WW2 100 – 26 January 1942 – Fighting with ‘the Forgotten Air Force’: Sergeant Deryk Vaughan Saunders (1920-42) Royal Air Force 62 Squadron
Continued from 17 January 1942 - A casualty of the Arctic Convoys:
PETTY OFFICER SIDNEY GERALD HAYWARD (1919-42)
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/10/ww2-7511-casualty-of-arctic-convoys.html
Budleigh Salterton War Memorial at the junction of Coastguard Road and Salting
Hill
Deryk’s
name is included on the Budleigh Salterton War Memorial, and according to the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission his parents were from the town. However the
only connection with Budleigh that I have found is that his great-aunt Miss
Ethel Laidman lived at 4 The Lawn.
An advertisement for Twiss Engineering which in 1919 consolidated with J.B. Saunders & Co and Laing Wharton Ltd as engineers, manufacturers and contractors of electricity transmission lines Image credit: www.gracesguide.co.uk
A
family link with Devon was established when Deryk’s great-grandfather, John Brewer
Saunders, born in Monmouth in 1833, settled in Newton Abbot. In 1857 he had
founded a company, J.B. Saunders & Co, Railway
Telegraph & Telephone Engineers, which evidently prospered in an age of industrial
expansion. Based in Dacre Street, London, it was involved in operations
worldwide.
One of its directors J.H.P. Berthon – apparently a nephew of John Brewer Saunders – spent time developing railways in Australia in the mid-1880s. His photograph albums and sketches of life there are one of the treasures of the State Library of Queensland.
John Brewer Saunders’ eldest son, confusingly of the same name but born in 1858, seems to have lived and worked abroad, presumably for the company. He and his wife Laura Matilde, née Laidman, were living in Singapore when Deryk’s father, Cyril Siveright Saunders was born there in 1887. Cyril himself was living in Arrah, NE India, with his wife Gwynedd Lilias, when in 1924 he registered a patent for ‘a charge-mixing device for internal-combustion engines’.
I noted all that family background not just to show off my genealogical expertise – which is very small – but to suggest that this may have been why Deryk himself, born in 1919, decided to join the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR). There is much more that I have not discovered about his early life, but perhaps the obvious interest in mechanical engineering shown by family members may have had something to do with his decision.
The RAFVR was formed in July 1936 to supplement the Royal Auxiliary Air Force. The purpose was to provide a reserve of aircrew to draw upon in the event of war. The Auxiliary Air Force, which had been formed in 1925 by the local Territorial Associations, was organised by squadron and used local recruitment similar to the Territorial Army Regiments. When WW2 broke out in September 1939 the RAFVR comprised 6,646 pilots, 1,625 observers and 1,946 wireless operators.
During the war, the Air Ministry used the RAFVR as the principal means of entry for aircrew to serve with the RAF. All those called up for Air Force Service with the RAF, both commissioned officers and other ranks, did so as members of the RAFVR under the National Service (Armed Forces) Act 1939. By the end of 1941 more than half of Bomber Command aircrew were members of the RAFVR. Eventually of the RAF aircrew in the Command probably more than 95 percent were serving members of the RAFVR.
Deryk was serving with No. 62 Squadron of the Royal Air
Force when he was killed in Malaya. The Squadron was originally established as a Royal Flying Corps squadron
in 1916 and operated the Bristol F2B fighter in France during the last year of
the First World War.
A Hawker Hind aircraft, photographed at Shuttleworth,
Bedfordshire. Image credit: Wikipedia
After the war the Squadron was disbanded but was re-established in 1937 as part of the build-up of the RAF in the late 1930s. On 3 May 1937, the Squadron was reformed at Abingdon from 'B' Flight of No. 40 Squadron, equipped with Hawker Hinds, light bomber aircraft capable of carrying a maximum bomb-load of 510 lb (231 kg) on external racks fitted beneath both wings.
Bristol Blenheim Mark Is of No. 62 Squadron RAF
lined up at Tengah Airfield, Singapore, before flying north to their new base
at Alor Star, in northern Malaya. Image credit: Imperial War Museum online
collection. Photo No. K 135/Collection No. 4700-10
In February 1938 the Squadron was re-equipped with Bristol Blenheims. It was posted to Singapore in August 1939 and moved to Alor Star in northern Malaya in February 1940.
The only flying Blenheim (Mk.1 L6739)
displaying at Duxford in 2015
The Bristol Blenheim aircraft had twice the payload of Hawker Hinds, being able to carry four 250 lb (113 kg) bombs or two 500 lb (227 kg) bombs internally and eight 40 lb (18 kg) bombs externally.
On 8 December 1941, the Japanese 25th Army invaded from Indochina, moving into northern Malaya and Thailand by amphibious assault and rapidly progressing towards Singapore. The following day, Squadron 62 was evacuated to RAF Butterworth, further south on the west coast of Malaya.
On 9 December, an attack on Singora airfield in occupied Thailand was being planned when RAF Butterworth was attacked by Japanese aircraft as the British force was preparing to take off. Only one Blenheim, piloted by Squadron Leader Arthur Scarf of 62 Squadron got away, carrying out a single-handed attack on Singora. His Blenheim was heavily damaged by Japanese fighters and anti-aircraft fire, and he was badly injured. Despite his injuries, he managed to make a forced landing at Alor Star, saving the rest of his crew. He died in hospital that evening, and was eventually posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions that day.
RAF Butterworth had been heavily damaged by the Japanese attack on 9 December, and the Squadron moved further south yet again, this time to Taiping, Perak. A further withdrawal took place on 19 December, this time to Singapore. Losses, mainly from Japanese attacks on its airfields were heavy, and in January 1942 the Squadron moved yet again to P2 airfield near Palembang, Sumatra.
A Hudson Mk V of No. 48 Squadron RAF, in early
1942. No. 48 Squadron RAF - This is photograph COL 183 from the collections of
the Imperial War Museums.
This time it was re-equipped with Lockheed Hudsons, American-built twin-engine light bombers which were noted for their exceptional manoeuvrability.
On 26 January, six 62 Squadron Hudsons took part in attacks against Japanese troopships landing at Endau, on the east coast of Malaya. Deryk was in aircraft AE602, one of two Hudsons shot down by Japanese Ki-27 fighters while returning from the operation. The aircraft crashed near RAF Sembawang, Singapore, killing all members of the crew. With Deryk were Pilot Officer William Thomas De Rouffignac Waters, Sergeant Arthur Leonard Maslen and Sergeant George Henry Horobin.
They are all remembered on the Singapore Memorial in Kranji War Cemetery on the north side of Singapore Island, overlooking the Straits of Johore.
Books about 62 Squadron include Devotion to a Calling: Far-East Flying and Survival with 62 Squadron RAF by Group Captain Harley Boxall and Joe Bamford (2010).
The air war in the Far East is also the subject of Air Commodore Henry Probert’s
book The Forgotten Air Force: The Royal Air Force in the War against Japan
1941-1945 (1995), the title of which I used in the introduction to this
post.
The next post is for SECOND LIEUTENANT JOHN BARHAM LEAHY (1920-42)
who died on 1 Feb 1942 in
the Battle of Singapore.
There are two parts. You can read the first part at
https://budleighpastandpresent.blogspot.com/2020/09/ww2-75-joyce-dennys-book-henrietta-sees.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
F.J. Watts
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