1943 - MALTA OFFENCE
Tony Lovell: 1943
8SOR/Krendi Wing/Safi Wing/242 Gp/322 Wing leader
First DSO (Immediate). Valetta, April 1943. Lord Gort r.
On 9th January 1943 Tony Lovell was promoted to acting wing commander (at the age of 23½) and posted to RAF Luqa, where he went to RAF Middle East’s 8 Sector ops room on fighter control duties. Two months later he was back in the air, leading the Krendi Spitfire wing.
Krendi had been opened by the Governor of Malta, Lord Gort, on 10th November 1942, and was home to 249 Sqdn which moved up from Ta Kali on the 18th of the month. The policy was for two squadrons to operate from the airfield, and 229 Sqdn accordingly arrived from Ta Kali on 10th December 1942. 1
By 9th March 1943 Tony was flying Spitfires from Krendi, presumably as Wing Commander (Flying) in succession to W/Cdr A.V.R. Johnstone, who had held the post briefly since 27th January. 2
On the morning of the 9th Tony took up 249 Sqdn’s TW343 for 20 minutes, and their TL226 for 15 minutes after lunch (and was to stick with the latter for the next fortnight).
The following day he led a mid-morning sweep to Comiso, taking off at 10am:
8 Spits of 229 Sqdn and 8 Spits of 249 Sqdn flew over Comiso area on a Fighter Sweep without seeing any e/a. 249 Sqdn patrolled at 15,000’ and crossed the coast out near Pozzalo while 229 Sqdn maintained high cover at 25,000’ and came back just East of Gela. No a/a was experienced. Two aircraft of 249 Sqdn were back at 1020 hours one having a slight Glycol leak and the other accompanying him home.
The day after, 11th March, Tony and the C/O of 249 Sqdn, S/Ldr M.G.McLeod, took off at 0920 on a rhubarb over Sicily. Their Spitfires equipped with medium-range fuel tanks, the two headed north over the Mediterranean at wavetop height.
As they approached Pozzalo S/Ldr McLeod called up his leader on the R/T to say that he was not quite satisfied with his drop tank, and as a result Tony decided to abort the original mission and go for a closer target.
The pair therefore turned in and crossed the coast of Sicily about 10 miles south-west of Comiso, looking for a target of opportunity. Four or five miles inland this quickly presented itself in the form of a goods train coming in their direction.
It was 0945hrs when Tony attacked head-on at zero feet. He saw strikes from his cannon and machine guns, and a cloud of steam erupted from the locomotive as he flashed past.
Of McLeod however there was no sign:
S/Ldr McLeod presumably followed W/Cdr Lovell into attack but could not be seen or contacted afterwards. He spoke over the R.T. to his leader just as the aircraft turned in to cross the coast and gave no indication of anything wrong with his aircraft. No a/a was experienced and no E/A seen. 3
Every day that there was flying, Tony Lovell flew. He was up for 35 minutes on 12th March, and on the 13th
8 Spits of 249 Sqdn escorted 229 Spit-Bombers to Ragusa, one section flying at 21,500’ and the others at 22,500’ over the target area while the bombing took place. Slight Heavy A/A from N.W. target area.
Everyone was safely back at Krendi by 1115hrs, and in the afternoon Tony took TL226 up again for a quick 15 minutes local flying.
On the 14th, he did a 50-minute “cannon test”; on the 16th, he led a section of four 249 Sqdn Spitfires as escort to a morning raid on Comiso airfield by eight Spit-Bombers:
Approaching the target and making a shallow dive from 20,000’ the Bombers [released] 16 x 250lb G.P. inst bombs from about 16,000’, while the escort remained at 25,000’. 9/10ths cloud from about 3,000’ to 7/10,000’ obscured results but all bombs in target area. Some Light A/A was experienced, late, from Comiso area. All our A/C returned safely.
In the afternoon Tony had another 30 minutes’ local, and 40 minutes the day after. There was no operational flying for the next two days.
He led a flight of 249 Sqdn on a dive-bombing raid on 20th March, but the objective was not recorded in the Summary of Events then being kept by 249 Sqdn (on plain paper, supplies of Forms 540 and 541 presumably being non-existent at the time). As seems to have been his habit, Tony then had a quick 30 minutes after lunch.
