1937-1939: TEENAGER IN THE R.A.F.
1937-39: Teenager in the RAF
Tony Lovell joined the RAF straight from school in October 1937, and was posted on the 25th of the month to the civil flying school at Sywell, Northants, for his initial training. He can be seen among a batch of 13 pupil pilots - which includes the late Air Chief Marshal Sir Tom Prickett - photographed in front of a civil Tiger Moth (GA-EBY) during that winter; Sir Tom remembered him as “shy and introspective, but a very bright boy - the youngest on the course.... a very nice man.” [1]
On 9th January 1938 Tony was commissioned on a short service commission as an acting Pilot Officer on probation, effective from 25th October 1937, and was posted to No.1 RAF Depot Uxbridge for the usual two-week discipline course.
On 22nd January 1938 he went to 6FTS Netheravon, where his path first crossed that of New Zealander Al Deere, who was in the same intake. [2] Posted to 41 Sqdn (Furies) at Catterick on 20th August 1938, he actually joined his squadron in September and was confirmed in his rank of Pilot Officer on 25th October.
The squadron felt he was very young and very immature when he joined - indeed he was just 19, while some of the other pilots were up to seven years older. This may in part have been due to the fact that, even then, religion played an intensely important part in Tony’s life.
The pilots on 41 Sqdn perceived him as a devout Catholic, very close to his mother. Such as Bill Stapleton and Bob Beardsley saw him as quiet, restrained and sober, and a profound family man. [3] Tony was deeply spiritual, and apparently had a vocation for the Church - it was assumed that he would become a priest after the war ended, and this also was his mother’s greatest ambition. [4]
It was therefore not surprising that he seemed to be rather out of things, as W/Cdr David Alland of 26 Sqdn at Catterick noted:
“He did not drink or mix very well with the fighter boys like F/Lt MacDonald, Norman Ryder, Cowboy Blatchford, Butch Barton, Matheson, F/Lt Wallace, and others... In my opinion he grew up a lot in 1939 and undoubtedly was an above-average fighter pilot on Spitfires when war was declared....” [5]
Despite this, it was Tony more than any other pilot on the squadron who made an impression on G/Capt. Stephen Beaumont, who when war broke out was a 26-year-old solicitor and a member of 609 Sqdn, an RAuxAF Spitfire squadron then mobilising at Catterick.
Tony was, says Beaumont, a delightful man, “a thoroughly decent fellow... quiet, undemonstrative, charming... and above all sensitive”. With the exception perhaps of Buck Morrogh-Ryan, no-one else on 41 Sqdn made as good an impression (“I wasn’t sure about Norman Ryder, and Webster talked a lot...”).
He certainly turned out to be a natural flier. Away from flying he fretted to be back in the air; on leave in Northern Ireland he would become restless after a couple of days and start to gaze up at the clouds: “I ought to be up there!”. [6]
However reserved or reticent on the ground, once in the air Tony’s mood could change completely. According to his sister-in-law Alicia, he liked nothing better than to fly up alongside someone else and nudge wingtips.
And Wally Wallens, who flew with him on 41 Sqdn from 1938 to 1940, has described one pre-war incident involving himself, Tony (“Lulu”), and Douglas Gamblen in 41 Sqdn’s Fury IIs in these terms:
“Tearing round one cloud in a vertical turn with the stick well back, I could see Douglas hard on my heels but lost sight of “Lulu” who should have been on Douglas’s tail. Halfway round the cloud’s perimeter I heard a roar behind my head and caught a flash of a silver shape that, in a moment, passed between Douglas and I, missing us by inches. The shape was a Fury with “Lulu” at the helm travelling at the same height and at right angles to our line of flight.
We eventually rejoined Vic formation and returned, somewhat subdued, at least two of us, to the airfield. After landing Douglas and I walked over to “Lulu’s” aircraft and asked him what the hell he was playing at a while before.
