Photos of Ground Crew Life with 92 Squadron RAF
92 Squadron RAF
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My father, Eric Barnes, joined the RAF on 12th July 1938 and was transferred
from 19 Squadron to 92 Squadron
on the latter's reformation in October 1939.
The squadron moved to the Middle East in February 1942.
From the Western Desert, 92 took part in the push up through Italy in 1943 and
1944.
My father missed
his part in the battle of El Alamein as he was recovering
in hospital in Heliopolis
from the loss of a finger sustained during an earlier attack on
the squadon's base.
He remained with 92 Squadron for the duration of the war until December 1945,
and left the RAF in July 1950. He died in 1993.
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Since I first started putting this page together in 2004, I have been contacted by
several people who are related to some of those who served with 92 squadron.
It was a great pleasure to meet up with Robin Baldry (right in the photo)
in October 2006 and
browse through the photo collections of our respective fathers, who were clearly
great friends.
Rob's father Bob appeared in several of my father's photos, and vice-versa.
Bob Baldry's service record contains the following information:
LAC R.A. Baldry,
Armourer, served in the RAFVR on full-time service from
10-12-40 to 13-11-45.
Has been a keen and conscientious worker during his period of
employment in this section and can be recommended for any
responsible post. His character throughout his service in
the Royal Air Force has been very good.
Rob has kindly allowed me to scan his father's photos and include them on
these pages.
Several have apparently contemporaneous captions on the back that give dates,
locations and sometimes a little background.
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Bob Baldry, Wally Adams, Eric Barnes
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Some history of
92 Squadron
is available on the web and I would be interested to hear of more.
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Recent Additions
2020.03.15: Photo and letter from Sergeant
Pilot C.G. Todd added.
2019.12.26: A new page added containing photos from Derrick Armstrong.
2019.12.26: Two photos of Henry Swan added.
2018.09.29 Forum post by
Zoran Petek containing several Desert Air Force photos that include
images of 92 Squadron.
2018.09.25: Zoran
Petek's 8s clip on YouTube
of 92 Squadron Spitfires and ground crew in the desert in 1942-43.
2018.04.14: Added 'Out in the Blue' photo and caption to 'Bitter Lake'
photo from the family of Richard (Dick) Gibbons to the
North Africa section.
2017.12.23: Added photos of Reg (Roland) Reed from 1942-1946
to the contributions section.
2017.03.04: Added photos of 'Tiny' Hall from Italy 1945
to the contributions section.
A History from Original Records
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I am very grateful to Simon Morris, a former pilot of 92 Squadron, for
passing on a link to me to a detailed history of 92 Squadron.
Simon had unique access to original
records and contact with many of the wartime pilots through reunions.
are being typed up.
It was his work that led to the memoire of Arthur
Watts (below) being put together.
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Audio memory of Ted Webb
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In early August 2007 I was privileged to spend an evening with Ted Webb.
Ted joined up when he was under age and was a
member of 92 Squadron ground crew between 1940 and 1942.
One of the pilots he was crew for was the CO, Robert Stanford Tuck.
Here is a seven minute (6.5MB) clip of Ted
remembering the day Tuck was shot down.
Sadly, Ted passed away in November 2007.
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Memoire of Arthur Watts
| Arthur Watts, a founder member of 92 Squadron, wrote
a memoire in 1976.
He appears in a photo of a football team below.
Thanks to his son, Peter Watts, for providing me with a copy and permission
to include it here.
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Ted Brister
| Ted Brister was a pilot with 92 Squadron from 1942 onwards.
I was put in touch with him by his grandson, Gareth Clark, a few years
ago, and I enjoyed chatting with Ted on the phone from time to time.
Sadly he died in July 2008.
Gareth has sent me several photos and I have
included a couple here, with more in the section
of contributions from others.
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| You can read about Ted on the BBC's People's War pages:
Getting
Lost and Finding Drainpipes and
Tales
from 92 Sqaudron.
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Photographs from the albums of Eric Barnes and Bob Baldry
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A selection of photos from the albums of Eric Barnes and Bob Baldry.
Click on the image to see an enlarged version.
I hope to put up more photos as time permits.
If you can identify anyone in any of these I would love to hear from you.
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One intriguing thing that has emerged is that there are multiple copies of some
of these photos in the possession of different people. An explanation for this
was offered by Rob:
"I can remember [my father] telling me that photographs were plentiful because film
was used and developed from reconaissance aircraft."
So I imagine that photographs became more or less communal property, with exact
ownership now difficult to establish.
