Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
of sun-split clouds,—and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air....
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark nor ever eagle flew—
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God
High Flight (John Gillespie Magee)
This photograph of Ian Ingram was taken on September 1, 1941, when he graduated as Pilot Officer in the Royal Australian Air Force and was awarded his Flying Badge. With the permission of his parents, he had enlisted on January 6, three months after his twentieth birthday. The RAAF was a participant in the Empire Air Training Scheme, and Canada was the primary training hub for Commonwealth aircrews. P/O Ingram's graduation photo was taken there, at No. 2 Service Flying Training School Uplands, just south of Ottawa. The next day, he left for Halifax, from where he embarked for Britain on September 9, arriving fifteen days later.
There were nine weeks of additional operational training and then posting to 225 Squadron on December 21, 1941, a brief stint in 154 Squadron (where Ingram can be seen standing in front of his Spitfire Mk V), and final reassignment to 225 Squadron on November 13, 1942. In the interim, P/O Ingram had been promoted to Flying Officer in March. On leave in August, he saw Vivian Leigh in a revival of Shaw's "The Doctor's Dilemma," an Edwardian drama marking her return to the stage that she took to boost wartime morale—and whom the young pilot thought "a very polished actress." A confidential report in September by the commanding officer of 225 Squadron assessed him to be "A hard working officer with no lack of offensive spirit. He is reliable and with more experience will be an asset in any flying unit."
On Sunday, November 8, 1942, Ingram was in North Africa. That day marked the beginning of "Operation Torch" (November 8–16), the codename for the Anglo-American invasion of French North Africa. This was the first time that inexperienced American troops would confront their German counterparts, and opening a new theater of operations in North Africa, rather than a direct assault on Festung Europa, no doubt was deemed the better part of valor. It also put Allied forces to the rear of Italians and Germans battling the British in Italian Libya. Success would assure control of the Mediterranean and, more importantly, the Suez Canal—as well as providing a stepping stone to Sicily and Italy (the "soft underbelly of Europe" in Churchill's felicitous phrase). And a second front would bring some slight relief to a beleaguered Soviet Union, which was taking the brunt of the fighting in the East.
There were amphibious landings at three beachheads. American forces under the command of General George Patton, came ashore at Casablanca on the Atlantic coast, having steamed directly from the United States. Simultaneously, two convoys from Great Britain landed an American force at Oran on the Mediterranean coast of Algeria and a British force at Algiers, the capital. After considerable political intrigue with the Vichy government and resistance, sometimes fierce, from French colonial forces, an armistice was declared. The Allies had secured Morocco and Algeria, but they still were almost a thousand kilometers from their objective. Panzer divisions began arriving in Tunis and Bizerte (the older English spelling is Bizerta), and by November 17 it was realized that the "Run to Tunis" would be a hard-run thing indeed.
Crated Spitfires and Hurricanes were shipped to the North Front airfield at Gibraltar (the only Allied possession still in Western Europe), where the new planes were reassembled and test flown by the Special Erection Party before allocation. It was from there that Ingram flew to Maison Blanche outside Algiers (a distance of 470 miles, almost the limit of the plane's range), arriving at the airfield on November 8, just hours after it had been captured, after token Gallic resistance from the French, and from which he flew his first patrol (as recorded in his logbook). The Luftwaffe reacted the next day, with raids by Ju 88 and He 111 bombers—and Ingram, who had returned to base to refuel his Spitfire, was forced to scramble.
On Friday, November 13, 1942, twenty-four Hurricanes from 225 Squadron (324 Wing) flew from Gibraltar to Maison Blanche. (A "Readiness to Move" overseas had been issued on October 24.) It was a tactical reconnaissance unit flying support for the British First Army, and Ingram was reassigned to the Squadron that same day. On November 17, 225 Squadron moved forward to Bône on the Algerian coast, only fifty miles from the Tunisian border—and lost its first pilot to friendly fire. That still was too far from the front line and there was a move even farther east, to Souk-el-Arba inside Tunisia itself. A single 1,200 yard forward landing strip had been constructed and, although there were no proper maintenance facilities, the new base did save an hour's flight time.
Just as the National Archives of Australia holds the service records of RAAF officers in a series of files designated A9300 and causality reports in A705, so the Air Ministry records the concise history of the airplanes they fly.
