A good month for Probus publicity in the local magazines with “The Man Behind Q” receiving a full page in the Kempshott Kourier, Basinga, and double page spreads in the CommunityAd magazines for Overton, Oakley & Kempshott and the same publisher repeated our report in their publication for Bramley & Sherfield.
The Kiwi pilot report received a full page in the Rabbiter, a double page spread in the Villager and the shortened version in the Link. As usual the Loddon Valley Link ignored our report as did the Bramley magazine on this occasion
Commemorative sign near to the church in Weston Patrick south of Basingstoke
Kempshott resident and Probus Club of Basingstoke member Chris Perkins MVO was on a relaxing walk when he came across an unusual memorial to a crashed Spitfire pilot. The memorial was on a grass verge near to the church in the hamlet of Weston Patrick just south of Basingstoke.
What caused the plane to crash on 15th August 1942? Was it due to enemy action? Who was the aviator, a member of the Royal New Zealand Air Force? Was he another New Zealander who, like so many, had answered the call and had come to support the mother country in its hour of need?
Chris Perkins MVO retired from the RAF with the rank of Squadron Leader and always had a great interest in historical aspects of the RAF and had gained great experience in searching out information about matters that piqued his interest.
And, so it was, when he spotted this memorial.
RAF Lasham, these days the UK’s largest gliding society, created as a wartime airfield, was only a mile away so was this Spitfire heading there? Not so was what Chris discovered as his research took him through the history of this unfortunate accident,
Bernard Bryn Goodall, born near Auckland in New Zealand was descended from a family who had emigrated from Staffordshire in the 1860s. He had been educated at Putaruru High School where he had enjoyed rugby, cricket, tennis and swimming. At the time of applying for war service and joining the Royal New Zealand Air Force in January 1940 he was employed as a ‘Dryerman’ at the Whakatane Paper Mills that had only started manufacturing cardboard in 1939 and continues up to the present day.
Bernard Bryn Goodall in flight training
In March 1941 he enlisted for aircrew training at the Initial Training Wing and then to No 3 Elementary Flying Training School. July 1941 saw him embark for Canada for advanced training under the Empire Training Scheme. In November 1941 he was awarded his ‘Wings’ and promoted to sergeant at No 6 Service Flying Training School, Dunnville, Ontario. A week later he proceeded to No 1 “Y” Depot, Halifax Nova Scotia to await embarkation for the United Kingdom.
Sgt Goodall NZ/411981 RNZAF, arrived at No 3 Personnel Reception Centre, Bournemouth, on 19th December 1941. On 10th February 1942 he was posted to No 58 Operational Training Unit, Grangemouth near Edinburgh, where he completed his training on Supermarine Spitfire aircraft.
Bernard Bryn Goodall on receiving his ‘Wings’ and promoted to sergeant.
On 21st April 1942 he was posted to No 41 Squadron at Herston in Sussex then on to Martlesham Heath in Suffolk, Hawkinge in Kent, Debden in Essex and in August 1942 to Longtown in Cumberland where 41 Squadron carried out ‘offensive sweep patrols’ moving shortly to Llanbedr in Wales to carryout patrols over the Irish sea.
Spitfire Mk Vb, serial number P8607, Code sign EB-C, had been built at the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory near Birmingham. They built 3,003 Mk Vb Spitfires between 1941 and 1943 out of a total of 3,991. Delivered to 9 Maintenance Unit on 11th June 1941, it was then deployed to three operational squadrons before arriving at No 41 squadron on 25th July 1942 and into the hands of Sgt Goodall. But what caused this Spitfire, at 17.45 hrs on Saturday 15th August 1942, to dive into farmland and kill the pilot outright?
Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb Code sign EB-C as flown by Sgt Goodall. Armed with two Hispano 20 mm canons and four Browning.303 machine guns it could also carry two 250 lb or one 500 lb bomb. Powered by a Rolls Royce 45 series V12 engine that developed 1,440 HP
The Board of Inquiry established that Sgt Goodall had been detailed to deliver this Spitfire from RAF Station Debden in Essex to RAF Station Tangmere near Chichester in Sussex. His squadron was being repositioned there in readiness for the forthcoming ill-fated ‘Operation Jubilee’ raid on Dieppe that took place on 19th August 1942.
Presumably due to instrument failure, Sgt Goodall found himself flying in the wrong direction, a little to the northwest to where he needed to be. While there were no enemy aircraft in the vicinity neither was there any radar cover in that period of the war but on that eventful day the southern half of England had a low cloud base of only 1,000 feet.
It is assumed that he was descending through the low clouds to achieve sight of the ground and with little room to manoeuvre the Spitfire crashed into a field at Blounce Farm in Weston Patrick, partly burying itself and catching fire immediately. Sgt Goodall was killed instantly.
He was interred with full service honours at Brookwood Military Cemetery near Woking in Surrey, in grave reference Plot 2 Row 1, 1. This is an area of 37 acres making it the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the United Kingdom. Sgt Goodall’s head stone follows one of the standard designs of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Sgt Bernard Bryn Goodall had flown 312 hours as a pilot. He had taken part in 41 operational flights, being most offensive patrols, including 12 convoy patrols and 2 sector reconnaissance flights. He also took part in two low level attacks on enemy positions in France, a shipping reconnaissance and an air sea rescue search.
Like many citizens of countries in the British Empire, Bernard Bryn Goodall made the ultimate sacrifice in supporting this country’s war effort. He was 23 years old.
A mixed offering this month with three subjects, The Man Behind Q, Dambusters and Titanic as the magazines caught up after some not having a January edition.
Full pages were obtained in the Rabbiter, Bramley, Villager, (reduced to fit on the covers) Link (almost) and the CommunityAd for Overton, Oakley & Kempshott allowing us a page and half.
There can’t be many people in this country who have not seen at least one Bond film featuring that smooth spy and womaniser, James Bond, who survives many tricky situations using a piece of equipment made by the in-house boffin known as Q.
Bond author Ian Fleming had been deputy head of Naval Intelligence during WW2 and knew they really did have such people in the background whose job as a Supply Officer, or Quartermaster, hence the use of the initial Q, to provide solutions for field operators facing life or death scenarios.
Speaker Guy Caplin had a lengthy career as a TV producer and director creating many top-rated programmes for Britain’s ITV network. Following retirement, he has investigated long forgotten and unknown war heroes. One such was Charles Fraser-Smith who was in MI 6 who invented the self-heating can of soup. He realised that British agents dropped into occupied France needed to blend in with the locals which included smelling like a native, so he invented garlic flavoured chocolate.
Another was Clayton Hutton (known as ‘Clutty’) who had been a pilot in WW1 and in 1939 was the manager of a jam making factory. He sent thirteen telegrams to the War Ministry offering his services and was eventually placed in MI 9 to act as Q to help the military either avoid capture or aid their escape. This suited his outlook because as a young man he had met the great escapologist Houdini and remained fascinated by all similar matters.
His many successful developments included printing maps on silk which was only made possible by his knowledge of jam making where pectin was used to stabilise the product and it stabilised the printing ink so that it did not run into the fabric.
Compass Needles as Collar StiffenersRazor Blades Became Compass Needles
He made compass needles as shirt collar stiffeners and miniature compasses that screwed into the back of uniform buttons with a left-hand thread to thwart German guards. Some razor blades were magnetised so that when placed on the surface of water they would point north.
The chewed wooden end of pencils provided cover for miniature compasses and boxes of fifty Players cigarettes became emergency food and survival kits for the RAF. Bomber command was losing one in five planes and Clutty realised that the large fur lined flying boots would be an obvious giveaway for escaping air crew, so he redesigned them. The foot section was made to look like a real shoe with the heel containing a map and compass, the laces were a Gigli saw that would cut through steel bars and padlocks and the cut off legs when turned inside out became a waistcoat.
