Tail End Charlie

[David Layne]

Bumbling around the internet I found this which is a good read.

Tail end Charlie




Commentary No. 355 22nd June 2007

Reading obituaries can become compulsive. One is stunned at the extraordinary achievements of those who fought in the Second World War. The most remarkable stories tend to be those of the fighter pilots and of the bomber pilots. It isn't often that somebody emerges with an epic career as an air gunner. But this was the achievement of a certain Flight Lieutenant Wallace McIntosh, DSC and bar, DFM. It was his remarkable story which on his death last week appeared in The Times.

McIntosh was the son of a Scottish farm labourer who in the 30s had a tough time, moving from farm to farm in search of work. The son began life in the same way. But soon he managed to get a job as a gamekeeper. This, one imagines, was how he came to build up his skill as a shot. Still, it is a very different matter shooting at an enemy in the sky when you also are airborne compared with firing a 12 bore from a comfortable and secure position on the ground. In the air everything is moving. The enemy is doing so, probably at well over 300 miles an hour and you are doing so equally fast if in a fighter or slightly slower if in a bomber. But either way it’s a devilishly difficult task getting it right.

Our hero racked up the extraordinary total of some eight kills as a rear gunner. There are several reasons why this was so remarkable an achievement. The first is that a rear gunner in the last war was automatically at a disadvantage in combat. His assailant was usually a German fighter, often the formidable ME 109 armed with multiple cannons. The air gunner for his part was in a hydraulically operated turret armed with 4 303 machine guns. When aiming a gunner turned his entire turret with him in it, to get a bead on his attacker. But his armament was only those 4 303 machine guns. He was practically always up against the twin Cannons of the opposition. These weapons fired a shell nearly a foot long which exploded on impact. The odds on the gunner being successful in this unequal contest were not good. As a result many a Lancaster which had had an encounter with German fighters on an operation came home more or less intact except for a dead rear gunner smashed up in his turret. That was the way it was.

But not with Macintosh. He was obviously one of nature's natural rear gunners. He distinguished himself on his first tour of operations by shooting down at least one and probably two German fighters. Naturally enough being non-commissioned he was awarded the DFM for his pains. Six months later he started his second tour which turned out to be even more remarkable. By now he was part of the crew piloted by his squadrons CO, a Wing Commander. Wise chap, this Wing Commander, he knew how valuable it was to choose a seriously good rear gunner. By co-operating together the pilot and the gunner could if they understood one another turn out to be a remarkable team. So it was with them. The point is they trusted one another implicitly.

The cry, corkscrew now, would immediately have the pilot throwing the big Lancaster into an excruciating tactic which left the rest of the crew having to reach for their stomachs which might have got left behind in the violent manoeuvre. Moreover it didn't make the job of Macintosh easier as, in his turret, he was thrown about too. But it would have been exactly what he had expected. He was ready for the inevitable duel in the sky which followed.

The culminating performance of these two, the Wing Commander pilot and the now commissioned rear gunner, was on a pre-D-Day daylight strike in France, the target being a large concentration of armour. This was daylight stuff in contrast to the night-time raids over Germany. Daylight meant that the job of finding the target was that much easier. On the other hand it made the Lancaster more vulnerable as they could so easily be seen. The drama began as the bomber approached the French coast. They were attacked by a JU88. As the German closed in the Lancaster started to corkscrew. Both Macintosh and his mid-upper gunner got in a long burst. The JU 88 burst into flames. The next thing was, it was diving vertically into the sea where it exploded. But then two minutes later the same thing happened again. Another JU88 came out and the two gunners hit their target before he could hit them and down he went, too.

After they bombed and turned for home they were attacked a third time, this time by an ME 110, the twin engined stable mate of the single engine ME109. McIntosh managed to achieve his third victory on a single trip and shot it down. Returning to base there was not unnaturally enough some mild jubilation over what had occurred. The personal congratulations came through from Sir Arthur Harris himself at bomber command headquarters. McIntosh earned himself an immediate DSC for this performance.

He went on to finish his tour shooting down another couple of aircraft, for which he was given a bar to his DSC. He left the RAF in 1948 having become one of the most successful highly decorated rear gunners of the war.

What is remarkable about this story is that the man fulfilling the role of a tail end Charlie in partnership with his pilot had become such an extraordinary successful air fighter. Normally one thinks of the much more dramatic role of the fighter pilot as the ace of air fighting. What McIntosh demonstrated was that a combination of skill and bravery could turn the tail end Charlie into such an amazingly effective combatant. After achieving what he had, our hero returned to his native job of land management in Scotland. He was always assiduous about keeping up with his squadron’s reunions. He was that kind of man. It is extraordinary though what some people were capable of during the war. It didn't seem to alter their behaviour before or after this short period in their lives. You wouldn't have learned about McIntosh’s exploits when you met him as he went about his professional business in the Highlands of Scotland. It is remarkable what ordinary men are capable of in the circumstances.



Tony Rudd

[Adrian Roberts]

A good descriptive account, though DSC should read either DSO or DFC (DSC was/is a Naval award). And I don't think 20mm shells were anywhere near a foot long. Still blow your head off though.

An obituary of McIntosh that I read stressed that his achievement was more remarkable for being born into grinding poverty, with virtually no education, and a youth spent often on the wrong side of the law.

[Antipodean Andy]

Good pick-up, AR, I missed that DSC.

'109 would have carried about three projectiles per wing if they were a foot long! LOL.

[David Layne]

Thanks for the input.

[Antipodean Andy]

Here's the obit that AR mentioned:

Flight Lieutenant Wallace McIntosh - Telegraph - reading through the obit, it's good to see the Canadian mid-upper, Larry Sutherland, also earned the DFC with McIntosh.

And there's a book!

Amazon.co.uk: Gunning for the Enemy: Wallace McIntosh, DFC and Bar, DFM: Mel Rolfe: Books

[Pathfinder]

That's quite an achievement.

I was looking at the Nanton Lancaster Society website a couple of weeks ago and I'd found an article on 2 gunners in the RCAF, F/Sgt's Peter Engbrecht, CGM, and Gordon Gillanders, DFM, who shot down 5 & 1/2 and 3 & 1/2 aircraft respectively, while flying in Halifax bombers with No. 424 Squadron.

[Kyt]

His biography has been on my wishlist for a while - really must get it soon.

And the 20 mm MG-FF that the early Luftwaffe aircraft used had projectiles that were 80mm long (approx 3 and a bit inches), with later MG 151/20 projectiles only increasing to about 4 inches.