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Articles
"THERE'S ONE GOING DOWN IN FLAMES!" by Dean Sumner
The sad
truth behind a dramatic moment as described by an excited
Charles Gardner of the BBC, as he gives an almost sports-like
commentary to a dogfight above the English Channel near Dover.
In the first week of the official
start to the Battle of Britain in early July 1940, the
Luftwaffe concentrated its initial efforts in attacking
British convoys in the English Channel, whilst at the same time
hoping to entice up large formations of RAF fighters and inflict
heavy losses upon them. Fortunately No.11 Group of RAF Fighter
Command had a wise head leading it in the form of Air
Vice-Marshal Keith Park, and he knew that now was not the time
to commit his squadrons in strength and risk losing precious
pilots and aircraft over the sea. The convoys nonetheless
required a measure of protection, so therefore only modest
numbers of the No.11 Group Hawker Hurricanes and Supermarine
Spitfires were being sent up to provide air cover.
Intense Luftwaffe attacks
upon shipping began on Wednesday 10th July and
continued over the following three days where many of the air
battles could be witnessed from the well-placed seaside resorts
along the south coast of England. Thus to the cliff-tops of
Dover did the BBC commentator Charles Gardner visit on the
afternoon of Sunday 14th July hoping to witness yet
another air battle. At around 15:00 hours with microphone in
hand, Gardner looked out from his grandstand view as a small
convoy of merchant ships with Royal Navy escorts slowly slipped
through the Dover Straits. Suddenly the sky out to sea began to
reverberate to the sound of aircraft and within moments Gardner
began to record his now famous broadcast:-
“The Germans are dive-bombing a
convoy out to sea! There are one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven German dive-bombers! - Junkers Eighty-Sevens! There’s one
going down on its target now - Bomb! No! He missed the ships –
it hasn’t hit a single ship. There are about ten ships in the
convoy, but he hasn’t hit a single one and - There! You can hear
our anti-aircraft going at them now. There are one, two, three,
four, five, six - there are about ten German machines
dive-bombing the British convoy, which is just out to sea in the
Channel.”
Unknown to the BBC man but in
accordance with Keith Park’s tactics, there were just three
Hurricanes belonging to Red Section of No.615 Squadron
patrolling over the convoy. Hardly pausing for breath Gardner
rattled on in ever growing excitement and glee!
“I can’t see anything. No! - We thought he had got a German
one at the top then, but now the British fighters are coming up!
Here they come. The Germans are coming in an absolute steep
dive, and you can see their bombs actually leave the machines
and come into the water. You can hear our guns going like
anything now. I am looking round now - I can hear machine gun
fire, but I can’t see our Spitfires, they must be somewhere
there. Oh! Here’s one coming down!”
From his vantage point and
probably like any less-than-well-informed British patriot,
Gardner would not have contemplated the RAF taking losses and
believed that every RAF fighter was a Spitfire! The three Hurricanes were
in fact heavily outnumbered and there were more than just the
Junkers Ju 87 ‘Stukas’ to deal with, as deadly
Messerschmitt Me109’s from both Jagdgeschwader 3
and 51 were providing escort to the dive-bombers.
Watching as the spectacle in the sky continued, Gardner then
joyously exclaimed:-
“There’s one going down in flames! Somebody’s hit a German and he’s
coming down with a long streak - coming down completely out of
control - a long streak of smoke. And now a man’s baled out by
parachute! The pilot’s baled out by parachute! He’s a Junkers
Eighty-Seven and he’s going slap into the sea. And there he goes
- SMASH! A terrific column of water and there was a Junkers
Eight-Seven. Only one man got out by parachute, so presumably
there was only a crew of one in it!”
The Operational Record Book of
No.615 Squadron. recorded the following:-
“At 15:00 hours Red section
were patrolling convoy near Dover, when convoy was attacked by
40 JU87’s which were escorted by ME109’s. Pilot Officer
M.R.MUDIE (Red 3) was shot down, and jumped by parachute…Red 1
and 2 put several bursts into JU87’s but were unable to observe
results as they were being attacked.”
