramble

Date: 25 August 1940 (Sunday)

Unit: No. 616 Squadron (motto: Nulla Rosa Sine Spina - 'No rose without a thorn') 12 Group

Type: Spitfire Ia

Serial: R6966 (1)

Code: QJ-Y

Base: RAF Kenley

Location: Calais, France

Pilot: Sgt. Philip Thomas Wareing 748091 RAFVR Age 24. PoW at Oflag XXI B, Schubin, Poland

REASON FOR LOSS:

12 aircraft were scrambled at 18:23 hrs to patrol at 15.000 ft. over Maidstone, then ordered to Canterbury to intercept a raid of some 20 plus Dornier Do.17's escorted by a similar number of Me.109's.

The squadron were broken up by the Me109's and a huge dog fight followed.

F/O. George Edward Moberly 90332 claimed a Me109 as destroyed, P/O. John Swift Bell 90051 claimed a Me109 as a probable. Sgt. Marmaduke Ridley 565201 claimed a Do.17 destroyed. In addition 3 Me109's and a Do.17 were claimed as damaged.

616 suffered casualties, Sgt. Westmoreland flying Spitfire Ia R6966 was shot down over Canterbury but neither his body or the aircraft were recovered.

Sgt. Wareing engaged the enemy fighters and was chased over the channel. His fairly new Spitfire took many hits. Then, as another enemy fighter poured fire into his Spitfire, the petrol tank over his legs went up and the blast helped him escape from the cockpit. Fearing that he might be shot at as he descended, Wareing delayed opening his parachute until enemy aircraft had moved away, and landed in a ploughed field.

Before an enemy motor-cyclist with sidecar arrived to take him prisoner, he remembered to wipe the recognition signal letters of the day from one of his hands, using his blood!

At a nearby Luftwaffe base he was treated as a comrade, the German pilots apologising that all the captured Naafi Scotch and beer was finished and they could offer only cognac.

His membership of the German Alpine Club before the war added to the camaraderie, and he was presented with cigarettes and chocolate.

Before leaving the enemy base, Wareing gave his name and address to a Luftwaffe pilot who was shot down over south-east England shortly afterwards.

Finding Wareing's name in the pilot's pocket, an intelligence officer was able to tell his mother that her son was alive. At that stage all she knew was that he was missing though his Squadron's commanding officer had written to her 'We all hope that he will turn up yet'

In the late afternoon of the 16th December 1942, Sgt. Wareing was detailed with other inmates at Schubin camp, a converted girls school 150 miles west of Warsaw, to collect bread from a railway siding. When one of the working party dropped a loaf on the line, Wareing, on the pre-text of picking it up, made his getaway in the gathering darkness.

Well prepared, he had food, maps, a compass and was wearing grubby army trousers, a cloth cap and an RAF tunic which he had altered to pass as a civilian jacket.

Reaching Bromberg, some 20 miles north of Schubin, he found a rickety bicycle which he pedalled and walked to Gradenz. At the railway station there, he swapped this bicycle for a new one which a German had just left propped against a wall, and set out for Danzig.

Above Oflag XXI B Schubin, Poland, then and now

There was a heart-stopping moment as he crossed a heavily guarded bridge over the Vistula. While guards were questioning two Germans in uniform, Wareing cycled past them.

Arriving in Danzig, he was dismayed to find he had forgotten to bring the money he had ready for an escape. However, it was not long before he saw some Swedish ships whose Blue Peter pennants indicated

imminent departure. After hiding among timber piles, he walked up the gangway of one of the ships which was loading coal.

Later that day he was spotted by a party of Russians working in the coal hole but after saying quietly 'Angliski pilot' the Russians left him alone.

Late that night when they had gone, he concealed himself amid the coal. The ship sailed the next morning. Two days later a member of the crew saw him, but the ship was close to Halmstad where the Swedish police collected him.

Shortly afterwards the British Legation in Stockholm arranged his repatriation. For the remainder of the war he served as an instructor. For his achievement with his incredible escape and evasion he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal on the 14th December 1943.