“`Oh’, he drawled in his Irish brogue, `I had dropped a little behind you so I thought I’d take a short-cut to catch up!’
"I looked at Douglas, he looked at me, our eyebrows rising to our hairline as we both remarked, `What can you do with a mad, bloody Irishman?’ And there’s no answer to that, so we walked away.” [7]
Nevertheless on the squadron (and at home in Northern Ireland) many saw Tony as a reserved and almost monk-like figure. In the Mess he preferred to sit and read by the fire, or to walk any available dog; but if invited to join a party would do so well-manneredly, with good humour and social ease, as befitted a pilot of the “Catterick Independent Air Force“.
In those early days he tended not to join the others in their visits to Darlington in which “a few ales” and the vaudeville show at the theatre featured regularly. A fellow pilot’s wife, Peta Webster, saw at first-hand how quickly Tony’s attitude could change.
When Tony first joined the squadron in 1938 the Websters were living temporarily in the pub at Barton, and Tony would occasionally join them there for supper. Said Peta Webster (later Peta Jones):
"If I ran out of cigarettes when Terry was on duty, Tony would bring some over from the Mess. Although his elder by only a few years I felt ages older than him, and talked to him rather as an intelligent younger brother. We shared a mutual interest in literature, and I was very aware of his serious-minded attitude to life in general and his deep religious faith."
But Tony was never ‘one of the crowd’ who dropped in for drinks when the Websters had their married quarter at Catterick; neither now nor later did he feel comfortable in the company of an exuberant bunch of types, all of whom were older than he was.
Nor did Tony join the gang who went swimming in the Tees on free afternoons, with a drink in the George at Piercebridge before night-flying (and for whom Peta, as the only pilot’s wife on station, would produce a vast fry-up in dispersal at midnight).
He was however in the habit of strolling over to the quarter from time to time, until the point when Terry took over “B” Flight from Wally Wallace. Peta Webster saw an immediate change:
"From that moment Tony avoided any direct contact with me and was obviously different in his attitude to Terry. Terry would not discuss it and it took me ages to worm some information out of Wally Wallace. Apparently when the replacement of C.O. to B Flight came up it was between Terry and Tony, and Tony - although he had entered the R.A.F. after Terry - claimed that he was equal in seniority to Terry because the latter had lost some months’ seniority after an unfortunate contretemps with a particularly unpleasant Senior Officer in 1938. [8]
Anyway, Terry got B Flight and, since I had learned very early that wives didn’t stick their noses into Service matters, I left it at that. But I was sorry that Tony had been hurt, and regretted the loss of his friendship.” [9]
As an aside, this is one of several indications that Tony might have had something of a competitive nature. Certainly as a teenager he was caught by his brother and cousin Joan cheating at cards; as a fighter pilot he had a tendency to claim for half-victories (which some pilots couldn’t be bothered with); as a flight commander he kept a keen tally of the successes of his team; and later as leader of 244 Wing in Italy he introduced a competitive element in flying training. [10]
Of Tony, Wally Wallens said that
"...he wouldn’t enter in to the loose conversation and practices of young fellows of our age... yet he had a terrific sense of suppressed humour. I had wonderful happy conversations with him - but you couldn’t know him closely."
Indeed, Tony could be totally inscrutable:
I remember when he went on leave pre-war, seven or 14 days, but he never said where he’d been.....he kept himself so closely to himself.... [11]
He may have been among those who, like Norman Ryder [12] and Terry Webster, collected their Spitfires from Eastleigh when the squadron switched from Furies at the beginning of 1939.
He was not however among that group of three - Terry Webster included - who landed their new aircraft wheels-up at Catterick. (As explained by Peta Jones, “a buzzer sounded when the undercarriage wasn’t down, so the little monkeys switched it off....”). However there does exist a photo of Tony sitting in the cockpit of Terry’s Spitfire which has obviously just come in without benefit of undercarriage.