For 24 years old
Michael Mudie had stood little chance in evading the
Schwarms of Me109’s on his tail, and no less than four
Jagdflieger claimed a share in the destruction of his
Hurricane (L1584 KW-G). These victorious German pilots included
Oberfeldwebel Trebing of JG3, Walter Krieger of
JG51 along with two of his better-known unit comrades by the
names of Oberleutnant Josef Priller and Hauptmann
Horst Tietzen.
Unaware of his error in misidentifying the shot
down aircraft, Gardner did nevertheless state in his recording
that:-
"It’s impossible to tell which are our machines and which are the
Germans!”
Keeping his attention upon the battle
still on-going he observed:-
"…I am looking out to sea now.
I can see the little white dot of a parachute as the German
pilot is floating down towards the spot where his machine
crashed with such a big fountain of water about two minutes
ago!”
Tragically however the ‘German’
under the parachute was in fact a severely wounded Michael
Mudie, and after commentating further on the air battle, things
quietened down briefly for Gardner to remark:-
“No damage done, except to the
Germans, who lost one machine and the German pilot, who is still
on the end of his parachute…I can see no boat going out to pick
him up, so he’ll probably have a long swim ashore!”
Knowing that Red Section was in
trouble, No.615 Squadron had scrambled Yellow, Green and Blue
Sections from their forward operating base at Hawkinge and would
soon join the battle. Also about to engage with the enemy
attackers were Hurricanes from No.151 Squadron and the Spitfires of
No.610 Squadron whose ensuing combat would begin to ‘entertain’
Gardner quite considerably!
"Oh, there’s another fight going on, away up now!…There we go
again! What? - Oh! We have just hit a Messerschmitt. Oh, that
was beautiful. He’s coming right down…he’s coming down like a
rocket now!… You can’t watch these fights very coherently for
long. You just see about four twirling machines, you just hear
little bursts of machine-gunning, and by the time you’ve picked
up the machines they’ve gone! – Hullo, there are one, two, three
– and look! There’s a dogfight going on up there…now there’s
something coming right down on the tail of another. Here they
come – Yes! They are being chased home – and how they are being
chased home! There are three Spitfires chasing three Messerschmitts now. Oh boy! Look at them going! Oh! – Look how
the Messerschmitts - ! Oh boy! That was really grand! There’s a
Spitfire behind the first two. He will get them. Oh yes – oh
boy! I’ve never seen anything so good as this. The RAF fighters
have really got these boys taped!”
The critically hurt Michael Mudie
was eventually picked up from out of the sea by a Royal Navy
vessel and hastily transferred to Dover Hospital for treatment.
That same evening the BBC broadcast Charles Gardner’s recording,
which was later criticised in some quarters as having lacked
dignity towards a life and death struggle!
Very sadly, the
gallant Michael Mudie succumbed to his wounds the following day.
On Thursday18th July Flying Officer Lionel Gaunce and
Pilot Officer Cecil Montgomery travelled from RAF Kenley to East
Molesey in Surrey, to represent No.615 Sqn. at the funeral of
their fallen comrade, where to this day he rests in a well-kept
grave respectfully tended to ensure his brave sacrifice is not
forgotten.
Postscript:
Further tragedy followed for the
Mudie family when Michael's younger brother Arthur, himself a
pilot, went missing in Albania on 14th November 1940
when fighting against Italian forces. Flight Lieutenant Arthur
Mudie is officially remembered upon the Alamein memorial in
Egypt.
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Michel Robert Mudie
is buried at Esher. The words on his gravestone
read:
In
proud and loving memory of
Pilot Officer
Michael Robert Mudie RAF
Killed in Action at Dover July 14th 1940
Aged 24 Years
Also his Brother
Acting Flgt Lieut
Arthur Frederick Mudie RAF
Killed in Action in Albania Nov 14th 1940
Aged 22 Years
R.I.P.
Per Ardua Ad Astra |
With thanks to
Dean Sumner, who is a volunteer at the Shoreham Aircraft Museum.
Article reproduced with permission.
Illustrations:
Stukas, from Wikemedia Commons
A note:
Where relatives and
friends can no longer care for them. Dean visits and maintains a
number of graves belonging to Churchill's "Few".
In 2006 Dean was awarded a "This England" silver cross of St George for this
voluntary work.
This is Michael
Mudie's
gravestone before it was cleaned.
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