"Smithy" - Sgt. Edward M. Smith

28th February 1943 was a big day for my Grandfather, F/O. H. C. Kelsey, because this was the day he crewed up with his Navigator, Sgt. E. M Smith, or "Smithy" as he is known in the folklore of my family. It may not be too strong to say that crewing up with "Smithy" may well be the reason that my Grandfather survived the War and therefore he holds a very important place in the lives of myself and all my Grandparents' descendants. He was a Yorkshireman and coined many phases in that no-nonsense, pithy way that characterises the denizens of God's own County. One such was during a rather "exciting" mission over enemy territory, he was heard to mutter "Eeee, flak" and this phrase is now used by members of my family when any situation is becoming a little out-of-hand! I met him only once, at my Grandparents' golden wedding anniversary, and wish that I had had the presence of mind to sit down with him and chat. After his illustrious wartime career, he joined BOAC and retrained as a pilot. He then went on to be a pilot for BA and retired in 1983. He passed away about ten years ago, and I was sad to see his medals up for sale on an auction site. A great man.

Sgt. Edward Smith

How wartime pilots and crews teamed up seems to have been achieved in rather a haphazard, but typically British way. According to Michael Allen DFC in his book Pursuit Through Darkened Skies, he was supposed to be crewed with one P/O, but another one, Harry White, met him on the way to the squadron barrack block, and after "chatting", they crewed up and stayed together throughout the war, becoming along the way one of the most successful British night fighting crews. Mike Allen continues,

"I had no possible way of being able to judge whether Harry was a good pilot or bad one! And, vice versa, he had no way of knowing whether I was going to make the grade as a navigator. If a crew survived this instant loyalty, in the main it lasted for ever."

Another wartime navigator, E. G. White, in his blog., Night Fighter Navigator, writes that the P/Os and the R/Os "where put together and left to sort ourselves out."  Just the fact that he and Sgt. E A Lampkin were the two youngest in the room gave them something in common, which seemed good enough reason to crew up! 

By late February 1943, my Grandfather was stationed at RAF Cranwell, but still training with 51OTU, I presume that he and "Smithy" must have hit it off in a similar manner because their partnership also lasted until nearly the end of the war.

It gets confusing here when describing what job title these Navigators/Radio Operators (R/O) had because the job itself developed during the war from gunnery in the early daylight fighter days to Navigator in the night-time role to Radio Operator once the new Radar sets were introduced. Indeed, the top brass continued to call them Navigators well into the war because they wanted to disguise the job that they were really doing which was intercepting enemy aircraft using onboard Radar and Telecommunications. Terribly hush-hush don'tcha know!

Log Book Feb./Mar 1943

From my Grandfather's Log Book, the end of February 1943 was a difficult time, in which he only had five flights in eleven days, probably due to weather. The first flight, on 18th Feb., was a two hour trip in a Blenheim IV, with F/lt. Hobbis in the pilot's seat. The "Duty" column shows "Ex 1", but I think this is not Gunnery but Airborne Interception training as described in my previous blog. F/Lt Hobbis had already been awarded the DFC in 1941, but was destined to not survive the war. On 5th November 1943, promoted to Squadron Leader and 'A' Flight commander at 488 squadron, his port engine was reported to be on fire whilst on patrol near Bradwell Bay. He and his Navigator, F/Sgt O. L. R. Hills, baled out, Hills' body washed ashore some months later, but Hobbis's body was never recovered. Hobbies was 33 and he is remembered in the Runnymede Memorial. 

On 25th Feb, my Grandfather flew with F/Lt Key in the pilot's seat in a Blenheim IV. The next day he almost had his first flight in a Beaufighter, a new aircraft to him and a real 'tank' of a plane, but the exercise was abandoned, "A/C (aircraft) U/S (unserviceable)". On 27th Feb. he flew with F/O Dixon and then from the 28th onwards, he flew almost consistently with "Smithy".

Blenheim IV in flight

March 1943 continued where February left off, with F/O Kelsey and Sgt. Smith honing their night fighting skills in Blenheim IV aircraft. The exercises they were put through together included practise of N.F.T (Night Flight Test), G.C.I. (Ground Controlled Interception) and A.I. (Airborne Interception). These are all far better explained elsewhere, so please click on the links in the text if you wish to find out more.

At last, on 9th March 1943, my Grandfather flew as a passenger in  Bristol Beaufighter no. 2189 and went on a "Test" with Cpl. Jones and F/O Dixon to see how he liked it. As it turns out, he liked it a great deal!

In between flights, he also kept the seat of the Link Trainer warm as it shows in this scan from the back of his Log Book.

Link Training record early 1943

I presume these "Link" practices complemented his night fighter training in the real aircraft, but I haven't been able to find out exactly what the letters and numbers refer to. If you know, perhaps you could tell me, by leaving a comment at the end of this blog.

Meanwhile, Bomber Command was still actively trying to knock out "strategic" targets in enemy territory. However, the accuracy of the night bombing raids was still poor and many civilians were being killed and injured. To try and increase accuracy, the Pathfinder Squadrons where developed. On 5th March 1943, "The battle of the Ruhr" begins, targeting the Krupps Factory at Essen, Germany,. This was the 100,000th sortie of Bomber Command. 