In March 1939 Tony Lovell went on a parachute course at Manston, and in May took part in Empire Air Day displays with 26 Sqdn at Catterick and Wyton. When war began he was described as being attached to Operations “B” at Catterick - Ops B being the deputy controller function.
The day war broke out, 41 Sqdn put its Unit Mobilization Scheme into effect. The existing Operations Record Book was closed, and sent with its duplicate copy to the Air Ministry. The new book opened with the nominal roll for 3rd September 1939:
Commanding Officer S/Ldr G.A.G. Johnston. Adjutant P/O J.E. Hibbert. O.C.,”A” Flight - Flying Officer E.N. Ryder. O.C.,”B” Flight - F/O J.T. Webster. Attached to Operations “B” - P/O A.D.J. Lovell. F/Os H.P. Blatchford, J.G. Theilmann, R.A. Barton, H.F.H. Overall. P/Os B.G. Piddocke, R.W. Wallens, J.N. Mackenzie, G.W. Cory[13] , C. Robertson, O.B. Morrogh-Ryan. F/Sgts Bennions, Shipman. Sgts Harris, Howitt, Carr-Lewty, Gillies. Squadron Operations Officers - P/O J.J.H. Copley and W.J.M. Scott.
(Only officer pilots, it will be noticed, had the courtesy of identification by initials). Meanwhile the ORB, determined not to miss a trick, went on to explain that
A state of war was declared by the British Government between Great Britain and Germany...... [14]
Under the squadron mobilisation scheme, “A” Flight moved its dispersal to the edge of the trees on the south-east side of Catterick airfield, while a water tanker was sent for the use of “B” Flight. On 4th September, 13 Group ordered C.O. S/Ldr G.A.G. Johnston to prepare a satellite airfield at Scorton, a mile or so north-east, “with all haste”.
The same day occurred the squadron’s first sortie of the war when Blue Section was scrambled to patrol Catterick by Operations “B”, the deputy controller (Blue Section usually comprised Terry Webster, Tony Lovell and one other - Wally Wallens, or Doug Gamblen, or Buck Morrogh-Ryan).
By 6th September the unit mobilization scheme had been completed; the squadron had been divided into three “watches”, two of which were on duty at any one time. Three days later this arrangement was revised so that one flight was on duty while the other was allowed off camp.
On the 7th the tentage for the satellite aerodrome at Scorton had arrived, and by the 10th the airfield was “nearly” ready for use. There were now 21 serviceable aircraft on strength, including five Command Reserves; but with nothing for aircraft and pilots to do, daily games had to organised “to maintain the morale and fitness of the Squadron”.
Wally Wallens noticed a sea-change in Tony Lovell after war broke out, when the squadron went on day and night readiness in the early months at Catterick. While the other pilots chatted or read in the bell-tents at dispersal (later replaced by wooden huts), Tony could be seen pacing up and down in his Mae West in front of his Spitfire. Said Wallens:
He’d be deep in thought, miles away, you couldn’t speak to him.
Others noticed the same thing. W/Cdr Ted Shipman remembered:
During our long periods of waiting at “readiness” he seemed to me to be more tense than most of us, perhaps impatient, and would often walk up and down away from others who would be reading or playing cards etc. Perhaps somewhat of a “loner”, impatient and keen to get on with his job.... [15]
The then Sgt Pilot Roy Ford also thought he was a loner, tautly alert at “B” Flight dispersal:
I could see him walking up and down, waiting for the landline to ring... I think he sometimes had a dog with him... This should not of course infer that he was a nervous person. We were all very much under pressure whilst awaiting the ring of the field telephone ordering an immediate take off. We had our own ways of trying to appear unconcerned .... Tony Lovell’s perambulations were just another way of controlling them. [16]
Old Amplefordian Michael Constable Maxwell suspected that Tony, in the knowledge that at any time he could be airborne to kill or be killed, would in fact have been praying - as he himself used to do in the same circumstances on 56 Sqdn. [17]
Meanwhile the AOC 13 Group, Air Vice-Marshal Richard Saul, inspected the dispersal arrangements at Catterick on the 13th, and was flown on afterwards to Church Fenton by one of the 41 Sqdn pilots - presumably in the squadron’s Miles Magister communications aircraft.