It is assumed that in this time at Krendi Tony was simply filling in until a new sweep leader was posted. This was to be W/Cdr John Ellis (like Johnstone another ex-Battle of Britain pilot) who on 21st March was up in Tony’s TL226 for an hour’s local flying. 4
Tony himself took off at 1030hrs in the same aircraft for 25 minutes with S/Ldr J.J. Lynch. Ellis and Tony each did an hour in TL226 on the 21st, and 50 minutes each on the 23rd (when Ellis did a beat-up in an army co-operation exercise).
Tony was posted back to 8 S.O.R. on 24th March 1943, and in April received his DSO from Lord Gort at a well-publicised open-air investiture in Valetta. He began another operational tour on 16th July 1943 as sweep leader of the Safi Wing, and is known to have destroyed at least one enemy aircraft during his time there. 5
Safi strip had originally been an emergency landing ground, and a dispersal area for Hurricanes from Ta Kali. It was then joined by taxi track to Luqa (and later to Hal Far) and became a Luqa dispersal (1435 Sqdn had used it as such since the summer of 1942). 6
In February 1943 work was started by no.5051 (Works) Squadron, under the command of S/Ldr Kidman, to expand Safi into a full-scale airfield in its own right, with one permanent and one fair-weather runway.
By the end of the month the two runways were nearly ready, crew rooms and control tower were complete, and work had begun on Station Headquarters in Safi village. On 19th March W/Cdr Innes Westmacott - an old Malta hand, having commanded 1435 Flight before Tony Lovell took it over as a squadron - was appointed to command, and the following day the station was technically in being. It had not however been all plain sailing:
Considerable difficulty has been experienced in obtaining supplies of all kinds, but other Units have co-operated very well, as they appear to realise the difficulties attendant upon opening up a new Station in Malta...
Despite a slowdown in construction work due to the withdrawal of labour for work elsewhere, and to the shortage of skilled labour in general, Safi was handed over on 15th May 1943 by Lord Gort to the AOC Malta, Air Vice Marshal Sir Keith Park, who then took off in a Spitfire.
1435 Sqdn were already in residence, and on 9th June the Spitfires of 111 Sqdn - two Mk IXs, the rest Mk Vs - arrived from North Africa under the command of S/Ldr G. Hill DFC. W/Cdr Duncan Smith was posted as deputy station commander and wing leader. Then came 126 Sqdn, and on 20th June, the King (who the previous day had knighted Montgomery at Tripoli in the lunch marquee near the airfield:
Visit of HIS MAJESTY THE KING to MALTA. Visited SAFI with the Air Officer Commanding.... at 1700 hours. Party drew up on Airfield, where AFRICAN troops lined the road, and spoke to the Station Commander, Wing Commander I.B. WESTMACOTT, D.F.C....
VIP visits at this time were a regular occurrence. Sir Archibald Sinclair came on the 26th of the month, Monty on 4th July, six days before the invasion of Sicily. General Alexander came on the 7th, Air Vice Marshal Cunningham on the 9th. 112 Sqdn also arrived with their Kittybombers. It was the eve of the invasion.
Next to arrive was W/Cdr Brian Kingcome, who as leader of 244 Wing flew in with 1435 Sqdn. He was then promoted to Group Captain commanding 244 Wing, with Wilfred Duncan Smith as wing leader.
More VIPs visited - Eisenhower, Wigglesworth the Deputy C-in-C (and Tedder‘s representative on Malta), Park, Mountbatten. Meanwhile 111 and 112 Sqdns left for Sicily, and on 24th July Tony Lovell was posted to Safi as Wing Commander Flying (Sweep Leader). Five days later
Wing Commander A.D.J. LOVELL, D.S.O., D.F.C. granted the War Substantive Rank of Squadron Leader, w.e.f. 9th April, 1943.
In August there was little operational flying from Safi, apart from convoy patrols. Of 126 Sqdn‘s 400 hours for the month, only 64 were operational; 1435 Sqdn put in 52 operational hours out of a total of 450. Time was taken for relaxation:
The airmen have been able to take part in various welfare and sports activities, including spelling bees, gramophone recitals, lectures by visiting and station officers, swimming sports, baseball practices. Leave has also been freely granted. This has been well earned by their sterling work during the period covering the invasion of Sicily.