Form 78 (Aircraft Movement Card) is the operational history of Hawker Hurricane Mk IIC, Serial No. HL887 from the time it entered service ("Taken on Charge") until its removal ("Struck off Charge"), when the plane was categorized CAT E SOC (Category E, designating too damaged to be serviceable, a "write-off"). The form also records allocation to units and dates on which damage was sustained. The cryptic lines are extensively abbreviated and, given their succinctness, require some explication. It was cards such as this that were used by Andrew Pentland (who graciously provided a copy) in his exhaustive production list of every Hurricane ever built.
The Mk IIC was powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin XX, a supercharged, liquid-cooled V12 engine that was one of the most successful of World War II. Built by Hawker at its Langley factory (just west of London), HL887 was given its national markings and a serial number (the unit code would be applied later). After testing and inspection, the plane was flown to No. 48 Maintenance Unit (RAF Hawarden in Flintshire, Wales) on June 22, 1942, where weapons and other equipment were fitted. On July 5, it flew on to No. 222 Maintenance Unit (RAF High Ercall near Shrewsbury, England) to be dismantled and crated in preparation for transport by sea.
On July 20, the plane was loaded onto MV Silverwillow out of Liverpool (the Silverline motor vessel was torpedoed and sunk just three months later) and shipped to Takoradi, the principal RAF port on the British Gold Coast (now Ghana), where it arrived on August 15, one of eight Hurricanes on board. HL887 was uncrated and reassembled and then flown ("ferried") to the Middle East—one of some 5,300 aircraft to fly across sub-Saharan Africa (threading its way between Vichy French Sudan and French Equatorial Africa) to Khartoum and north up the Nile River valley to Cairo, where it arrived some six days later, after a flight of 3,700 miles. (Fighter aircraft did not have the range to fly directly to the Middle East, and a convoy across the Mediterranean was too slow and hazardous. Such a circuitous route was all the more necessary after the German capture of Crete in May 1941.)
HL887 was assigned to 213 Squadron and given the code AK•W (the first pair of letters designating the squadron and the letter after the roundel, the individual plane—which here does not quite accord to regulation). From November 13-16, 1942, it was flown by F/O Albert Houle of the Royal Canadian Air Force in "Operation Chocolate," an audacious scheme to harass the enemy behind its own lines. (Just eighteen days before, while returning to base after flying air cover over the El Alamein line, he had come across a formation of unescorted Ju 87s bombers. In the waning light, he shot down four Stukas with a fifth probable—for which he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on November 27.)
Thirty-six Hurricanes from 213 and 238 Squadrons (243 Wing) flew to an abandoned landing ground (LG125) in the desert southeast of Tobruk almost ninety miles inside Libya that had been secretly supplied with ammunition, fuel, and ground support. (One can see the 44-gallon auxiliary fuel tanks beneath the wings—as well as one of the Lockheed Hudson light bombers that had flown in supplies). From there, for three chaotic days, the Hurricanes relentlessly strafed Axis forces retreating from the Second Battle of El Alamein along the coast road between Benghazi and El Agheila. In 156 sorties, fourteen enemy aircraft were destroyed and three damaged, and as many as three-hundred vehicles—as well as a hapless Fieseler 156 Storch that had wandered into the fray and for which Houle somewhat embarrassingly accepted half-credit for the kill.
It is Houle's Mk IIC Hurricane that Ingram flew eleven days later. The code for 213 Squadron (AK) was not exchanged for that of 225 Squadron (LX), however. It had been discontinued in April, to be replaced for several months by WU. Until early the next year, when the Squadron began to fly Supermarine Spitfires and WU was readopted, 225 Squadron had no code—retaining, per regulation, only the plane's identifying serial number.
The Hawker Hurricane Mk IIC was a sturdy and robust plane. Its wide and stable undercarriage made it easy to operate, especially when an airfield was inundated by winter rains and planes, often in mud over their wheels, were unable even to taxi. November, in fact, marked the beginning of the rainy season and in 1942 that month was particularly wet, the rain turning dirt runways into muddy quagmires.
Although extremely maneuverable, its thicker wings and higher drag also meant that the Hurricane was relatively slow—certainly when compared to the more nimble Bf 109, which was faster both in the speed of its dive and rate of climb. And the Hurricane was getting old, having been in production since March 1941. Recognized as increasingly obsolete, by mid-December the plane would be converted to a "Hurribomber" and modified to carry bombs for ground attack. Weeks later, it would be replaced altogether by the faster Spitfire.