Later, Terry Webster and Cowboy Blatchford did a night sector recce and reported that the blackout was “very effective”. (Night visibility in a Spitfire was less effective, however. The squadron instructor – W/Cdr J.R.C.Young – remembered Tony as “a tall, intense young man” who in the following months was dismayed that the night vision characteristics of the Spitfire - partly caused by exhaust flame - were preventing successful interceptions on dark nights.)
The squadron’s first wartime casualty occurred on 14th September when P/O Copley hit the watch office on take-off in Spitfire K.9849, and was killed (F/O “Pooky” Overall was also to be killed on take-off later in the year). Terry Webster headed a Committee of Adjustment, and W/Cdr Richardson the Court of Enquiry. [18]
The writer of the Operations Record Book was still struggling to find the mot juste:
The corpse of P/O Copley sent by rail to Whittlesford.
Tony Lovell ceased to be attached to station HQ for ops room duty on 21st November; he had however still found time to fly. At the end of September, for example, he had been night flying training with Buck Morrogh-Ryan, P/O Robertson and Sgt Gillies.
On 1st November, with Wally Wallens and with Terry Webster leading, he had been the third member of Blue Section when it was ordered to patrol Catterick at 2000ft.
On the 7th of the month Blue Section - Terry leading, Tony as Blue 2, Sgt Howitt as Blue 3 - had patrolled Seaham Harbour and Whitby at the same height; on the 10th, it was Hartlepool at 10,000 and 20,000ft (with Buck Morragh-Ryan as third man). At this stage Tony almost always flew as no.2 to Terry Webster, or as Blue 3 if Wally Wallens was flying (as on the 15th and 17th of the month, for example).
It was on 17th December 1939 that Terry and Tony had their first taste of action. The pair were scrambled in mid-afternoon to intercept a German aircraft which was attacking a coastal convoy near Whitby. It was an He.115. Terry Webster fired 500 rounds from his eight machine guns and succeeded in hitting it, but the raider vanished into cloud before Tony was able to open fire. [19]
Perhaps the first exciting moment of Tony Lovell‘s war came when, circling Catterick after take-off, “there was a bang and his propeller stopped rotating”. He landed his Spitfire I safely at the edge of the airfield with a flicker of flame showing at the air intake.
The airmen who congregated at the spot pushed the aircraft into the rough grass, whereupon flames shot out the front end and it began to burn in earnest. Everyone withdrew again to a respectful distance. At this point Tony Lovell, with a cry of “My gloves!”, seized a handy bicycle, pedalled back to the blaze, rummaged in the cockpit, and pedalled away again with his mission accomplished. The aircraft burned out. [20]
It was at about this time, towards the end of 1939, that a young Bill Stapleton joined 41 Sqdn from gunnery school at Evanton:
It was a cold but beautiful day, I went down to the hangars and there was not an aircraft to be seen. I put on a record of Glen Miller’s on the player in the crew room and waited - not in vain, as twelve Spits roared over the airfield in four sections of three. Twelve noisy and exuberant pilots entered the room and I was, as exuberantly and noisily, introduced around the squadron. One welcoming and smiling face was that of Tony who asked me how old I was; upon being told he grimaced and said he’d enjoyed being the youngest in the squadron and that now I’d taken over. [21]
NOTES
1. Air Chief Marshal Sir Tom Prickett, pers. comm.
2. Air Cdre Alan Deere, pers. comm.
3. W/Cdr W Stapleton, S/Ldr R Beardsley, pers. comms.
4. Albert Rawlings, village correspondent, Portrush.
5. W/Cdr Alland to Pat Swannell.
6. Tony Pearce, pers. comm.
7. "Flying Made my Arms Ache", S/Ldr R Wallens DFC. But Tony Lovell had no discernable Irish brogue; and for the rest of the war no-one else seems to have referred to him as Lulu. So perhaps just a Wallensism. He failed to mention it when we met.