Furthermore, Steve Peet
(who has contributed some photos belonging
to his father Marson Peet)
has offered the following possible answer to this puzzle:
"I can remember [my father] telling me that during the advance after El Alamein the
squadron took over a German airfield that they had had to abandon very quickly.
Left behind was a mobile photographic darkroom belonging to a photo-reconaisance
squadron. My dad 'liberated' some of the stock of film and adapted it to use in
peoples' cameras. He then had a little business on the side using the wagon to
process peoples' pictures. I cannot guarentee this story but it does ring true
for me. ... starting to clear out the loft space above the garage I came across a
homemade contact printing box and some very old photographic paper so I am sure
dad did actually do his own processing."
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I am grateful to Andrew Pentland for helping me to locate further
information on Spitfire AD577
from the site giving details of
Spitfire production and
contracts.
David Weiss maintains
Falcon's Messerschmitt Bf 109
Hangar
archive of photos and associated information,
from which I have included further details of
some of the crashed German aircraft pictured on these pages.
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Sections
| UK, 1938-1941
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Trainees, Uxbridge 1938 |
Pembrey 1940 |
Biggin Hill 1941 |
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Starting up on a misty morning |
Spitfire Vb AD577, RAF Digby between 23.11.1941 and 6.2.1942
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Squadron scoreboard, RAF Digby |
At Laughing Water. R.M. Milne 8th from left.
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Reg Butler, Eric Barnes and Frank Dorey on the aircraft of
Tom (Jock) Sherrington (or Eltringham?) |
"My mates Harry and Willy, Biggin Hill 1940". Person on right Eric
Barnes?
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Following sections
Other 92 Squadron Information
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The MOD's Battle of Britain history site
provides interesting background on the period that established the
squadron as one of the best, and includes a Roll of Honour of the pilots
involved.
The squadron was stationed for a period at RAF Digby in
Lincolnshire.
This site focusses on the RAF
in Lincolnshire
and the
Station
Sector Ops Room Museum at RAF Digby is open to the public during
the summer.
There is a Facebook page dedicated to 92 Squadron, set up by
Jim Sewell.
I am grateful to Ian Bowskill, chairman of the Battle of Britain Locomotive
Society for providing me with a link to the Society's page
about Locomotive
no.34081 '92 Squadron'.
This site of Spitfire
Production Information is a useful reference for identifying some
of the aircraft seen in these pictures.
J. Rickard's
No. 92 Squadron (RAF): Second World War page contains a detailed
chronology of the places the squadron was based between 1939 and 1946.
One of the squadron's pilots, Paul Klipsch, was the subject of
UK Channel 4 Time
Team series on 16th Jan 2000.
The team excavated the site of his crash in May 1940 in Wierre-Effroy,
France.
If you have an interest in 92 Squadron, and would like to get in touch,
I would love to hear from you.
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Some books I have relating to the Squadron are:
Tony Bartley DFC, Smoke Trails in the Sky, Crecy, 1997, ISBN 0-947554-63-7.
Richard Townshend Bickers, The Desert Air War 1939-1945, Leo Cooper,
1991, ISBN 0-85052-216-1.
Norman Franks (ed.), The War Diaries of Neville Duke 1941-1944, Grub
Street, 1995, ISBN 1-898697-16-7.
Graham Wallace, RAF Biggin Hill.
Geoffrey Wellum, First Light, Penguin, 2003, ISBN 0-141-00814-8.
Details of some other relevant books, some of which
were recommended to me by David Morfitt:
Max Avery with C. Shores, Spitfire Leader [The story of Evan Mackie,
CO 92 Squadron in Italy], Grub Street 1999.
Peter Caygill, The Darlington Spitfire, Airlife 1999 [on a
presentation Spitfire that served with 92 amongst other squadrons].
Peter Caygill, Spitfire MkV in Action, Airlife.
Neville Duke, Test Pilot, 1956 [served in 92 post-BoB].
Johnny Kent, One of the Few, Tempus books 2000 [commanded 92 at the
end of the BoB].
Michael Robinson, Best of the Few - 92 Squadron 1939-1940.
Copyright
Except where indicated,
all images Copyright 2004-2020, David J. Barnes or Robin Baldry,
although also see my reference
above to image authorship.
If I have inadvertently included material whose copyright belongs to someone
else, I would be grateful for that information and will, of course, remove it.
This document
(http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/~djb/92squadron/)
is maintained by:
David Barnes
(the anti-spam email address will need editing by you)
to whom any comments and corrections should be addressed.
© David Barnes
Last Updated: 26th December 2019
Created: 5th February 2004
