Dec
19
1992
|
LT-CDR R L Bigg-Wither DSC and Bar 1918 - 1992 |
|
|
|
|
Written by Blair Rogers
|
|
Sunday, 20 December 1992 |
LT-CDR R L BIGG-WITHER, who died aged 74, was the first British pilot to fly over the Japanese mainland in the Second World War.
 Lt Cdr R L Bigg-Wither DSC and Bar
"Biggy" was then CO of 1841 Naval .Air Squadron which he had formed at Brunswick, Maine, USA, in March 1944. Aged 26, he was given command of two dozen pilots, most of them fresh out of flying school, as well as some 150 ground crew fitters, riggers and armourers.
No 1841 was equipped with American-built single-scoter Corsair fighters - ferocious looking aircraft which inspired almost as much fear in their pilots as in the enemy. "I'm not ashamed to admit it," said one pilot after seeing them for the first time, "that night I made a will" The US Navy thought them unsuitable for deck landing.
The squadron embarked in Formidable in June 1944 and provided fighter escort for four Fleet Air Arm strikes against the German battleship Tirpitz in northern Norway in July and August. Bigg-Wither was awarded the DSC.
In 1945 Formidable went out to the Far East to join the British Pacific Fleet and took part in "Operation Iceberg", the invasion of Okinawa. The Fleet had the task of neutralising airfields on the islands of the Sakishima Gunto, between Formosa (Taiwan) and Okinawa to prevent the Japanese staging aircraft reinforcements through them.
Bigg-Wither and his squadron were badly shaken when, on their first day, the CO of Formidable's other Corsair squadron was shot down by Japanese gunners after making a fatal second pass at an airfield on the island of Ishigaki.
Thenceforward Bigg-Wither enforced strict flying discipline, keeping his sections of four aircraft in tight formation, and making one run over the target at a time
1841 did not lose a man. In July the Fleet designated Task Force 57, took an honoured place on the right of the line of the huge US Third Fleet under Adml Halsey and, size for size, pulled their weight with the American carrier task groups until the end of the war.
It was a period of intensive operations, during which 1841's pilots were each flying more than seven hours a day, ranging widely over Japan to attack ships, harbours, airfields and rolling stock. Inevitably, there were casualties. 1841 lost eight pilots.
Ou Aug 9 1945 when the second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, 1841 lost two pilots. One of them, the happy-go-lucky Canadian Lt "Hammy" Gray, who was shot down while attacking a Japanese destroyer, was awarded a posthumous Victoria Cross - the only Fleet Air Arm pilot of the war to win a VC.
The next day 1841 lost yet another pilot. "It was a very sad end to the war for us' Bigg-Wither said. He was awarded a Bar to his DSC and took the squadron home to Britain, where it was disbanded in October 1945.
Richard Lovelace BiggWither was born on March 17 1918, the son of Capt Guyp Plantagenet Bigg-Wither of Wootton St Lawrence, Hampshire. Among his forebears were the 17th century poets Richard Lovelace and George Wither, as well as a swain of Jane Austen.
Young "Biggy" attended Edinburgh Academy before joining the Navy as an Air Branch Midshipman A on a short service commission in July 1939 - this disappointed his father, who wanted him to be a regular seaman officer.
He went to the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and then to the training cruiser Frobisher. When he gained his wings in 1940 his father arranged with the Sea Lords for him to have "a more naval life. than in all aircraft carrier" by being appointed to the cruiser Manchester, where he flew the ship's Walrus amphibian on anti-submarine and spotting duties.
After some months flying patrols from Sullorn Voe in Shetland, he joined the battleship Queen Elizabeth and flew her Walrus in the Mediterranean.
When Queen Elizabeth was disabled by mines in Alexandria harbour in 1941, Bigg-Wither found himself out of a job and went to call upon 805 Naval Air Squadron, then operating in the Egyptian desert.
He was immediately enrolled, although he had never before flown its Grumman Martlet fighters, nor even been on a fighter course. He flew convoy protection patrols and attacked the Afrika Korps' transports and bases. In May 1942 the squadron flew down to Kenya to act as reserve for the carrier Illustrious, which was taking part in the invasion of Madagascar.
When 805 disbanded in January 1943 Bigg-Wither went to Washington on the staff of Capt Caspar John, to arrange for lend-lease American aircraft for the Fleet Air Arm.
Thus, when he took command of 1841, Bigg-Wither had not made a single deck landing - a fact he was careful to conceal from his pilots, assuring them that it would be "a piece of cake".
After the war, while making his living as a leather broker in the City of London, "Biggy" continued to fly with an RNVR squadron and was a founder member of the Fleet Air Arm Officers' Association.
Bigg-Wither is survived by his wife, Priscilla, and two daughters. This Obituary was written following his death in December 1992. |
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 07 November 2006 )
|
|
Quotes
Anybody who wants the presidency so much that he'll spend two years organizing and campaigning for it is not to be trusted with the office.
|
