Finally Operational
"609 Squadron's three Yanks were preparing for their first operational sortie. Squadron Leader Darley finally decided that Pilot Officers Mamedoff, Keough, and Tobin were ready for combat.
"When the scramble came, the three ran for their Spitfires along with the other pilots. Red Tobin shouted, 'Saddle her up! I'm ridin'!' to his ground crew, much to everyone's amusement-one thing about these Yanks, they had a style all their own.
"As junior men in the squadron, the Americans would be "Ass-End Charlie" in their three-man formation-weaving and turning to protect the tail of the section leader and his wingman. The only trouble was that there was nobody to warn if enemy fighters were attacking his tail. Which is why Ass-end Charlie did not enjoy a very long life expectancy. (And which is why this three-man formation was abandoned in favor of the much more practical 'finger four' formation.)
"At 18,000 feet, Red got the word - 'Ok, Charlie. Weave.' He began flying a weaving-snaking path behind the other two Spitfires, who kept flying straight and level. Over his headset he heard someone call: 'Many, many bandits, three o'clock.' He looked off to his left and could see them, more than 50 of them. Another call said that there were still more bandits, at 12 o'clock, straight overhead. But Red could not find these, which put him into a panic - the veterans said that it was always the ones you couldn't see that got you.
"Tobin's leader went into a sharp dive, followed by his wingman. Tobin followed them but could not see it they were going after a formation of enemy bombers or trying to evade enemy fighters. After they pushed over, he lost sight of them. The only other plane in sight was a Bf 110, which had seen Tobin and was turning to evade him.
"He pushed his throttle forward and closed to within firing distance of the twin-engined Zerstorer, and pressed the firing button. From his stream of tracer, he could see that his shots were going wide-over anxious, he thought. He pulled back on the Spitfire's stick to correct his aim.
"But he pulled much too hard, and the Spitfire almost performed a loop. The violence of this maneuver pulled all the blood from his brain, causing him to black out momentarily. When he recovered, the Messerschmitt was gone and he was all alone in the sky-not another plane to be seen, where there had been dozens only a few minutes before.
"With his flight leader nowhere in sight and his ammunition supply near exhausted, Tobin decided that he had better head back to Warmwell.
"When he landed, Tobin discovered that all of 609's time and effort had been a complete and total waste. The Luftwaffe had got through, and Middle Wallop had been bombed for the second time that month. The station was still open, but just barely-the runway was cratered by bomb blasts; hangars and workshops had either been blown up or badly damaged, and the aerodome was dotted by unexploded bombs, which might go off at any moment...So far, the day had been a highly frustrating one, both for Red Tobin and RAF Fighter Command. In his first operational flight, Tobin had burned 80 gallons of gasoline, fired 2,000 rounds of .303 caliber ammunition, and had not one damn thing to show for it. He had not come all the way from sunny California for this."