At the same time the luftwaffe, equipped with their own onboard Lichtenstein_radar, was taking an increasingly high toll of allied aircraft and lives. From the 606 Squadron blog. I discovered that Lancaster W4847 OL-V from 83 (Pathfinders) Squadron, based at RAF Wyton, near St. Ives in Cambridgeshire was one of 14 aircraft lost out of 442 that took part in the bombing raid. The skipper was a 22 year old Canadian, Pilot Officer Henry Partridge.  They took off around 7pm, but were intercepted by Messerschmitt Bf 110, piloted by Lt. Robert Denzel from 12/Nachtjagdgeschwader 1 at around 10.02pm at an altitude of 3500 metres east of Wieringen, Holland. The Lancaster was seen to struggle to make it to the Frisian coast but quickly exploded in mid-air and crashed into the Ijsselmeer near Hindeloopen, Netherlands. This was Denzel's second auschutt (victory), his first being a Halifax on 2nd March 1943. All the crew of the "Lanc" were killed. They were, Pilot Officer Henry A. Partridge RCAF, Flight Engineer, Sergeant Roy O. Fulton RCAF, Navigator, Flying Officer Leonard W. Sprackling, RAFVR, Sergeant Hayden Fell RAFVR, Air Gunner, Sergeant John M. Freshwater, Sergeant John L.Organ RAF, and Air Gunner, Sergeant Arthur Dinnis RAF.

P/O Henry Partridge

The flight engineer, 21 year old Canadian, Sergeant Roy Oswald Fulton, and his crewmate, 23 year old RAF Sergeant John Lewis Organ, are buried at Hindeloopen. The navigator, 23 year old RAF Flying Officer Leonard Sprackling was buried at Workum (Spoordyk) General Cemetery and air gunner RAF Sergeant Arthur Desmond Dinnis, aged 21, at Makkum Protestant Churchyard. The remaining three crew members have no known grave and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Photographed outside the NAAFI at RAF Wyton. Left to right - Roy Fulton, John Lewis Organ and Henry Partridge

Lt Robert Denzel also made a claim for a second of the 14 aircraft that did not make it home that night. Lancaster ED431 (EA-M) of 49 Squadron was shot down west of Texel, Northern Holland, and crashed into the sea, killing all the crew. However, this claim was also made by Lt Rolf Bussman of 11/NJG1, so potentially this aircraft was attacked twice. The pilot, Sgt. James Myles Thom DFM, a popular Scotsman, was 29 when he died, and is remembered at the Runnymede Memorial. The rest of crew of "Lanc" 'M' for Mother killed that night are detailed in the aircrew remembered website. 

Night Fighter Training - No.1 Sqn, 51OTU - RAF Twinwood Farm - Jan. 1943

Bristol Blenheim Mk1

After nearly four years of knocking lumps out of each other, Britain and Germany were still at War in January 1943. So far the War had lasted longer than the First World War with seemingly no end in sight. My Grandfather, Flying Officer H. C. Kelsey, was still learning his trade in the RAF, but he was itching to "do his bit" to help end the War as soon as possible.


To this end, after a blissful month on leave with my Grandmother in London, my Grandfather was posted to 51 OTU (Operational Training Unit) at RAF Twinwood Farm, Bedfordshire in preparation for eventually joining an Operational Unit. 51 OTU originally formed at Debden, Essex in 1941 before moving to Cranfield and Twinwood Farm, Bedfordshire in August 1941, specifically to train nightfighter crews. By January 1943, training was undertaken in Bristol Blenheims and Bristol Beaufighters, neither of which my grandfather had flown before. But he was now flying a proper combat aeroplane and would be under even more intense pressure of testing and scrutiny to assess whether he could "make the grade" as a combat pilot.

Scan of Log Book H.C. Kelsey Jan. 1943

From a scan of my Grandfather's Log Book, his first two weeks at the Unit were spent going through various "exercises" in Blenheim V and Bisley aircraft. I have to thank another blog., "Broody's War" for an explanation of what these "exercises" or "Ex" were as noted in my Grandfather's Log Book. They refer to Gunnery Practise,

From "Broody's War"

And A.I (Airborne Interception) Exercises

Also from "Broody's War"

On 15th Jan 1943 he was in the air for 1 hour 30 minutes with F/O Frenkel going through "Ex 1&2" which I assume was gunnery exercises as it was during daylight. Over the following two weeks these gunnery exercises continued with the occasional solo flight, until 29th Jan when my Grandfather was accompanied by F/Lt Young to go through "Ex 8"(Dual Quarter - Cine). This must have given a filmed record of how close the trainee's shooting was to the target? All guess-work I'm afraid.

Bristol Blenheim MkV/Bisley

Then, on 5th Feb. 1943, he navigated a Blenheim Mk1 to ferry F/Lt Bird to RAF Hullavingdon and returned solo. These ferry trips were often given to the most accomplished trainees, after all, you didn't want unnecessary crashes or injured pilots.