Burial details:

Philip Thomas Wareing. Fowey Cemetery, Fowey, Cornwall, England. Born on the 20th December 1915 in Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, England. Educated at Bishops Vesey's Grammar School, Sutton Goldfield. He joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1939. By the end of the war, Wareing had been promoted to Fl/Lt. 155258 and served in Australia. He worked in Air Traffic Control for a while after leaving the RAF and was also involved in delivering cars. A half brother of Eustace Bernard Foley Wareing (2). Thomas Wareing died in Cornwall on the 10th May 1987, age 71.

Others:

Sgt. Thomas Emrys Westmoreland. Runnymede Memorial. Panel 20. Also remembered on Family Memorial at Wellhouse Methodist Graveyard in Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. Born in Huddersfield on the 5th June 1913. After leaving school Thomas Emrys Westmoreland joined Metropolitan-Vickers as an apprentice in January 1934. Following the completion of his apprenticeship, in June 1938, he joined the staff of the Railway Signals Engineering Department. Thomas Westmoreland had gained a civil pilot’s licence, funded by himself, on the 5th January 1937, subsequently joining the RAFVR as a Sergeant on the 8th May 1938. He was called up on the 1st September 1939 and on completion of his training at No.2 Flying Training School at Brize Norton, joined 616 Squadron at Leconfield on the 18th June 1940.

Son of Thomas Gladstone Westmoreland (died on the 11th October 1944, age 63) and Louisa Annie Westmoreland (Nee Bray - died on the 03rd January 1921, age 40), brother of Nancy, Thomas, William and Julie. of 50 Bath Street, Huddersfield. His father married again to a Annie Robshaw in December 1921 and the couple had two more children, Ethel and Betty (Betty died at 2 years old).

F/O. George Edward Moberly. Caterham And Warlingham Burial Ground (Caterham). Sec. A. Grave 179. Killed on the 26th August 1940 at 12:15hrs. Shot down over Dover flying Spitfire Ia N3275. Born on the 23rd December 1914 in Mumbai, India. Son of Charles Noel (died 01st January 1969, age 88) and Kate Charlotte Moberly, (nee Fottrell - died 16th May 1961, age 85) of Folkestone. Epitaph: 'Eternal Rest Grant Unto Him, O Lord; And Let Perpetual Light Shine Upon Him'.

F.O. John Swift Bell. Lincoln Eastgate Cemetery. Section A. Grave 483. (parents sharing the same plot) On the 26th August 1940 at at 12:00hrs flying Spitfire Ia R6632. Made a forced landing after combat with Me109. Killed on the 30th August 1940 flying Spitfire Ia X4248. Son of Major Herbert Alfred Bell (died 1952, age 82) and Ethel Mary Bell (died 14th March 1946, age 66) of Lindum Close, Wragby Road, Lincoln. B.A. (Cantab.). Epitaph: 'Greater Glory Hath No Man. "Never Was So Much Owed. By So Many To So Few'.

Sgt. Marmaduke Ridley. Hawkinge Cemetery. Plot O. Row 1. Grave 23. Killed on the 26th August 1940 at 12:15hrs. Shot down in Spitfire Ia R6633. Born in October 1915 in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Son of Marmaduke Ridley (died in 1936) and Isabel Crowe Robson Ridley, (nee Brow), of Benwell, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Epitaph 'God Giveth His Beloved Sleep'.

(1) This is recorded as K9819 in most publications. It was not until Wing Leader and Chris Goss examined a private wartime 8mm film that this was not a film of a Blenheim as first thought, but indeed is was R6966 and Sgt. Wareing. Exam the film below tp see how they came to this conclusion.

(2) Eustace Bernard Foley Wareing - In 1929 he was appointed as a foreign correspondent of the Daily Telegraph , first in Rome, then in Berlin from 1933-1938, when he transferred to Paris. During the Second World War, Wareing was the newspaper's special correspondent for French Affairs and diplomatic correspondent, 1940-1943, and special correspondent in Algiers in 1943. In 1944 he covered General de Gaulle's visits to Washington and Ottawa. He returned to Paris after the liberation of the city and continued as the Telegraph's correspondent until 1948, when he joined the Control Commission in Germany as a temporary civil servant until his retirement in 1953.

Researched and dedicated to the relatives of pilots, with thanks to the National Archives Kew, AIR 27-2126-11/12, Wing Leader publications, Chris Goss, Kenley Revival, Huddersfield Examiner.

Above courtesy of Wing Leader publications and Chris Goss

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