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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1404745/Wing-Commander-J-G-Sandy-Sanders.html Wing Commander J G 'Sandy' Sanders 19 August 2002
Wing Commander J G "Sandy" Sanders, who has died aged 88, was an RAF fighter pilot credited with destroying at least 16 enemy aircraft, several of them during the Battle of Britain.
When fighter pilots' scores were assessed after the war, Sanders's tally was almost certainly underestimated - because he had lost his log book and because of an absence of records during the confusion that surrounded the fall of France.
Sanders could not have had a more propitious start. After receiving a short service commission in November 1935 and completing his flying training, he was posted after a year to No 111 (Treble One) Squadron, which was equipped with Gloster Gauntlet biplane fighters.
Treble One was destined for a niche in RAF history as the first squadron to be re-equipped, in 1938, with the modern eight-gun monoplane Hawker Hurricane; it was in a Hurricane that the squadron's commander, "Downwind" Gillan, achieved the then unthinkable feat of averaging more than 408 mph in a flight from Turnhouse (Edinburgh) to Northolt (London).
After Squadron Leader Gillan and one other officer, Sanders was only the third squadron pilot to fly the Hurricane; but his experience on the type was interrupted early in 1939 when he incurred the wrath of Harry Broadhurst, then Treble One's leader and later Air Chief Marshal Sir Harry Broadhurst.
Sanders, who was always very much his own man, disliked what he saw as Broadhurst's bragging about his aerobatic skills, particularly his roll off the top of a loop after take-off in a specially modified aircraft.
When Sanders executed brilliantly the same manoeuvre in an unmodified Gauntlet, Broadhurst ordered his arrest. Sanders was marched in front of his air officer commanding (AOC) and posted, in October 1939, from the prestigious Treble One to fly biplane Gloster Gladiators with No 615 (County of Surrey), an Auxiliary squadron.
The blow was softened by Sanders's appointment as a flight commander, and he very soon demonstrated that his skills and airmanship could to some extent compensate for the obsolescent biplane's performance.
As it happened, Winston Churchill was No 615's honorary air commodore. In November - when he was still First Lord of the Admiralty - he inspected the squadron, taking special interest in the machine guns of Sanders's Gladiator.
As her husband stood in front of the aircraft, Mrs Churchill climbed into the cockpit and was starting to toy with the aircraft's firing mechanism. Sanders, realising that the guns were cocked for instant take-off and combat, averted a tragedy that could have altered the course of history.
Sanders first fired his guns in anger during the "phoney war" of the winter of 1939-40. On December 29, he achieved the extraordinary feat, in a Gladiator, of damaging, possibly even destroying, an He 111 over the Franco-Belgian border. Hit by return fire, he crash-landed near Valenciennes, and was badly concussed.
When the Germans began their blitzkrieg towards the Channel on May 10 1940, 615 Squadron - recently re-equipped with Hurricanes - found itself being evacuated from one airfield to another; they occupied four different airfields in 10 days.
In one engagement, Sanders was forced down in his Hurricane near Bethune, and was obliged to make his escape from the advancing Germans by train.
When the train was attacked he leapt out with his parachute on his back; he dumped the parachute in a ditch, and hitched a lift with a passing RAF truck to Abbeville, where he found an abandoned Blenheim light bomber which was overloaded with escaping groundcrew stowaways.
Although it was night, and he had never before flown a two-engined aircraft, Sanders took off in the plane and, at 3.15am, reached Northolt near London. Informed by a Waaf telephone operator that the station commander could not be woken until 8am, Sanders kicked up such a fuss that the next day he was marched in front of the AOC.
For the second time he was downgraded to Gladiators, but, after leading a flight of the biplanes from Manston, Kent, in operations over Dunkirk between May 23 and May 30, Sanders managed to engineer a return to 615.
James Gilbert Sanders was born at Richmond, Surrey, on June 19 1914. He was educated in Genoa, Italy, where his father, a wealthy archaeologist and dilettante had settled. As a schoolboy, young Sanders developed such a dislike of fascism that, aged only nine, he objected to singing the stirring slaves' chorus from Verdi's opera Nabucco with the school choir in front of Mussolini himself.
In his late teens, Sanders was arrested and charged after using newspaper pictures of Il Duce as lavatory paper. This incident convinced him that war was inevitable, and despite studying Marine Archeology at an Italian university, he resolved to join the RAF.
In the early summer of 1940, Sanders resumed with 615, and was heavily involved in the Battle of Britain as it raged across the south of England. He was in his element as he encountered wave upon wave of enemy bombers and fighters attacking Biggin Hill and other No 11 Group airfields which had the responsibility of defending London.
Even now, Sanders managed to upset his station commander who, observing Sanders's Hurricane in a slow roll at the edge of the airfield, called him to account. Sanders, who had been testing the aircraft for a suspected problem, was maddened at being reprimanded at this critical time.
He told the group captain what he thought of him, and suggested that he might like to climb into a Hurricane and see some action. Not surprisingly, he was arrested and kept under guard for a night.
August 18 saw some of the heaviest fighting of the Battle of Britain, and Sanders was repeatedly scrambled. He destroyed two, and possibly more, enemy bombers. On one sortie he was climbing towards Biggin Hill when bombs from a Dornier 17 passed only a few feet from his Hurricane.
On the same sortie Sanders sighted a Ju 88 immediately in front of him. He aimed at the cockpit to kill the pilot and saw the bomber dive into woods and blow up at Ide Hill, near Chartwell, Churchill's home in Kent.
