7 September, 1940
![“From left, standing: P/Os HC Upton, AEA van den Hove d’Éstsenrijk (Belgium), and David Gorrie; seated, from left, P/Os Frank Carey (adjutant) [Signatory 27], F/L J.I. Kilmartin [Signatory 35], S/L George Lott [Signatory 11] [who lost an eye in combat on 9 July 1940], F/L RC Reynell and S/L CB Hull DFC (South African).” Just three hours after this photograph of eight Hurricane pilots from 43 Squadron, ‘relaxing’ outside the Officer’s Mess at RAF Tangmere, was taken, on 7 September 1940 – seven days before Battle of Britain Day – two of them, the Australian Richard Reynell and the South African Caesar Hull – were killed in action. Van Den Hove was in turn lost on the Battle of Britain day itself, and David Gorrie the following April.](https://www.thealanpollocksproject.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Tangmere-Chris-Heaton-filter-1024x720.jpg)
“From left, standing: P/Os HC Upton, AEA van den Hove d’Éstsenrijk (Belgium), and David Gorrie; seated, from left, P/Os Frank Carey (adjutant) [Signatory 27], F/L J.I. Kilmartin [Signatory 35], S/L George Lott [Signatory 11] [who lost an eye in combat on 9 July 1940], F/L RC Reynell and S/L CB Hull DFC (South African).” Just three hours after this photograph of eight Hurricane pilots from 43 Squadron, ‘relaxing’ outside the Officer’s Mess at RAF Tangmere, was taken, on 7 September 1940 – seven days before Battle of Britain Day – two of them, the Australian Richard Reynell and the South African Caesar Hull – were killed in action. Van Den Hove was in turn lost on the Battle of Britain day itself, and David Gorrie the following April.
7 September, 1940. 80 years ago, this photo was taken, at around 1 pm, outside the Officer’s Mess at Tangmere Station. They’re Hurricane pilots from 43 (F) Squadron, “the Fighting Cocks”, and they don’t know, but might suspect, that they’re about to enter the fight of their lives…
Three hours later they were scrambled.
At around the time I’m posting this, given Wartime Double British Summer Time, these guys – apart from the one who’d lost an eye in combat on July 9th, George Lott, whose principle regret for the rest of his life was that he didn’t join them – were up there, engaged in a ferocious and lethally vicious dogfight, in the blue skies above Southern England.
They made contrails so beautiful that artists like Paul Nash couldn’t resist painting them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain_(painting)…
I’m ‘live’ (or is it death?) tweeting this at @TheyWereThere1 on Twitter (but not at They Were There, which is yet to go live: but you can ‘Like’ it now if you’re so inclined).
And personally I think we *should* be so inclined, to be honest – for this is still part of living memory, although not for much longer.
So imagine this: they’re up there now, fighting for their lives, and for our lives, and our way of life. And it’s desperate and by no means certain who’ll win.
Two of them will not return – the Southern Rhodesian/South African/Swazilander Caesar Hull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesar_Hull, remembered here https://www.yourlocalguardian.co.uk/…/10802112.fighter-pil…/ (and yes, that is my father), who simply everyone adored and who was known as “the laughing warrior”.
And his chum Dickie Reynell (here raising a pint to a future that would not come http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Reynell.htm), a dashing Australian (educated at Balliol, Rachel).
In a couple of hours or so, another, the Irishman John Ignatius ‘Killy’ Kilmartin, who valiantly fought to protect them, will land back at Tangmere, utterly shattered…
And next week the photograph will further empty on Battle of Britain day, 15 September.
The Nazis landed “the first blow that aimed to crush the British spirit” on 7 September,, 1940, with waves of Luftwaffe bombers sent to attack London – I’ve cued this video to that moment in a longer American documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4KzI9OCxdk&t=25m58s
These boys did their best to stop them.
Caesar & Dickie: Requiescat in pace.