John Greer "Beryl" Boyle

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By 1936, Canadians were enthusiastically applying for RAF commissions. More than fifty applicants from all walks of life and varied backgrounds, and for myriad different reasons, sailed to England — at their own expense — to enlist. Doug (George) Christie of Westmount had just graduated from McGill University; Bill Nelson and Joe Laricheliere represented French and English Canada from Montreal; John Boyle came from Casselman, Ont.; Lionel Gaunce from Lethbridge had been a former corporal in the Edmonton Militia Regiment; Robert "Butch" Barton, from Kamloops, B.C., had given up his job as a bank teller; and Mark "Hilly" Brown of Portage la Prairie, like Cowboy Blatchford and Johnny Kent, just wanted to fly. *

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On September 5, twenty-two different German formations attacked these targets within eight hours. In the midst of these raids, John Boyle of 41 Squadron destroyed an Me 109, as did Jack Carpenter, the transplanted navy pilot, while Roland Dibnah, one of Bader's pilots, brought down a 110.
Boyle's combat report illustrated the intensity of the day's fighting:

I was Green 3 ... patrolling between Maidstone and Ramsgate. Interception was made at 20,000 feet; enemy aircraft varying from 16,000 to 22,000 feet. Green Section attacked bombers [Do 17s] in line-astern formation. Seven or eight Me 109s were covering these bombers. Three Me 109s came in between me and Green 1 and 2. I attacked the most convenient e/a, starting to fire from above with quarter deflection closing in to dead-astern. A four- or five-second burst was enough. The 109 broke up, with flame and smoke coming from the right-hand side; it immediately rolled on its back and spun.

Dibnah's unit, 242 Squadron, had been practicing take-offs and landings, and forming up with two other squadrons from Duxford. The exercise had Leigh-Mallory's full blessing as well as the hearty approval of the deputy chief of the Air Staff, Sholto Douglas. Bader had reduced squadron take-off time to three minutes, but the Wing still had to form up. Keith Park of 11 Group was not against the "Big Wing" formations per se. Far from it. At the time of Dunkirk, he had initiated their use in formations as large as four squadrons. But that was for offensive purposes when there was lots of time to form up. Not so easily done defensively.
Rarely was it possible to detect the enemy's intentions until it reached the coast, about twenty minutes' flying time from the centre of London. It took all that time and more for the British fighters to reach 20,000 feet, so they had to be off the ground and climbing in a flash. For that reason Park, for the most part, confined his formations to single squadrons, two at the most, although on rare occasions this was increased to three.
Hugh Dowding said later that had Big Wings been used by 11 Group, a great many more enemy bombers would have reached their targets. Park was even more explicit: "Had I tried Bader's theories of the Big Wing," he said, "I would have lost the Battle of Britain." *

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(September 15, 1941) Butch Barton, flying from North Weald with 249 Squadron, destroyed one Dornier 215 and shared in the destruction of another.
During the morning raid over London, Jimmy Cochrane of 257 — the "Burma" Squadron — spotted a Dornier 17 several thousand feet below him and dived at it, firing from the port side as another Hurricane joined him attacking from the opposite beam. Riddled by bursts from the scores of De Wilde rounds, the bomber flipped over on its back like a dead fish and then plunged downward, trailing smoke. One crew managed to jump clear, his parachute blossoming out before the aircraft exploded in a shower of fragments just above the cloud layer.
In the afternoon assault, over the Thames Estuary, the same squadron again encountered the enemy when they were bounced by yellow-nosed Me 109s. Breaking away from the attack, Cochrane joined three others in clobbering a Heinkel 111, which they forced down onto the mud flats at Foulness.
Ken Lawrence of 603 Squadron, flying a Spitfire from Hornchurch while mixing it up with Me 109 fighter-escorts, succeeded in destroying one and damaging two. This brought his string of victories to two-and-a-third destroyed, two probably destroyed, and five damaged. Another Canadian Spitfire pilot stationed at Hornchurch — with 41 Squadron — also scored that day. East of London, Casselman native, John Boyle, chalked up an Me 109 and shared in bringing down a Dornier with four others. Peter O'Brian, now CO of 152 Squadron, shared in the destruction of a Heinkel 111 bomber with two of his squadron pilots.
Two Winnipeggers also distinguished themselves in the fighting. Smudger Smith of 73 Squadron, flying a Hurricane out of Debden, destroyed an Me 109 fighter, while Spitfire pilot Allan Edy of 602 Squadron from Tangmere brought down a Dornier 17 bomber.
Total honors posted by the Canadians for the day were eleven enemy aircraft destroyed, six of them bombers, five fighters; three probably destroyed, two of them bombers, one a fighter; and four damaged of which three were bombers and one a fighter. Six pilots shared in destroying another six planes, all of them bombers, one in probably destroying a bomber and another in damaging a fighter. This was altogether an impressive tally during only two German raids and at a loss of only one pilot killed and two wounded, neither seriously. *

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Despite the fact that the overall issue (the Battle of Britain) had been decided on September 15, and September 27 had put a halt to massive daylight raids on London, there was no let-up in combat. For the moment, the Luftwaffe changed tactics to smaller bomber formations of thirty Junkers 88s escorted by 200 to 300 fighters. On September 28, the Germans launched two such attacks with London as the objective. That, in tackling one of these gaggles, the best the RAF could do was to only shoot down three German fighters was indicative of how exhausted the pilots had become from the intensity of the demands made on them. Their losses of sixteen aircraft and nine pilots — among them John Boyle of Casselman, with 41 Squadron, whose record stood at four-and-a-fifth destroyed — to achieve such a paltry score was another manifestation of how serious their combat fatigue had become.       ... quoted from 'The Splendid Hundred' by Arthur Bishop

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--- Canadian Aces ---

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