When, at the end of August, 615 was withdrawn to rest in Scotland, Sanders volunteered to stay on at Kenley, south of London, to help 253, the squadron's successor, settle in. This was because he had become smitten by a local girl, Joan Barley, and he wanted to marry her.
Staying put also gave him the opportunity to try some experimental night fighting; and this led, in the New Year of 1941, to service with No 255, which was forming as a night fighter squadron equipped with the turret-gunned Boulton-Paul Defiant. In this aircraft he achieved three kills.
Towards the end of the year, he began a series of training appointments followed by station commands and a spell at Shaef (Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force), finishing his RAF career at Rangoon in charge of flying at Mingaladon airfield.
Sanders returned home in 1947. While he could have remained in the RAF, he opted to leave the service to join the Mayfair office of the insurance company Crown Life of Canada.
Meanwhile, he indulged his lifelong love of music; and he managed one of the most splendid family boxes at the Royal Albert Hall, together with adjoining boxes belonging to Caius College, Cambridge, and to Earl Spencer. Sanders was a frequent attender at the Proms.
He was awarded the DFC in 1940, and in the same year married Joan Barley. They had two sons, one of whom served in the RAF as a Jaguar aerobatic display pilot. The marriage was dissolved, and in 1949 Sanders married Josephine King-Farlow; they had a daughter.
James Sanders | |
|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | 'Sandy' |
| Born | 19 June 1914 Richmond, England |
| Died | August 2002 (aged 88) |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service/ | Royal Air Force |
| Years of service | 1935–1947 |
| Rank | Wing Commander |
| Battles/wars | Second World War |
| Awards | Distinguished Flying Cross |
James Sanders, DFC (19 June 1914 – August 2002) was a British flying ace who served in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War. He is credited with having shot down at least sixteen aircraft.
Born in Richmond, Sanders joined the RAF in 1935 and following completion of his flying training, was posted to No. 111 Squadron.
Early life[edit]
James Gilbert Sanders was born on 19 June 1914 at Richmond, in England. His father, an archeologist, lived in Genoa where Sanders was educated.[1]
Sanders joined the RAF on a short service commission in 1935, commencing his initial training in November of that year. He was commissioned as an acting pilot officer in January 1936 and the following month commenced flight training at No. 10 Flying Training School at Ternhill.[2][3] In August 1936, having completed his pilot training, Sanders was posted to No. 111 Squadron.[4] His new unit was stationed at Northolt and equipped with the Gloster Gauntlet biplane aircraft but soon was to be the first RAF squadron to receive the Hawker Hurricane fighter.[5]
Second World War[edit]
Shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War, Sanders was posted to No. 615 Squadron as one of its flight commanders. The squadron was stationed at Croydon and flew upgraded Gloster Gladiators biplane fighters. In November it was sent to France with the RAF component of the British Expeditionary Force. It served, firstly at Merville and then Vitry, alongside No. 607 Squadron as part of No. 60 Wing.[6][7] The squadron saw little activity for the next few months although on 29 December, Sanders was taking his Gladiator on a weather check when he engaged and damaged a Heinkel He 111 medium bomber. His own aircraft received counter fire from the He 111 and was damaged, necessitating a crash landing at Valenciennes,.[2][4] In April 1940, the squadron began reequipping with Hawker Hurricane fighters.[6]
When the Germans invaded France and the Low Countries in May, No. 615 Squadron was extensively engaged in patrols and bomber escort missions.[6] Sanders destroyed a Junkers Ju 88 medium bomber on 17 May. He departed for England the next day while the squadron was ordered to evacuate France and returned to England on 20 May.[6]
Sanders's successes to date saw him awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Gazetted on 4 June, the published citation read:
This officer has led his flight well and has personally shot down three enemy aircraft.
— London Gazette, No. 34864, 4 June 1940[8]
After a period of recovery, No. 615 Squadron returned to offensive operations, flying to France on bomber escort missions in aid of the elements of the BEF still remaining in France after Operation Dynamo.[6]
He was promoted to flight lieutenant in late August.[9]
He was promoted to temporary squadron leader in September 1941.[10]
Later life[edit]
Notes[edit]
- ^ "Obituary: Wing Commander J G 'Sandy' Sanders". Telegraph. 19 August 2002. Retrieved 14 June 2014.
- ^ a b "The Airmen's Stories – F/Lt. J G Sanders". Battle of Britain London Monument. Retrieved 14 June 2024.
- ^ "No. 34252". The London Gazette. 4 February 1936. p. 737.
- ^ a b Shores & Williams 1994, pp. 530–531.
- ^ Rawlings 1976, pp. 236–238.
- ^ a b c d e Rawlings 1976, pp. 503–506.
- ^ Caffrey 1990, p. 14.
- ^ "No. 34864". The London Gazette. 4 June 1940. p. 3353.
- ^ "No. 34945". The London Gazette. 13 September 1940. p. 5489.
- ^ "No. 35270". The London Gazette. 9 September 1941. p. 5220.
References[edit]
- Caffrey, Kate (1990). Combat Report: The RAF and the Fall of France. Swindon: Crowood Press. ISBN 1-85223-564-0.
- Rawlings, John (1976). Fighter Squadrons of the RAF and their Aircraft. London: MacDonald & James. ISBN 0-354-01028-X.
- Shores, Christopher; Williams, Clive (1994). Aces High: A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Forces in WWII. London: Grub Street. ISBN 1-8-9869-7000.