Eileen Joll – WWII Ambulance Driver – RIP

Already posted here . . . . .

Missed it. My apologies.

Moggy

609 Squadron Form 540:

Aug 19. Circus 81, otherwise ‘Operation Leg’ (ie the dropping of a leg for W/Cdr Bader). Biggin for a change act as Rear Support Wing, patrolling inland from Dunkirk at 28/32,000 feet – which is thought to be a ‘stooge’ but isn’t. Various groups of 109’s in twos and fours are seen down to 13,000 feet, Sections of 609 go down to attack, and individual combats occur. As usual, of Late, Yellow Section takes the brunt of the fighting, P/O de Hemptinne and Sgt Pollard both scoring a ‘Damaged’. As it turns out later, P/O V. also scores a Damaged, but in the course of his attack, he is himself attacked by two other 109’s, and his aircraft bursts into flames. About midway between Dunkirk and Dover he bales out from 2,000 feet. Fortunately W/Cdr Robinson, F/Lt Offenberg and P/O Barnham are there to help, and partly as a result of their efforts P/O Ortmans is picked up after 2 hours in his dinghy, from which he has meanwhile twice fallen out. (Appendices K, K1, K2, K3).
Enemy Casualties: 3 Me.109 Damaged (P/O’s de Hemptinne & Ortmans – Belgian and Sgt Pollard)
Our Casualties: 1 Spitfire Cat 3 (P/O V. Ortmans rescued).
A second Circus (No. 82) takes place after lunch – target: Hazebrouck Marshalling Yard. P/O de Monceau is the only pilot to see any E/A, meeting 5, then 4 109’s after becoming separated. The latter come at him head on, and he fires at each in turn. The manoeuvre is repeated and this time one of them dives down emitting smoke. Altogether he doesn’t think much of them. (Appendices L, L1).
Enemy Casualties: 1 Me.109E Damaged (P/O du Monceau de Bergandael – Belgian)
Our Casualties: Nil

Already posted here . . . . .
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?128757-Eileen-Joll-WWII-Ambulance-Driver-RIP

“It was…….the first stage of an operation…” Imagine how tempting it must have been to write “…the first leg of a journey…”
(No. No. I mustn’t…) 😀

I love the bit ‘forced to leave his leg behind when he baled out of his burning plane’….!!

Imagine the scene; DB sitting there in the cockpit wondering, shall I take this damned leg or not? Then realising that it would be too impractical, would be highly amusing if he didn’t and cause lots of Frenchmen and Germans to faint when he landed and, best of all, would be a cracking good yarn! Not only that, but some bloke could write about it all many years later. 🙂

We’ll ignore the other inaccuracies like ‘baled out’ and ‘burning plane’. 🙂

Just to note the passing of a ‘bit part player’ in the Bader story (Not Stork Hotel)

From the obits

In 1941 an ambulance driver named Eileen Sykes was told to take an artificial leg from Roehampton Hospital in London to an RAF base in Norfolk. It was, unbeknown to her, the first stage of an operation to deliver a new prosthetic leg to the fighter ace Douglas Bader, who had been shot down over France. Bader, who had returned to combat despite losing both legs in a flying accident, had been forced to leave his right leg behind when he baled out of his burning plane. The leg was eventually dropped by parachute during an RAF bombing raid on St Omer. Sykes was the daughter of a wealthy Manchester cotton entrepreneur and was brought up in considerable style. At the outbreak of war she volunteered as a government chauffeuse but later transferred to the ambulance service.

Moggy