WW2 100 - 19 September 1940 - To War in a Wimpy: Pilot Officer David Spencer Cox (1921-1940) Royal Air Force, 149 Squadron
Continued from 17 June 1940: A casualty of Operation Ariel - Aircraftman 1st Class James William Cooper (1920-40)
David Spencer Cox
Image credit: Sherborne School Archives
It’s sad to find barely any information about many of the dead whose names appear on Budleigh Salterton's War Memorial, but hopefully a member of the family will recognise a name and help to fill in the gaps.
Some of the names, on the other hand, come with impressively detailed stories. It seems to depend on the school that they attended!
It’s thanks to a school record that I discovered David Spencer Cox and his link to Budleigh Salterton. Nothing appears in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission records to link this 19-year-old RAF pilot to our town.
But in the online archives of Sherborne School in Dorset, I discovered that David Spencer Cox’s parents, Spencer Cox and Grace Leslie Cox were ‘formerly of Grey Garth, Budleigh Salterton’.
Included in the details was a message from the School Archivist, Rachel Hassall: ‘If you have any additional information about this individual, or if you use one of our images, we would love to hear from you.’
Sherborne School Image credit: www.sherborne.org
‘Shirburnians have a long tradition of remembering their own,’ reads the School’s website. ‘At the east end of the School chapel is a memorial recording the names of the twelve Old Shirburnians who lost their lives in the South African War of 1899-1902. The names of those Old Shirburnians who fell in the First (approx. 221) and Second World Wars (approx. 242) are incised into the walls of the ante-chapel, designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield, and are also recorded in the Books of Remembrance.’
'Grey Garth', at 5 Fore Street Hill, with a superb
position overlooking the sea, is sufficiently outstanding architecturally with
its 1923 datestone, to have been included in the East Devon Conservation Area
Appraisals report of 1999
In 'Grey Garth'’s house deeds Mrs Grace Leslie Cox, of Shandford, Budleigh Salterton, is mentioned as taking on the lease of the Fore Street Hill property as early as June 1931. It was in that year that the previous occupant of 'Grey Garth', Sir Arthur Wheeler, was jailed for fraud. A stockbroker and financier, he had been created a baronet in 1920 but was later declared bankrupt. The house is called variously 'Grey Garth' and 'Greygarth'.
Prior to 1931, a Mrs Spencer Cox is listed as a member of Exmouth Golf Club who took part in ‘The ladies Chamber of Commerce cup’ competition of May 1930. The parents are described as living in Earl’s Court, London, by the time of David’s death in 1940. However not until October 1944 do we find that Greygarth’s lease was assigned to the next residents. So it seems that David Spencer Cox’s links to Budleigh were sufficiently strong for him to be commemorated in the town.
Bigshotte School's history on display
Born on 15 March 1921, David boarded as a pupil at
Bigshotte Preparatory School in Crowthorne, Berkshire. The School closed in 1977,
and there are no obvious records of his time there. Perhaps there are still
archives in existence somewhere because I found online this photo of a display
set up by former pupils – who include the TV horticulturalist Monty Don.
Abbey House Image credit: https://britishlistedbuildings.co.uk
David continued boarding when he attended
Sherborne School from September 1934 to July 1937, living in the elegant building named Abbey House, a school boarding house which has been in continuous
use since 1872. The area lay within the Precinct of Sherborne Abbey, which had
been founded as a Benedictine institution in 998, hence the house’s modern
name. He is listed as a scholar in the School records and stayed at Sherborne
until the 6th form.
He was seemingly destined for a career in chartered accountancy, but had developed an interest in aviation in common with other Sherborne School pupils. Maybe he had been inspired by older Shirburnians like former School House boy, Squadron Leader Peter Devitt, who had learnt to fly privately in the 1930s and went on to command 152 Squadron. A story is told of how Devitt led the eight RAF Spitfires that intercepted the Heinkel 111 bombers over Sherborne on 30 September 1940. He later recalled how on seeing the planes drop their bombs he looked down to see their target which, to his horror, was ‘the old School Courts, which I knew so well.’
The Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) had been established in 1936, while David was still at school, to support the preparedness of the Royal Air Force in the event of another war.
The badge of the RAF’s No. 3 Group and badge of
149 Squadron
When war broke out in 1939 David enlisted with 149
Squadron, which had been reformed from 'B' Flight of No. 99 Squadron RAF on 12
April 1937 under No. 3 Group RAF at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk. His service number
was 80848. 149 Squadron would remain there until April 1942. Initially equipped
with Heyford biplane bombers, it converted to Vickers Wellingtons in January
1939. The aircraft was known by aircrew as a ‘Wimpy’ after the J. Wellington
Wimpy character in the 1930s comic strip ‘Popeye’.