Luftwaffe pilots intentionally flew at higher altitudes than the British and so were able to spot their adversary more readily and therefore choose the position of attack. A standard tactic was to dive out of the sun (the "Hun in the Sun") and then use the increased momentum to fire, climb away, and attack again. Alternating with the explosive and armor-piercing shells fired through the 20mm MG 151/20 nose cannon and two MG 17 machine guns on the engine cowl, often the only indication of the enemy overhead was the white smoke of tracer bullets.
Dogfights were avoided—to the frustration of the British, whose Hurricanes and Spitfires had the tighter turning radius. But turning causes a plane to lose speed, which was one reason not to turn at all, and why speed in the Bf 109 was emphasized over maneuverability. Rather, victories were sought that involved the least danger; otherwise, the pilot forfeited the plane's one advantage to engage in its least effective use. The most popular Luftwaffe missions were free-hunt sorties (Freie Jagd) flown in a Schwarm of four planes (two Rotten of two planes each), the Schwarmführer always eager to add to his personal score. In contrast, British planes (at least early in the North African campaign) flew in rigid three-plane V-shaped "vic" formations, which meant that only the flight leader could look for the enemy, the other planes intent on maintaining a tight formation.
Attacks on vehicle, tanks, and forces on the ground all would have been more productive. But personal competition was encouraged and the number of Abschußbalken ("kill bars") on the plane's rudder, rewarded. Flying escort for the Ju 88 and Ju 87 was not rewarding, especially when obliged to accompany the Ju 87 Stuka, which had little defensive armament and was particularly slow when coming out of a dive bombing strike—forcing the Bf 109s nursing their lumbering charges to fly no faster than the slowest planes. Fighters designed for an offensive role at high altitudes were, at Göring's insistence, required instead to fly a defensive one escorting low-flying dive bombers.
This is a picture taken by the wingman of Oberfeldwebel Walter Recker from 4. Staffel, II./Jagdgeschwader 53 flying "White 11" on an escort mission for Ju 88 bombers to Malta in the summer of 1942, likely in a Bf 109F-4Z. A year earlier, he had been on the Russian front—which, at least in this one instance, had justified Operation Torch.
By September 1942, II./JG 53 began to be supplied with the Bf 109G-2 Trop and, by December, with the newer G-4 Trop. This suggests that, by the end of November, Recker's plane still was a G-2 Trop. But Prien insists that he was flying a G-4, which was delivered to III./JG 53 at the end of October 1942 and then, "soon afterward," to II./JG 53. If the plane was indeed a G-4 (and here, one must respect Prien's authority), it must have arrived only days before the encounter with Ingram and his aging Hurricane, shiny as a new pfennig.
Held by the National Archives (UK), this page is from AIR 27/1395, the Operations Record Book of 225 Squadron for the year 1942. It records that on November 27 F/O Ingram, acting as weaver for Flight Lieutenant Stewart, took off on a tactical reconnaissance flight of the Djebel Abodid-Mateur area, where they encountered a flight of enemy dive bombers escorted by Bf 109s. (Here, the plane mistakenly is identified as HL877; F/Lt Stewart had been officer commanding of "B" Flight during training exercises at Thruxton in May and September, that year.)
With so few fighter squadrons as yet in theater, 225 Squadron had to provide its own escort, the Hurricanes typically flying in pairs, with the leader's plane conducting low-level visual or photo reconnaissance, while his wingman acted as "weaver," offering protection overhead. It was a dangerous role and flown by the junior member. While the lead pilot concentrated on reconnoitering the ground below, his No. 2 provided covering protection, weaving back and forth, above and behind the reconnaissance plane, scanning for enemy aircraft but always keeping the principal in sight. Ironically, a weaving and turning plane was more visible in the clear desert air, and from a greater distance, than if it had flown in a straight line.
