W/C Eric Barwell, RIP. Defiant pilot

[Adrian Roberts]

Eric Barwell, who has died aged 94, was a night-fighter ace who started on Defiants. Given the casualty rate among the Defiant squadrons in daylight, I wonder if he was the last survivor?

Wing Cdr Eric Barwell - Telegraph

[Kyt]

Incredible career. RIP

According to the list on Surviving BoB Pilots-Do you personally know any? these are the last survivors. I need to doublr check the names though:

Flight Lieutenant Clifford Stanley Emeny, New Zealander, 264 Squadron, Essex, Defiants.
Group Captain, John Rushton Gard’ner, New Zealander, 141 Squadron, Scotland, Defiants.
Squadron Leader Alan Antill Gawith, DFC, New Zealander, Scotland, Defiants.
Group Captain Arthur Montagu-Smith, DL RAF Ret’d, 264 Squadron, Essex, Defiants.

[Kyt]

His brother:

Name: BARWELL, PHILIP REGINALD
Initials: P R
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Group Captain
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force
Age: 35
Date of Death: 01/07/1942
Service No: 22062
Awards: D F C
Additional information: Son of Reginald and Alice Mary Ann Barwell; husband of Mary Elizabeth Barwell, of Peterborough, Northamptonshire, England.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: 5. G. 1.
Cemetery: CALAIS CANADIAN WAR CEMETERY, LEUBRINGHEN

Spitfire AB806 shot down by Spitfires from Tangmere. There is a picture and a brief bio of both of them in their old school magazine

http://www.oldwellingburian.org/images/May03.pdf

[Kyt]

Just found this as regards:

Originally Posted by Kyt

Flight Lieutenant Clifford Stanley Emeny, New Zealander, 264 Squadron, Essex, Defiants.

Another Mosquito pilot, Flight Lieutenant Emeny5 of No. 45 Mosquito Squadron, survived a harrowing experience. On 9 November 1944, he took off with six other Mosquitos to attack Meiktila airfield. Over the target the Mosquitos met determined opposition from both fighters and flak. Emeny's aircraft was hit, burst into flames and crashed with such force that he and his navigator were reported ‘missing believed killed’. But both men somehow managed to hack their way out of the wreckage and, although injured and suffering from burns, they crawled to a native village near Meiktila. Here they were robbed by Burmese and then betrayed to the Japanese. The two airmen were taken to an army post, where they were kept standing for four nights and three days without food in an unsuccessful effort to make them divulge information. They were then removed to Rangoon jail. Emeny had severe burns about the head and severe skin injuries to one leg, but the Japanese gave him no medical attention and he was forced to doctor himself with his first-aid kit. Emeny, who in civilian life had had some experience of veterinary work, later assisted in the medical care of prisoners, who received little, if any, such attention from the Japanese.......... Flight Lieutenant C. S. Emeny; born Wellington, 11 Jan 1920; farmhand; joined
RNZAF Jan 1940; prisoner of war, 9 Nov 1944.

CHAPTER 16 — Back to Rangoon—the Last Phase | NZETC

[Adrian Roberts]

Thanks for this - I was going to ask if anyone knew about the circumstances of Philip Barwell's death. Friendly Fire has always been a hazard of the battlefield (though I think the rather crass terminology is quite recent.

As to the Defiant: another type, like the Buffalo, that wasn't quite as useless as some accounts suggest; it accounted for a fair number of EA initially. I wonder why they didn't provide forward firing armament as well; even four guns if it couldn't manage the weight of eight? Then it would have followed in the concept of the two-seat fighter such as the WW1 Bristol F2B "Fighter", and more recently the Hawker Demon which managed the weight of the first hydraulic turret as well ads forward-firing guns. Perhaps the Defiant came from the theory that German fighters would not appear over the UK because France would not collapse and provide bases, which theory very nearly led to the cancellation of the Spitfire in favour of the Whirlwind.

[Kyt]

It certainly wasn't useless, once it had found a niche:

Boulton Paul Defiant

The limitations on the Defiant's manoeuvrability forced its eventual withdrawal from daylight operations in late August 1940. 264 and 141 squadrons became dedicated night-fighter units. The Defiant night fighters were painted all-black and fitted with flame damper exhausts. Success came quickly, with the first night kill being claimed on 15 September 1940. From November 1940, an increasing number of new night fighter squadrons were formed on the Defiant. Units operating the Defiant shot down more enemy aircraft than any other night-fighter during the German 'Blitz' on London in the winter of 1940-41. Initial operations were conducted without the benefit of radar. From the Autumn of 1941, AI Mk 4 radar units began to be fitted to the Defiant. An arrow type aerial was fitted on each wing, and a small H-shaped aerial added on the starboard fuselage side, just in front of the cockpit. The transmitter unit was located behind the turret, with the receiver and display screen in the pilot's cockpit. The addition of radar brought a change in designation for the Mk I to N.F. Mk IA, but the designation of the Mk II version did not change. By February 1942, the Defiant was obviously too slow to catch the latest German night intruders and the night fighter units completely re-equipped in the period April-September 1942.

I don't think the issue of weight was the deciding factor for not having a gun in the wing but rather the whole issue of tactics. The very rationale for the Defiant, as you say, was as an anti-bomber aircraft, and by the time that it was realised that it would face fighter opposition, everbody turned away from the aircraft anyway.

So there wasn't any real development work carried out for day use, except a better engine, after its use during the BoB.