Combat report of No. 145 Squadron for 12 October 1940

Combat reports were official documents detailing operational encounters with enemy aircraft. They convey both the mental strain of operations and the sense of excitement when victory claims were made.

This combat report provides details of an engagement involving personnel of No. 145 and 213 Squadrons which took place on 12 October 1940. One Luftwaffe aircraft was destroyed and one was a probable, by contrast, the RAF suffered two casualties also with one pilot being killed and one wounded. Six pilots are named in this combat report: Sergeant John Victor Wadham was attached to No. 145 Squadron throughout the majority of the Battle of Britain. Sadly, he is recorded as having been killed during this engagement, it later being established that he was shot down over Hastings. Sergeant Peter Thorpe was shot down during this engagement but managed to bale out injured, later claiming that he was shot at by German planes while he was parachuting down! He was taken to hospital following this combat and survived. He later went on to be a test pilot for Lancaster bombers and was released from RAF service on 4 November 1945. Pilot Officer Michael Alan Newling was Red 1 in this combat and was attached to No. 145 Squadron throughout the majority of his RAF career. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross on 4 February 1941. Tragically, he was killed on 6 July 1941, still serving with No. 145 Squadron, after being shot down over the Lille area. Pilot Officer Archibald Nigel Charles Weir was the leader of B flight during this engagement. Weir was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 30 August 1940. Sadly, he was later shot down into the sea near Ventnor on the Isle of Wight on 7 November 1940. Pilot Officer Paul Wattling Rabone was Yellow 1 during this combat. Rabone was a New Zealand flying ace during the Second World War, credited with having destroyed nine enemy aircraft and damaging four. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross on 25 January 1944 and then transferred to the Royal New Zealand Air Force a couple of months later on 16 March 1944. Rabone went to attack a target in northwest Germany on July 24 1944 but he never returned. Tragically, his body was found three months later, having been washed ashore at Heligoland, an archipelago off the north coast of Germany. Pilot Officer Jack Henry Bachmann was Red 2 in this combat. Bachmann was given command of No. 67 Squadron later in the war, in June 1942. He was sadly killed in action on 9 April 1943.