Red Cross parcels sent to the PoW camps were full of escape provisions. Civilian clothing was a must, and uniform jackets could have the lining removed and turned inside out to become a jacket that would look domestic. The fabric used for mess uniforms was the same colour as those of their guards, Officers caps could have the fabric taken off the peak to reveal a shiny black peak as used on civilian head gear.
Vinyl records that had music one side had a map and German currency secreted on the reverse, books had silk maps hidden in their covers and green edged handkerchiefs could have a map displayed after being soaked in water in which a yellow Rowntree’s Smartie had been dissolved.
While miniature radios and transmitters were fitted into twenty cigarette packets things like ‘Little Nellie’ the autogyro seen in the 1967 Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice’ or cars with revolving number plates and machine guns had yet to be invented. But who’s to say that there are no other Q sections busily at work today just in case their efforts might be needed in the future.
With only four local magazines publishing a January edition we achieved good coverage in all four. Two carried the Dambusters talk while the other two ran with the visit made to the D-Day Headquarters.
A new venue this year with a move to the Hartley Wintney Golf Club who served up an excellent quality meal and ensured each guest had the food of their choice.
Hosted by our President Stephen Thair and his lady, Margaret, thirty-five sat down for lunch at 1.00pm sharp and were still chatting at the table until well after 3.30pm This was not because the food was slow in serving but indicates that an enjoyable time was had by all.
Grateful thanks go to John Swain and Jeff Grover for their organising skills in making all the arrangements for the day.
And special thanks go to Alan and Liliane May for their construction of a brain teaser puzzle based on nostalgic confectionary, London underground stations and television programmes with lead characters. It was clear from the groans emitting from tables that the results were obvious when Alan distributed the answer sheet. It was diplomatic not to check the results publicly.
Mr Snappy Snaps was Chris Perkins, and the results of his David Bailey style efforts are published here but with everything going on, Alan and Liliane May somehow escaped his shutter.
It was good to see that our latest member, Mike and Liz Narracott, attended and greetings came from absent member David Wickens currently at his son’s home in Las Vegas and our secretary Andrew and Janice Barton who are in Perth, Western Australia.
As has become the norm, the Kempshott Kourier was late, arriving halfway through November and therefore contains the report about the Titanic and times that was the subject of the talk by Dr Stephen Goss. The other five local December magazines gave us good coverage about the visit to Southwick House that was the HQ for the D-Day landings 80 years ago. The Villager page had to be reduced to 80% to fit on the front cover for scanning purposes.
Speaker Rhydian Vaughan MBE with President Stephen Thair
Many will have seen the 1955 film, “The Dambusters” and speaker Rhydian Vaughan MBE explained that scenes involving the bouncing bomb were subject to the Official Secrets Act and what was shown was not like the shape of the real thing.
The creation of designer Barnes Wallis, code named ‘Upkeep’ was in fact drum shaped, weighing more than four tons. It was engineered to spin backwards at 500 RPM so that when it hit the dam wall its reverse spinning would ensure it would hug the wall as it descended the depths.
The three dams of the industrial heartland of the Ruhr valley. the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe had been identified in 1937 as potential targets, but it took until May 1943 for ‘Operation Chastise’ to come to fruition.
The scheme had several detractors, mainly from head of RAF Bomber Command, Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris but was overruled by the then head of the RAF, Sir Charles Portal (of our local Portal’s family bank note paper manufacturer}. Nineteen of the newly introduced AVRO Lancaster bombers, each costing £42,000 and needing a crew of seven, would have to be modified to carry the experimental weapon that had originally been thought was to be used against the German battleship, Tirpitz.