Bristol Blenheim MK1 in flight

On the 7th Feb. he was back in a Bisley for 45 minutes of night fighter training tutored by F/Lt Bamber. Then, on 11th Feb. he had three flights in a third Blenheim variant, a Blenheim MkIV. The first was detailed as a "N.F.T.", which meant a Night Flying Test, in which the pilot spent a twenty minutes checking over, in daylight, the aircraft he was detailed to fly that night. I'm not sure what the figure "4" after "N.F.T" means, so would be delighted if anyone can help me there? Then, that night he had two solo flights, totalling nearly 5 hours, stooging around in the freezing February night.

Bristol Blenheim Mk IV

Cockpit Drill Certificate Blenheim Aircraft 1943

Interspersed with these flights was 8 more hours of practise on the link trainer with some new exercises which I assume are different night flight patterns, as I cannot find any explanation of their meaning online. Can anyone help?

Link Trainer Exercises

The Bristol Blenheim came into service as a light, twin engined, fighter/bomber which, when first introduced in 1935, was faster than any other fighter aircraft in the RAF. But by the onset of War in 1939, it was shown to be hopelessly outclassed by the aircraft the Luftwaffe were equipped with.

As we can see, the Bristol Blenheim seems to have undergone quite a few adaptations, mostly in the nose end, to accommodate a bomb aimer/navigator, or to increase it's firepower. Sadly these often either didn't work very well, or added extra weight which reduced the Blenheim's effectiveness.

1937 Advertisement

The Blenheim was sent on many early bombing raids which proved to be almost suicidal, including a daylight raid on Aalborg, Denmark, in August 1940 in which 11 of the 12 aircraft of 82 squadron were shot down. This was the second time that 82 Squadron had been almost wiped out in Blenheims.

The Blenheim was then adapted for use as the first night fighter during the London Blitz of 1939 and 1940. But, initially, it was not equipped with radar and so, due to it's lack of speed and small machine guns, as well as problems of locating the enemy at night, was almost useless. It was as late as 21/22nd July 1940 that the first Blenheim Mk1F of FIU (Fighter Interception Unit) made a successful night-time interception using airborne radar, shooting down a Dornier Do17. However the Blenheim was too slow to make a successful night fighter - some of the German bombers were actually faster, and long, fruitless stern chases back across the channel were common.

Eventually, the Blenheim was withdrawn from frontline bombing after incurring huge losses. Indeed, ground crews joked that the Blenheim rarely needed to go through an inspection as it didn't survive long enough! Yet again I think my Grandfather was a lucky man to have avoided the early disasters of the RAF, which claimed the lives of many of the full-time pre-War RAF personnel. 

Although sidelined from frontline action, the Blenheim was now shunted off to Training Units, especially for night fighter training, to allow new recruits to get a feel for flying a twin engined fighter/bomber. As a result they were usually fairly bashed up and antiquated examples and renowned for being really cold to fly  with a biting wind often whistling through various ill-fitting hatches and windows. The Blenheim V was favoured by instructors despite being slower and heavier than the other variants due entirely to the fact it had a heated cockpit. All Blenheims apparently had a bewildering array of dials and switches positioned in a haphazard and often bizarre configuration, as Doug Gregory recounts in his book "Aeroaddict";

"The propellers (on Blenheims) could be set to fine pitch or coarse. Fine for take off and landing and coarse for cruise, where economy played a part and for higher speeds....It was necessary to change into coarse pitch by groping behind the seat to pull two mushroom-shaped knobs.....With both hands searching for knobs and levers, it was easy to forget that the aircraft still had to be flown and at night it could be quite a problem. All marks of Blenheim suffered with these strange arrangements of controls, whose positions were learned slowly and painfully,"

The Bisley was originally designed as a heavily armoured, ground attack aircraft, with a solid nose. Later on a bomb aimer window was added and it was renamed Blenheim V. Although it was outclassed in the European campaign, it still saw extended service in North Africa, the Far East and India. It seems from my Grandfather's Log Book that he was differentiating between a Blenheim V and a Bisley, but I cannot find out what the difference is between them. 

Bristol Bisley of 113 Sqn. Asansol, India

January 1943 is notable as the first time the RAF make use of Target Indicator marker bombs on a raid on Berlin, in an attempt to improve the precision of it's bombing operations. Also, in February 1943, the Casablanca Directive, was issued by the joint Chiefs of Staff in an effort to weld together the bomber forces of the RAF and the USAAF to make one mighty air arm to crush the German industrial, military and economic system. However, the biggest War news outside Britain  was the German surrender at Stalingrad. The history of the Battle for Stalingrad was so extraordinary in many ways, including over 800,000 German and Axis casualties and over a million Soviets killed or injured, but the biggest morale boost for the allies, was the first surrender of a German Field Marshal in history. 

Hitler had hoped that Von Paulus would commit suicide before he was captured.

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Meanwhile, my Grandfather was comfortably stationed at RAF Cranfield and may have been entertained by a pantomime version of "Babes in the Woods" which was performed there at the time. With the wicked Uncle/Sheriff "baddie" being portrayed as Hitler.

Babes In the Wood Pantomime 1943