A letter from C.C. 225 Squadron to Air HQ, dated December 3, 1942, provides more detail. "[1.] With reference to our signal A.3. dated 28/11/42, the above aircraft, piloted by F/O Ingram left Souk-el-Arba on the morning of 27/11/42., to act as weaver escort to F/Lt. Stewart, on tactical reconnaissance. 2. At 10.00 hrs, approximately 30 miles east of Tabarka an enemy dive bombing raid, escorted by fighters was encountered, and the aircraft were attacked by 4 M.E.109's. 3. F/Lt. Stewart lost touch with F/O Ingram, who failed to return, and it is presumed that he was shot down by the M.E.109's." Another, dated December 15 to Ingram's father, confirmed that "your son was seriously injured when the aircraft went down and was admitted to No.1 Casualty Clearing Station, where he died as a result of those injuries at 3 a.m. on the 29 November, 1942. The cause of the crash is not known but it is presumed to have been due to enemy action."
That same day, Recker reported shooting down a Hurricane flying 8 km (5 miles) south of Djebel Obeid at 10:17. Germany switched from Central European Summer Time back to Central European Time on November 2, setting its clocks back one hour—which meant that British Summer Time and Central European Time were the same that day.
Stewart would have flown a Tac R Mk IIC Hurricane with a F24 camera (which took 5x5-inch photographs) fitted on the center line just behind the wing spar. There also would have been an army receiver/transmitter for ground liaison. The Hurricane had two Hispano Mk II 20mm canons on each wing, but the outboard guns and their ammunition drums were heavy and often were removed—which reduced weight and so enhanced performance. The outboard guns had been removed when Houle flew the plane and likely remained so when piloted by Ingram.
Tactical reconnaissance necessarily was flown at low altitude, and flying low over the ground risked exposure to anti-aircraft fire. More critically, there was very little room in which to maneuver, especially if "bounced" by an aircraft from above. When Ingram was attacked, he was only twenty meters (fewer than 66 feet) above the ground.
Of the Schwarm of four Bf 109s encountered that day, one was piloted by Obfw Recker, a Luftwaffe ace twice over who had shot down a Spitfire southeast of Tunis only two weeks earlier. Ingram was to be his eleventh and final kill.
The young pilot had been in North Africa for exactly three weeks, dying of his injuries two days later, on November 29, 1942—aged 22 years and two months. He is buried at Bône War Cemetery in Annaba, Algeria (Plot VI, Row A, Grave 16; it seems beautifully situated: midway up the central path, just on the left), one of 839 identified casualties there. The headstones themselves were standardized and typically featured the squadron badge, below which were the service member's rank, name, date of death, and age. Parents were invited to provide an epitaph. F/O Ian Ross Ingram's reads "A loving and dutiful son."
Some incidental notes—
On the same day that Ingram was shot down, Flt Lt Bryan Colston, the commander of 225 Squadron (A Flight), was the first to report that Panzer Mk VI "Tiger" tanks were in Tunisia, having been deployed only four days before—and impervious to his cannon fire. The heavy tank had almost four inches of armor in front and twice that to protect the gun, which was the same 88mm flak gun that already had proved so devastating when leveled against ground targets. Two days later, Colston recorded that "Flying Officer Ingram, an Australian, was shot down and killed, thus in the first twelve days since our aircraft arrived from Gibraltar, we already lost five pilots killed, a fifth of our complement.
The last two entries of the Aircraft Movement Card for HL887 are problematic. BBOC ("Brought Back on Charge") suggests that almost a year later, on October 31, 1943, HL887 was returned to active service in North Africa, only to be declared Cat E again on March 8, 1944. In a personal communication, Pentland remarks that the earlier date likely is a census entry. The plane may still have been on charge simply because its accident had not been recorded, which is supported by the fact that there is no Form 1180 (Accident Record Card) for the loss, and "It is more likely the census entry is incorrect and the aircraft was never recovered." The later date may have been when surviving Hurricanes were officially retired.
The digital models of the Hurricane Mk IIC Trop and Bf 109 G-4 Trop are based on templates in IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles, a combat flight simulator.
The sonnet quoted above was written by John Gillespie Magee, Jr. of the Royal Canadian Air Force shortly before his death, aged 19, just two weeks after Ingram's own. The holograph, written in pencil on thin blue airmail paper, is in the collection of the United States Library of Congress, donated by Magee's parents. Archibald MacLeish, the Librarian of Congress hailed Magee as the first poet of World War II and "High Flight" as one of the war's best known poems.