8. Terry Webster's "contretemps" resulted from an unauthorised landing at Filton to see Peta, then his fiancee. He was ordered to take off again immediately by the "north-west frontier type" CO (Stannard), whereupon he departed over the CO at 0 feet. For this manoeuvre Terry was docked 6 months seniority.
9. Mrs Peta Jones (pers. comm). Liliane "Peta" Mogg met Terry Webster at Kenley in 1936; they were married in Bristol in 1937. (`What the hell did the Padre call you?' demanded Terry at the wedding rehearsal; `if I'd known you were called that, I wouldn't have married you!'). She married in 1947 G/Capt J.P. "Nick" Jones MBE, one of whose claims to fame was that he had given a helping hand to Ernst Udet, the Luftwaffe's technical director, when the later had force-landed during a wildlife filming expedition in Africa before the war.
10. Tony and his older brother Stuart "liked each other as long as they were not too close" (sister Mrs Clare Pearce, pers. comm). The two seem to have been poles apart in character - Tony withdrawn, Stuart ebulliant and gung-ho.
11. The late S/Ldr Wally Wallens (pers. comm). S/Ldr Bob Rutter remembered the same trait in Tony, observed at Old Sarum in 1945 (pers. comm).
12. Norman Ryder - "An odd bod - a very odd bod" was one contemporary's description of this commander of "A" Flight, whose sister Sue used to partner him on ladies' nights in the Mess (this was not, as has been suggested, the now Lady Sue Ryder). Peta Jones felt that Ryder did not approve of Terry Webster; it has also been said - by Gilbert Draper, pers. comm - that Ryder didn't have much time for Tony Lovell either. This is presumably on a personal level, as Ryder seems to have been confident in Tony's abilities as a pilot.
13. Guy Cory survived the war and in 1948 as a Sqdn/Ldr was Chief Flying Instructor at the Oxford University Air Squadron, Foxley-Norris in command. Adjudant Peter (later Air Marshal) Horsley described him as "a man of immense talent and charm"; however after an incident in which a pupil was injured during a dogfighting exercise with Cory, the latter was placed under open arrest and charged with flying in such a manner as to endanger another's life. "It was an obscure charge and it proved very difficult to make it stick. Guy was acquitted but left the squadron under a cloud." (Sounds From Another Room, Leo Cooper 1997). Horsley was a bit of a flying saucer nutter.
14. PRO AIR 27/425.
15. W/Cdr Ted Shipman to Chris John.
16. Roy Ford, pers. comm. He described Tony Lovell as "an outstandingly courageous and committed officer".
Tony’s habit of pacing impatiently was later noted in the Catterick ops room by 932733 sergeant deputy controller Len Hall: “Your father and Sqd Leader Bennions took turns in the Operations Room as Controllers. I remember your father pacing up and down when all was quiet, longing for a ‘Bandit’ to appear on the plotting table.... Without prejudice I state that Tony Lovell and Benny Bennions were my heroes and I had great respect, awe and admiration for them.” (Pers. comm.)
17. M.H. Constable Maxwell, pers. comm. It was Constable Maxwell who, on returning from a successful combat, would make a particular point of asking the local Catholic priest to say a Mass for his victims. NB also that Tony would go to confession on his return from shooting down an aircraft (Bennions via Bill Norman, pers. comm.).
18. Pooky Overall was a Canadian pilot who by sheer obstinacy and persistence had managed to join the RAF despite the fact that he was barely 5 feet tall. He achieved his objective by sitting on the steps of the Air Ministry for three days until someone took pity on him (Peta Jones, pers. comm).
19. Combat report, J T Webster, PRO AIR 27/427.
20. W.S.McFarlane to Pat Swannell.
21. Stapleton, pers. comm.
