G/C Dicky Haine RIP

Kyt · Oct 23, 2008

Group Captain "Dickie" Haine: wartime night fighter pilot | Times Online Obituary

Joining the RAF as a career officer in 1935, Dickie Haine was involved as a Blenheim pilot in the infancy of the evolution of night fighter tactics during the autumn of 1939 as the RAF tried desperately to ready itself for the night bombing onslaught it was to face in the following year. Flying these slow bombers-turned-fighters, with their primitive radar, was a world away from the fast and powerful Mosquito XIIIs with which he was to operate as a squadron commander in 1944, by which time the fight was being carried to the enemy over the Normandy beachhead, after dark.

Haine, who had won the DFC in July 1940, remained in the RAF after the war and in a rapidly changing world flew all the fastest types of jets of his day. A man who had gone solo in the biplane Tiger Moth in 1935 at a sedate speed of something less than 100mph, he had flown the Mach 2 Phantom — America’s superlative interceptor, supplied to the RAF — before the end of his career in 1970.

Richard Cummins Haine was born in 1916 and educated at the Crypt Grammar School, Gloucester. A five-shilling flip in an Avro 504K biplane at an Alan Cobham flying circus confirmed him in an addiction to flying and he went solo at the Cotswold Aero Club, Staverton, within a month of leaving school. Not long afterwards he joined the RAF as an NCO. His first posting was to 25 Squadron, flying Hawker Furies. A squadron with an elite reputation, it was chosen for the RAF Display at Hendon in June 1937, the last of the Hendon pageants.

After flying Demons and then Gladiators, the squadron was re-equipped with Blenheims — not in the bomber role as its young pilots feared but as night fighters, the first to undertake radar trials. The squadron flew a number of night training sorties with this primitive equipment, and flew the RAF’s first night patrol of the Second World War on September 4, 1939.

Its first shots fired in anger were in a dusk strafing attack on the German seaplane base at Borkum, in the East Frisian Islands, in November. In a raid that caused a good deal of damage to enemy aircraft and installations, Haine was credited with the destruction of a Henkel He59 floatplane on the ground. The six 25 Squadron aircraft, which had been joined for the raid by six from 601 Squadron, made good their escape in the gathering gloom and returned safely to base.

In April 1940 Haine was commissioned and posted to 600 Squadron, also flying Blenheim fighters. When the German Blitzkrieg opened in the West on May 1940, Haine and a flight of the squadron were dispatched to attack German troop-carrying aircraft at Waalhaven airfield. The Spitfire escort they had been promised did not materialise and although they caused a good deal of damage to Ju52 transport aircraft on the ground the Blenheims were completely exposed to a counter attack by Messerschmitt 109 fighters. No match for the singleengined Me109, the Blenheims fell easy victims, and all were shot down.

With one engine out of action from German cannon fire, and the aircraft close to stalling, Haine found himself flying alongside an Me109 which was apparently merely waiting, in curiosity, for him to crash. Haine had just time to order his gunner to shoot it down (which he did) before himself making preparations for a crash-landing successfully accomplished on the mudflats of the Waal estuary beneath them. It was one of the more unusual combat victories of the Battle of France campaign.

With the Dutch army in headlong retreat before the advancing Germans, Haine and his gunner were able to make their way, helped by friendly Dutch soldiers, to The Hague. There they were embarked in the destroyer Hereward which carried them to Harwich, with the Dutch Royal family.

Haine rejoined his squadron, which continued to fly patrols during the Battle of France. On June 7, with the Dunkirk evacuation completed, he was the pilot of one of three Blenheims dispatched to Boos, north of Rouen, where some wounded RAF aircrew had been stranded and were hoping to be rescued. In the event, before the men could be located German tanks hove in sight, and the Blenheim pilots, who were being handsomely entertained, beat a hasty retreat to their aircraft and got airborne with all possible speed. During the Battle of Britain, Haine flew sorties with 600 Squadron from Manston in Kent, and took part in attempts to repel the early night bombing attacks on London.

After commanding 96 Squadron Haine had a period as a liaison officer to night fighter squadrons in North Africa and then in January 1944 was given command of 488 Squadron, a Royal New Zealand Air Force Unit which soon afterwards became part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, formed to support operations over Normandy after D-Day. With its powerfully armed Mosquito night fighters, this was the summit of the wartime night fighter pilot’s ambitions. With his navigator, Flight Lieutenant Peter Bowman, Haine scored two combat victories in the night skies over Normandy, against Ju88s, in August and September 1944. He commanded 488 Squadron until November when he was rested from operations after more than 100 sorties with it, and transferred to test flying. He ended his war in the Far East as station commander of Kai Tak, Hong Kong.

Among his postwar commands was officer commanding administration at RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, for which he was appointed OBE, and command of two V-bomber bases. In retirement he lived in Suffolk. His memoir, From Fury to Phantom, appeared in 2005.

Haine is survived by the daughter of his first marriage, which was dissolved, by his second wife Eve and by their two sons. Their daughter predeceased him.

Group Captain “Dickie” Haine, OBE, DFC, wartime night fighter pilot, was born on October 1, 1916. He died on September 30, 2008, aged 91
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Antipodean Andy · Oct 23, 2008

Now that would be an awesome book. What a career! RIP to a fine pilot and leader.

Some correlation to Ken McGlashan, it seems, in that he flew in the BoB, flew night fighters, was over France before/during/after the invasion etc etc.

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