Over Grand Harbour by Anthony Saunders
P40 Kittyhawk over the Grand Harbour of Malta.
The Sky Warriors by Anthony Saunders
Sopwith Camel with 65 Squadron, on routine
patrol, meet head-on with the unmistakable Albatross fighters of the
German air force.
Maltese Falcons by Anthony Saunders Depicting Spitfires of No.229 squadron as they pass over Malta in 1942, a
tribute to the young pilots, regarded as the saviour of an Island.
Lancaster Dawn by Anthony Saunders Depicts a 103 squadron Lancaster
returning from a night-time bombing mission.
GAUNTLET BY ANTHONY SAUNDERS Portsmouth August 26th 1940, the lone spitfire of Squadron Leader
Sandy Johnstone breaks the ranks and picks off one of the menacing
Heinkels only to encounter an equally determined attack from a BF109.
Accompanying the artists signature are three signatures
from pilots of 602 Squadron:
Air Vice Marshal Sandy Johnstone, Air Commodore Micky Mount and Wing Commander
Hector MacLean.
Air
Commodore Micky Mot, CBE, DSO, DFC
Flying Officer C.J Mount
joined NO.602 squadron on August 8th 1940 after a brief conversion
course on Spitfires. On August 18th his Spitfire L1005 was severely damaged in combat with JU 87's and BF109's over Ford. Micky was unhurt.
he again escaped injury when his Spitfire X4270 was damaged landing at
Tangmere. he served in many of the theatres of WW2 and he flew
Hurricanes in Malta and North Africa and Wellingtons in the Middle east.
Micky is now retired and lives in Ascot in Berkshire.
Wing
Commander Hector Maclean
Hector was flying with No 602 squadron
before war broke out. A gallant young man, his fighter pilot days were
drawn to an abrupt halt on August 26th 1940 when his leg was severely injured during battle, but the war was not by no means over. After his
recovery he was posted to Rosemount for duty as a fighter controller, in
the rank of Squadron Leader. hector is now retired and lives in
Kilmacolm near Glasgow.
Air Vice-Marshall Sandy Johnson CB, DFC,
AE.
Sandy was in command of no. 602 squadron during the
critical days of the Battle of Britain, flying with the squadron before
the war though to 1941, when he was posted to the Middle east, he also
served with 229 and 249 squadrons in Malta during the Islands most
fateful days of the war. sandy is now a successful author living near
Ipswich in Suffolk
The Gauntlet Action South of Portsmouth 26th August 1940.
We
were brought to readiness in the middle of lunch and scrambled to
intercept mixed bag of 100+ Heinkel III's and DO 17's approaching
Portsmouth from the South. The controller did a first class job
and positioned us one thousand feet above the target. with the sun
behind us, allowing us to spot the raiders from a long way off. No
escorting Messchersmitts were in sight at the time, although a sizable
force was to turn up soon after. then something strange happened.
I
was about to give a ticking off to our chaps for misusing the R/T when I
realised I was listening to German voices. It appeared we were both
using the same frequency and, although having no knowledge of the
language it sounded from the monotonous flow of the conversation that
they were unaware of our presence. as soon as we dived towards
the leading formation, however we were assailed immediately to loud
shouts of Achtung Spitfuern Spitfuern! as our bullets began to
take their toll.
In spite of having taken jerry by surprise our
bag was only six, with others claimed as damaged, before the remainder
dived for cloud cover and turned for home. In the meantime the escorting
fighters were amongst us when two of our fellows were badly shot up.
hector Maclean stopped a cannon shell on his cockpit, blowing his foot
of above the ankle although, in spite of his grave injuries, he managed
to fly his spitfire back to Tangmere to land with wheels retracted.
Cyril Babbage's aircraft was also badly damaged in the action. forcing
him to abandon it and take to his parachute. He was ultimately picked up
by a rescue launch and put ashore at Bognor, having suffered only minor
injuries.
I personally accounted for one Heinkel III in the
action (Sandy Johnson).
No. 602 'City of Glasgow' auxiliary
squadron was a household name long before WW11 began. It had been the
first auxiliary squadron to get into the air in 1925, two of its
members, Lord Clydeside and David McIntyre were the first to
conquer Mount Everest in 1933; the squadron sweeped the board in gunnery
and bombing in 1935, beating the regular squadrons at their own game. It
was the first auxiliary Squadron to be equipped with Spitfire Fighters
as far back as March 1939 and it was the first squadron to shoot down
the first enemy aircraft on British Soil.
The squadron moved
south from Drem airfield in east Lothian on August 14th 1940. to relieve
the already battered no. 145 squadron at Westhapnett, Tangmere's
satelitte station in Sussex. the squadron suffered 5 casualties during
the battle. The squadron remained at Westhampnett until December 1940 to
be replaced by no. 610 auxiliary airforce squadron. No 602 squadron
itself remained active up until 1957 when it was put into mothballs.