Wing Commander Guy Gibson, DSO & Bar, DFC & Bar, a twenty-four-year-old bomber flying ace, known unaffectionately as ‘The Boy Emperor’ due to his unfortunate manner in dealing with subordinates, was asked to form Squadron X, soon to be renamed 617 Sqn to perform one specific task. He had only eight weeks to form and train a new squadron to carry out the raid on the dams. By the 16/17 May the dams would be at full capacity. It was known that it took one hundred and fifty tons of water to make 1 ton of steel.
Barnes Wallis had calculated that his rotating mine would need to be dropped at a specific speed, height and distance from the dam for several bounces to reach the wall. And at night, facing defending fire from the dam wall.
Guy Gibson on step with his crew The breached Mohne dam
Eight Lancasters, along with 53 airmen, did not return to RAF Scampton. Guy Gibson was awarded the Victoria Cross – his response to this was subdued as he felt responsible for those he had recruited and who had not returned.
While the raid on the dams was a great morale booster, within a few months they had had been repaired as there was no follow up missions to prevent them being rebuilt. However, the labour needed was brought in from building the Atlantic Wall the German construction across the northern French coastline and it was subsequently recognised that had this delay not occurred the D-Day landings would have not succeeded.
There is a mixture of subjects in the November (October) magazines because of the various publishing times in the month. The Kempshott Kourier showed the helicopter report about its flight to Alexandria and the CommunityAd magazine for Overton, Oakley & Kempshott ran late with our Summer Pub lunch.
The others all gave a good showing to the Titanic Times in Belfast. Some images have been reduced to fit on to magazine covers.
Probus members and families outside of Southwick House
A group of Probus members and families had an impressive visit to Southwick House (locally pronounced “Suthick”) positioned five miles north of Portsmouth that had a pivotal role in the planning of D-Day, the largest amphibious assault in history.
It was the Supreme Headquarters of the main allied commanders, including Allied Supreme Commander General Dwight D Eisenhower, Naval Commander-in-Chief Admiral Ramsey, Army Commander-in-Chief General Montgomery, and Commander-in-Chief Allied Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Leigh-Mallory. The grounds became the Main Tactical Base for the 21st Army Group for their forthcoming invasion plans.
Richard Callaghan, the curator, gave an extensive narrative about the map room that still contains the enormous graphic showing the invasion plans. His talk was interwoven with anecdotes about incidents involving the main characters that gave life to this history lesson.
Map Room with the large wall graphic showing the planning routes
Deception was used to convince the German high command that the invasion would come across the shortest route from Kent to Pas de Calais which caused German divisions to move from the Normandy region.
James Stagg was the meteorologist providing weather forecasts to the senior planning group. As a civilian he would have difficulty in ensuring he would be taken seriously so he was presented with the uniform of a RAF Group Captain. It was Stagg that convinced General Eisenhower to postpone the assault from the planned day of 5th June to 6th June 1944.
Group Captain James Stagg became head of the Meteorological Office post war
Kay Summersby, driver, secretary and “friend” of General Eisenhower
6,000 ships were involved moving from all regions of southern England to the main dispersal area that became known as Piccadilly Circus and then had to pass through corridors cleared through minefields in the Channel. Thanks to detailed planning only seven ships were involved in collisions.
Despite the break in the weather there was still a swell, and the floating Sherman tanks were launched too far out from the shore resulting in only four out of thirty-two reaching the beach. It had been necessary to ensure that the beach would support such vehicles by nighttime investigations in the previous weeks that had not been spotted by the land-based Germans.
LCT (Landing Craft Tank) ships were vital to carrying tanks and heavy equipment to the beaches
In the adjacent bar room, the original weather maps were on the wall along with other memorabilia including models of two LCT (Landing Craft Tank) ships that were the subject of a talk some years ago by Probus member Brian Nagle.
Commemorative plaque on the wall of the Officers’ mess in Southwick House
There followed a visit to the Royal Military Police Museum, based on the same military establishment, that showed the development from the early days of the Provost Marshall to the Red Caps known today.
Military Police Museum shows the history of this unit to the present day.
Probus Club of Basingstoke 
You must be logged in to post a comment.