References: John Gillespie Magee's "High Flight" (2013, September 3) by Peter Armenti, Library of Congress Blogs; A History of the Mediterranean Air War, 1940-1945 (Vol III): Tunisia and the End in Africa, November 1942-May 1943 (2016) by Christopher Shores and Giovanni Massimello (pp. 314, 340); RAAF Fatalities in Second World War Among RAAF Personnel Serving on Attachment in Royal Air Force Squadrons and Support Units (2006) by Alan Storr (p. 169); Fighters over Tunisia (1975) by Christopher Shores, Hans Ring, and William N. Hess (p. 70); British Aviation Colors of World War Two: The Official Camouflage, Colours and Markings of RAF Aircraft, 1939-45 (n.d.) edited by John Tanner (RAF Museum, Hendon) (pp. 36-37, 52, 56); "Timing Differences Between UK and Germany During 1940-1945" (a translation of an article by Rob de Bruin published in Bulletin Airwar 1939-1945, No. 99, pp. 26-27 and translated by Japp Woortman).
"Ian Ross Ingram": Libraries ACT (2013) by Judith Tyers (online); Commonwealth War Graves Commission (online); National Archives of Australia (Series AA705, Control Symbol 163/37/22, online); Australian War Memorial (237/65, online); Virtual War Memorial Australia (online); National Archives (AIR 27/1400: "Readiness to Move").
Hawker Hurricane Production List by Andrew Pentland (airhistory.org.uk, p. 045); The Takoradi Route (n.d.) by David Gray; "The Desert's Hornets' Nest" (1964, December) by Alfred Price, Flying Review International, 20(3), 44-45;"Flying Desert Rat: The Combat Career of Squadron Leader Bert Houle" (1998) by Christopher Evans, Canadian Military History, 7(1), 20-28; Aces High: A Tribute to the Most Notable Fighter Pilots of the British and Commonwealth Forces in WWII (1994) by Christopher Shores and Clive Williams (pp. 803-804); Hurricane Aces, 1941–45 (2003) by Andrew Thomas (pp. 44, 57, 91); Hawker Hurricane (1998) by Peter Jacobs (pp. 56, 99, 156); Hurricanes in Action Worldwide (2022) by Adrian Stewart (p. 224); Airmen Behind the Medals (2015) by Graham Pitchfork (Chap 17, Bryan Colston); Flying Units of the RAF: The Ancestry, Formation and Disbandment of All Flying Units from 1912 (1999) by Alan Lake (p. 243). The Imperial War Museum has a remarkable online clip of Spitfires and Hurricanes being uncrated and assembled at North Front airfield on November 12, 1942 (AYY 157, up to minute 4:46).
Jagdgeschwader 53: A History of the "Pik As" Geschwader, Volume 2: May 1942-January 1944 (1997) by Jochen Prien (pp. 467, 508, 587); Jagdgeschwader 53: A History of the "Pik As" Geschwader, Volume 3: January 1944-May 1945 (1998) by Jochen Prien (Appendices 3-7); Die Jagdfliegerverbände der Deutschen Luftwaffe 1934 bis 1945, Teil 8/2: Einsatz im Mittelmeerraum–November 1941 bis Dezember 1942 [2004] by Jochen Prien, Gerhard Stemmer, Peter Rodeike, and Winfred Bock (pp. 109, 150, 163); OKL Fighter Claims. Chef für Ausz. und Dizsiplin Luftwaffen-Personalamt L.P. (A) V Films & Supplementary Claims from Lists: Mediterranean & Southern Front, 1941-42 (www.airmen.dk, online); Jagdgeschwader 53 'Pik-As' (2007) by John Weal; Luftwaffe Aces: Biographies and Victory Claims, Volume 3 M-R (2014) by Andrew Johannes Mathews and John Foreman (p. 1017); Luftwaffe Codes, Markings & Units 1939-1945 (1995) by Barry C. Rosch (pp. 109-118); Messerschmitt Me 109 from 1936 to 1942 (Vol I) (2001) by Anis Elbied and André Jouineau; Messerschmitt Me 109 from 1942 to 1945 (Vol II) (2002) by Dominique Breffort and André Jouineau; The Messerschmitt Bf 109: Late Series (F to K Including the Z Series) (2nd ed) (2022) by Richard A. Franks; Messerschmitt Bf 109 F, G, & K Series: An Illustrated Study (1992) by Jochen & Peter Rodeike (pp. 80ff); Luftwaffe Emblems (2012) by Barry Ketley (p. 47).
This biography of Ian Ross Ingram is fondly dedicated to Judith Tyers (née Ingram), his niece.