Both the RAF’s Bomber Command and Fighter Command had been formed in 1936. Bomber Command would play a central role in the strategic bombing of Germany during WW2, but it was Fighter Command, formed to allow the RAF more specialised control of its fighter aircraft, that has been idolised by comparison with its seemingly less glamorous sister. The skill and bravery of its Spitfire and Hurricane pilots earned Fighter Command near-immortal fame during the Battle of Britain in 1940, when ‘the Few’ held off the Luftwaffe attack on Britain. In contrast, Bomber Command’s reputation in the later stages of WW2 was inevitably tarnished by the increasing debate about the morality and efficacy of the bombing raids on German cities like Dresden.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Harris, Commander in Chief of Royal Air Force Bomber Command, seated at his desk at Bomber Command HQ, High Wycombe, 24 April 1944
Image credit Flight Officer Stannus, Royal Air Force official photographer. Photograph CH 13020 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums.
In 1942, Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Travers Harris, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief (AOC-in-C) RAF Bomber Command, was given the task of implementing Churchill's and the British Cabinet’s policy of ‘area bombing’ of German cities and supported the development of tactics and technology to perform the task more effectively. But when war ended, ‘Bomber’ Harris, as he had become known, was dismayed and disgusted to be told that his request for a special campaign medal for Bomber Command had been refused by the government and he rejected the peerage that he had been offered.
Aircrew and Wellington bombers of No. 149 Squadron RAF at Mildenhall, Suffolk, before a night raid over Germany. Photograph CH 2674 from the collections of the Imperial War Museums.
Bomber Command’s first months of WW2 were marked
by some disasters. On 4 September, in the first RAF Bomber Command raid of the
war, ten Bristol Blenheims of No. 110 and No. 107 Squadrons attacked units of
the German fleet at low altitude, losing half their number without achieving
any significantly damaging hits.
On 18 December, in what became known as the Battle of the Heligoland Bight, German radar detected unescorted RAF bombers approaching the German Bight en route to Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea coast. As the bombers approached their targets, they were ordered to withhold attack on targets docked or in the harbour so as to avoid civilian casualties. German fighters inflicted heavy casualties on them as they headed home, destroying 12 of the 22 Vickers Wellingtons.
Bomber Command’s failures were caused by a variety of factors. Britain, France and Germany had agreed to the American President Franklin Roosevelt’s appeal on 1 September 1939 for the combatants to not carry out air raids which might cost the lives of civilians, and this made the task of identifying targets extremely difficult. In addition, bombing formations were vulnerable because they were unescorted; it was believed that aircraft like the Wellingtons were able to defend themselves. In fact the gun turrets in ‘Wimpys’ could not turn far enough, and in the early stages of the war the aircraft’s fuel tanks were not sufficiently protected.
An RAF
Vickers Wellington bomber sets off on an attack on the Kiel shipyards in
Germany, a pivotal event in the film ‘The Lion Has Wings’ Image credit: Wikipedia
Such difficulties in Bomber Command did not stop propaganda
films being made to promote the RAF’s work. In 1939, RAF Station Mildenhall was
the location for ‘The Lion Has Wings’, made by various directors including Alexander
Korda to show the nation how the station and its Wellington bombers prepared
for war. The cast included Ralph Richardson as a senior RAF officer and Merle
Oberon as his wife. Perhaps David made an appearance in the film. Later, in
1941, the Crown Film Unit made Harry Watt's ‘Target for Tonight’ on RAF Station
Mildenhall using Wellingtons from No. 149 Squadron.
1940 began disastrously for Mildenhall with two of its Vickers 408 Wellingtons from 149 Squadron shot down over the North Sea on 2 January. There were no survivors among the six aircrew in each plane.
British bombing raids had taken place in daytime for most of the war up to this point, but on 18 January this was changed due to heavy bomber losses. On 18 January, 149 Squadron conducted its first night bombing.
Enemy action was not the only factor in aircraft losses. Bad weather or engine failure were to blame in some of the disasters involving Mildenhall’s Wellingtons from 149 Squadron between 2 January and 2 September. A total of 12 aircraft were lost during that period, with 53 aircrew killed and nine injured.
Not surprisingly, bomber crews suffered from combat stress caused by fatigue and fear. It’s thought that approximately 5,000 to 6,500 men suffered serious disorders and an unknown, possibly much larger, number experienced lesser symptoms.
149 Squadron aircrew before being briefed for a raid at RAF Mildenhall Image credit: Wikipedia
David was presumably judged to be coping well with
such stress and worthy of promotion. The London Gazette of 9 July 1940 announced
his commission as Pilot Officer on probation ‘for the duration of hostilities’ with
effect from 16 June.
