Legacy of Norfolk-based pilots lives on

Friday, August 27th, 2010

ALEX HURRELL

Menus signed by some of the Battle of Britain’s bravest pilots, including men who served with distinction on Norfolk RAF bases, have turned up unexpectedly on the eve of the conflict’s 70th anniversary.

The wife and five daughters of the late Air Vice Marshal Freddie Hurrell, including two who live in Norfolk, were thrilled earlier this month when four menus signed at an honours banquet 20 years ago came to light among his unsorted papers.

Now his widow Jay has donated three of them to the RAF Benevolent Fund, hoping the timely find will boost the charity’s coffers while the war-changing aerial battle is the focus of national attention.

And the fund says it may include them in an auction at a gala dinner in London’s Guildhall on Battle of Britain Day, September 15.

The 1990 banquet, held in the Battle of Britain Hall at the RAF Museum in Hendon, marked the publication of ‘…. so few’, a £2,000 book produced for the fund to mark the Battle of Britain’s 50th anniversary.

It was attended by most of the highly-decorated 25 pilots featured in the book, including Air Marshal Sir Denis Crowley-Milling, Sqn Ldr Boleslaw Drobinski, Air Vice Marshal Harold Bird-Wilson and Air Cdre Pete Brothers, all of whom have since died.

Crowley-Milling flew Hurricanes with 242 Squadron at RAF Coltishall as ‘No 2′ to squadron leader Douglas Bader, whose charisma and enthusiasm had a lifelong influence on him. The pair remained close friends until Bader’s death.

He recalls in ‘…so few’: “I felt bloody frightened as Douglas dived us in fairly close formation slap into the middle of masses of bombers, with fighters above. The little man inside you kept telling you that this was a dangerous game, but he was drowned by Douglas’s constant encouragement over the R/T.”

Polish-born Drobinski took command of the 303 Squadron at RAF Coltishall in September 1944 when the base was briefly given over to Polish squadrons.

In the post-war era, Bird-Wilson was tasked with establishing the first base for RAF supersonic fighters at Coltishall as its commanding officer in 1959, and Brothers took charge at RAF Marham in 1957 where he commanded the first ‘V-bomber’ wing in the RAF, equipped with Valiants.

Also featured in the book, but not at the banquet, was Czech Sqn Ldr Miloslav Mansfeld, who flew Beaufighters from RAF Coltishall in 1942. On one night in early spring he shot down three enemy aircraft off Happisburgh.

Mrs Hurrell, who attended the 50th anniversary banquet with her husband, remembered: “It was marvellous and thrilling to be with all those brave men. Our tables were placed under the wings of aircraft in the museum.”

Her husband, a former director general of the RAF’s medical branch, had been one of six men who produced the limited edition ‘…so few’ with the first copy presented to the Queen.

AVM Hurrell’s daughters Katy Marczewski and Alex Hurrell live in Yaxham, near Dereham, and North Walsham, respectively.

‘…so few’ owes its name to a line from Winston Churchill’s famous speech in 1940, praising the efforts of the RAF pilots who were fighting the Battle of Britain at the time. His words were: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”