John Wall - Spitfire Pilot

[Dave Homewood]

In the latest episode of the Wings Over New Zealand Show I chat with Mr. John Wall, of Hamilton, New Zealand.

Born in London in 1923, John fell in love with the Supermarine Spitfire at the age of 16 and determined he’d join the Royal Air Force to fly them. He was enlisted at 17 years old, and following initial training in Britain, he was sent to the USA to learn to fly at a British-owned American-run flying school in Texas. There he trained on Boeing-Stearman PT-18A Kaydets (aka the Stearman), and then he progressed on to North American AT-6 Texans.

He then returned to Britain for a short time where he flew Miles Masters at Wrexham and Ternhill, before being posted to Ishmailia in Egypt where he finally got onto fighters, the Hawker Hurricane and then his dream machine, the Spitfire, at an Operational Training Unit.

Following this final phase of training he became a courier pilot for a Royal Air Force Photo Reconnaissance Unit in Italy, flying films and photos around the units, flying a Hurricane and a Fairchild Argus.

Some months later he was posted again, this time to No. 32 Squadron, on Spitfires. He was part of the Balkans Air Force, based in Italy but regularly crossing the Adriatic Sea to attack German targets in Yugoslavia and perform convoy escorts, etc.

Then the squadron was moved into Greece to support the Allied invasion of that country and John’s squadron was involved in the pushing out of the Germans from Athens. Then they moved north to Salonika, but the winter snow curtailed Spitfire flying and the squadron was soon issued a pair of Austers to fly in support of the Army’s push.

Next No. 32 Squadron headed south again, this time to Palestine, where they were given the task of carrying out coastal patrols in an effort to prevent the illegal Jewish immigrant boat people landing in the British-ruled Arab country. WWII ended while John was there. He remained there till mid-1946 when he was finally demobbed. John moved to New Zealand in the early 1970’s.

Here's the link
http://www.cambridgeairforce.org.nz/WON ... john-wall/










This image by Ian Bisset

[M-62A]

Dave,
Thank you for the link to this interesting interview. I have been interested in various wartime RAF flying training programmes in the USA for many years and I immediately recognised name, John Wall.

John Wall and his navigators, J.G. Wright, forced landing in Oklahoma was related in Hugh Morgan's, "By the Seat of Your Pants" published in 1990. Unfortunately, at the time the names of the airmen involved meant nothing to me. Something over ten years later I came across Internet accounts of the February 2000 dedication of the memorial in Rattan, Oklahoma to the four RAF airman who died on that ill-fated cross-country navex from No.1 British Flying Training School, Terrell, Texas to Miami, Oklahoma.

A short while later the event was also reported in a local Grimsby (UK) paper, together with a wartime photograph of LAC Gordon Wright, who like John, had attended the dedication. To my complete surprise I recognised Gordon Wright as one of my secondary school teachers from around 1960. He then lived away from the area but through his sister I was able to meet him again on his next visit to the town. By this time Gordon had suffered a stroke and though he was able to show me his logbooks and photos, etc., he was unable to tell me very much about his experiences at Terrell.

To summarise from the account in Tom Killebrew's, "The Royal Air Force in Texas"...
On the morning of February 20, 1943 nineteen AT-6As and their crews despatched on a low level cross-country flight and when the weather deteriorated and as the aircraft approached the Kiamichi mountains in south-east Oklahoma an attempt was made to recall the flight by radio. Numbers vary slightly in different accounts. Fourteen crews heard the radio recall and returned safely to Terrell. Two crews missed the recall message, but made it through the mountains and landed at Miami - which left three aircraft missing.

Flying under the weather John and Gordon found themselves trapped in a wooded valley. As John executed a very successful forced landing with no damage to AT-6A (school no."185"), no accident report was compiled and therefore there is now no opportunity to identity his aircraft's serial no. At B.F.T. Schools only the aircraft's "school number" is entered in a student's logbook.

From CWGC, RAF and USAAF records...
The four airmen killed that day were:
LAC V.H. Cockman and LAC F.R.W. Frostick were flying AT-6A 41-15867
LAC J.M. Hosier and LAC M.L. Jensen were flying AT-6A 41-17004.

There is a wikipedia page which tells of the accident and the memorial.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AT6_Monument.

Thank you, Tony Broadhurst

[Dave Homewood]

Thanks Tony,

Very interesting post. I'm glad you found this personal connection. I can confirm that John's logbook only gives the aircraft number "185" for that flight. It records the mission as "LOW LEVEL XC. TERRELL - JUMBO. PRECAUTIONARY LANDING OWING TO BAD WEATHER".

He was picked up by W/C F. Moxham in PT.18 coded "2".

[M-62A]

Hi Dave,
Almost identical to Gordon's entry: "Low Level XCTY TERRELL JUMBO Precautionary landing owing to low cloud base".

Return to Terrall next day in AT-6A "185" flown by Mr VAN LLOYD.

W/C Moxham was the RAF Commanding Officer and Mr. Van Lloyd was the Advanced Flight Supervisor of civilian company (Major W.F. Long / Terrell Aviation Company).

Have sent you a PM.
Cheers, Tony

[ErrolC]

Interesting that the (relatively) successful experience with a forced landing in training influenced John's choices later over Yugoslavia.

[p51]

I bet these days, when someone walks up to a Spitfire and says they flew them back in the day, people listen, especially in England!

he was sent to the USA to learn to fly at a British-owned American-run flying school in Texas.

Can you imagine the response to getting his orders?
"Texas? Sodding hell!"

[Dave Homewood]

Actually I think he was very pleased to be heading to Texas, well away from the bombing, the war and the rationing.

[Lynn Allen]

By chance was it Terrell,Texas? Drove through there today...

[Dave Homewood]

Correct Lynn, that is the place.