Plan of battle of Operation Sealion, the cancelled German plan to invade England in 1940. Image credit: Wikipedia
It was one week after that announcement, on 16
July, that Hitler gave his backing to Operation Sealion in the following words
taken from an extract in his directive to Nazi commanders: ‘Since
England’, he wrote, ‘in spite of her militarily hopeless situation, shows no
signs of coming to terms, I have decided to prepare a landing operation against
England and, if necessary, to carry it out’. The preparations for the entire
operation, he told them, must be completed by mid-August. The German air offensive
would begin on 13 August, with the Luftwaffe’s aim being firstly the neutralisation
of the RAF and secondly the provision of protection for the invasion forces and
the prevention of attacks by the Royal Navy.
Invasion barges assembled at the German port of Wilhelmshaven Image credit: Bundesarchiv, Bild 101II-MN-1369-10A / CC-BY-SA 3.0
Bomber Command’s targets therefore became at this time the French and Belgian Channel ports, where barges were being assembled in August to transport the German army of invasion. Approximately 2,400 barges were collected from throughout Europe: 860 from Germany, 1,200 from the Netherlands and Belgium and 350 from France.
There is no evidence that the barges ever left harbour as a fleet to invade this country because of the bombing raids carried out by Bomber Command. Some barges which put to sea, probably to escape the raids, were sunk either by bombing or on encountering bad weather.
The effectiveness of Bomber Command’s raids and their role in defeating the German Operation Sealion is evidenced by the accounts of airmen like Squadron Leader Andrew Jackson DFC, serving alongside David Cox as a member of 149 Squadron. In the post-war period, as a member of the Scottish Saltire Aircrew Association Andrew Jackson gave his personal account of flying over to the French channel ports and the Low Countries from RAF Mildenhall to help destroy the vast number of invasion barges assembled ready to invade Britain, describing how, in one night, 60 barges were destroyed.
A portrait of the pilot and co-pilot in the cockpit of their 149 Squadron Wellington bomber, at RAF Mildenhall in 1941.
© IWM (D 4737)
On Thursday 19 September 1940, at 19:25, Pilot Officer David Spencer Cox, took off from RAF Mildenhall, flying with five other crew members on Vickers Wellington (Type Ic, Serial R3160, Code OJ-E.
The French city on the eastern side of the Seine Bay, had been captured by the Germans in May 1940, and in the plans for Operation Sealion was assigned a major role in the anticipated invasion of England. A large bunker was built in the harbour specifically for the German R boats (Räumboote), small naval vessels designed as minesweepers which would have been vital in clearing a path though British coastal minefields for the invading forces.
Houlgate Communal Cemetery Image credit: Aircrew Remembered https://www.findagrave.com/
David is thought to have been
killed in action, probably hit by flak, over the English Channel. It seems that
there was no trace of the aircraft’s location, and no sign of the missing aircrew,
apart from one. The body of Sergeant William Roy Pope, service number 966654,
was recovered and was buried in the Communal Cemetery of Houlgate, a small
coastal resort south-west of Le Havre. Like David, he was only 19 years old.
Image credit: Commonwealth War Graves Commission
And, like David and other RAF war dead, he is commemorated at the Runnymede Air Forces Memorial near Englefield Green, Surrey, pictured above.
David’s name does not appear on Budleigh Salterton’s War Memorial, as you can see from the above photo.
The RAF's victory over the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 made a German invasion of Britain all but impossible. In his book Bomber Offensive, published in 1947, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Arthur Harris wrote that all the credit for preventing the invasion of Britain had been given to Fighter Command.
But the story of David Spencer Cox may help to highlight the role that Bomber Command played in saving our country from Nazi rule.
On 3 September, Operation Sealion’s D-Day was fixed for the 21 September, but it was provided that all operations were liable to cancellation 24 hours before zero hour. On 17 September, Hitler decided on the further postponement of the operation, and on 19 September – the date of David’s death – orders were given to discontinue the strategic concentration of shipping and to disperse existing concentrations of craft in the Channel ports in view of Allied air attacks. On 12 October, the operation was called off until the spring, though deception measures were to continue.
You can access other posts on this blog by going to the Blog Archive (under the ‘About Me’ section), and clicking on the appropriate heading.
The next post is for CORPORAL HARRY GOULTY (1898-1940), The Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment), who died on 20 Oct 1940 in Budleigh Salterton.
You can read about him at
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/11/ww2-75-20-october-1940-budleigh-burial.html
These ‘orphans’ are listed on Budleigh Salterton War
Memorial, but have not been identified. Their first names,
date of death and service numbers are not known.
They are recorded on the Devon Heritage website as
'Not yet confirmed’
If you know anything which would help to identify them,
please contact Michael Downes on 01395 446407.
F.E. Newcombe
P. Pritchard
F.J. Watts
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