Both squadrons threw a party - 1435 on the 14th of the month in the airmen’s dining hall to celebrate their first birthday (“An enjoyable time was had”) and 126 on the 26th, venue the Empire Bar in Sliema (“The evening was a great success”).
On the 18th, two of 1435 Sqdn’s Spitfires crashed on landing, and the following day a Beaufighter from W/Cdr “Windy” Wild’s 272 Sqdn at Luqa force-landed with engine failure (Wild’s wife was Kathleen Mary née Webster of Nairobi, daughter of the Accountant-General of Kenya). 8 To add to the excitement, General Giraud visited Safi on the 20th of the month.
September operational flying hours were an improvement on those of August: 126 Sqdn put in 134 hours, 1435 Sqdn, 136 hours. The circumstances under which Tony Lovell is “known to have destroyed at least one enemy aircraft” are unclear, but RAF casualty records show that he was wounded in Spitfire JF419 of 126 Sqdn at 0700 hrs on 10th September at Safi, and this may be related. 9
Safi was now winding down. On the 21st of the month an advance party from 126 Sqdn left for Dittaino in Sicily, and two days later their Spitfires departed.
On the 22nd the Safi Mess gave a party for some 40 officers from Air Headquarters at 120 Tower Road. The AOC was invited but was away at the time; the Senior Air Staff Officer did come, as did the commanding officers from Luqa, Ta Kali, Hal Far and Krendi.
The following day the aircraft of 126 Sqdn left for Sicily, and only 1435 Sqdn remained. Led by Innes Westmacott, himself a Battle of Britain pilot, squadron and station personnel attended the B of B open-air memorial service at Luqa on the 26th.
The amount of flying from RAF Safi was now minimal. The war was sweeping north; fighter squadrons were already operating from forward strips and captured Italian airfields.
On 19th October 1943 the main party of 1435 Sqdn left Malta by landing craft for Taranto, with such a ragbag of lash-up support equipment that the ground crews were referring to the unit as Fred Karno’s Air Force. 10
Seventeen Spitfires left Safi on the 26th, airborne by 1045 hrs. The station closed down in November, and Tony Lovell went on to do a three-week stint with 242 Group (North African Coastal Air Force).
On 7th December 1943 he was posted to 322 Wing, and arrived at Gioia del Colle as Wing Commander (Flying). Two days later the Wing began to move to Aleppo, its aircraft staging Malta and Castel Benito.
The sea party arrived at Aleppo on Christmas Eve, and on that day Tony, in the company of F/Lt Bam Bamberger of 243 Sqdn, sought out a likely-looking church and – to Bamberger’s increasing surprise – sat through no fewer than three consecutive services (“Sit down, Bamberger, they haven’t finished yet”).11
Even at this point in the war, the outward signs of Tony’s religious belief were still to the fore. On one occasion in Malta (where one of his maternal aunts was head of a convent) he was seen kneeling on the steps of a church which was locked; the local people informed their priest, who thereafter opened the church early each morning so that Tony could take Communion.
NOTES: 1943
1. RAF Krendi ORB (PRO AIR 28/433).
2. Johnstone, who at 27 was three years older than Tony Lovell, had commanded 602 Sqdn during the Battle of Britain, and went to HQ 263 Group (Beirut) in Sept. 1941. He went to Malta as deputy station commander at Luqa, and was a fighter controller at Valetta. (Wynn, op.cit.).
3. ORB 249 Sqdn (PRO AIR27/1498).
4. John Ellis was then 26. When war broke out he was posted as flight commander to 610 Sqdn, and was given command as the Battle of Britain started. He was with the Desert Air Force in 1942 before being posted to lead the Krendi wing. (Wynn, op.cit.).
5. Citation for Bar to DSO.
6. These and following details from ORB R.A.F. Safi (PRO AIR 28/677).
7. The day before, the King had knighted Montgomery at Tripoli "in the lunch marquee near the airfield".
8. Relevant when the connection of Tony Lovell with Kathleen Mary Webster is considered.
9. Via S/Ldr Chris Goss, pers. comm.
10. LAC Hows, op. cit.
11. S/Ldr Bam Bamberger (pers. comm).
12. Mrs Clare Pearce to Pat Swannell.
