SPITFIRE
PARADE - BIGGLES AT WAR
by Captain W.
E. Johns
III. THE ARRIVAL OF ANGUS (Pages 49 – 67)
Flight Lieutenant Angus Mackail is annoyed that he has been posted to Number 666
Squadron in Rawlham (a fictional location), Kent,
rather than to Aberdeen, where his brother is stationed. He thinks it’s unfair as he has shot down six
enemy aircraft and four of those in one week.
Angus flies his Spitfire down in worsening weather conditions and soon
he is forced to land in a field, but swerving to miss a large animal, he
damages his undercarriage.
Unfortunately, he is then charged by a bull and his aircraft is rammed
by the animal. (The ferocious-looking
beast gave vent to a savage bellow – is the illustration on page 53). “The cockpit of an aeroplane is designed to
stand many stresses and strains, but not the head-on charge of an infuriated
bull ….. the fabric that covered the fuselage could no
more withstand the onslaught of the bull’s horns than an egg can deflect the
point of an automatic drill”. (The fuselage of a Spitfire was made from
aluminium alloyed with a percentage of copper but see below as to why this text
was incorrect). Angus runs to the
farmhouse, falling into a shallow pond on the way. The door is answered by “a very pretty girl
of about eighteen” who is there with her mother. They invite Angus in and give him hot
soup. Wearing an old overcoat, he dries
his uniform out by the fire. Another
pilot officer arrives and this turns out to be a French Canadian who is also
the young girl’s fiancé. The new man’s
name is Armand, which his colleagues had naturalized to “Almond” and then to
“Nutty”. Nutty had landed there in a
Tiger-Moth and he offers to fly Angus to Rawlham, (no
doubt being unwilling to leave him there with his girl as the Canadian had a
jealous disposition). Against his better
judgement, Angus accepts the invitation and finds the flight to be awful. “Nutty, quite light-heartedly, seemed to make
a point of taking every risk that presented itself. It became more and more obvious that he was
either a novice of little experience, or else he had become over-confident from
long practice – Angus wasn’t sure which”.
Nutty flies too far east and Angus is angered and annoyed by the
journey. By some miracle, they arrive
over an aerodrome which Nutty proclaims to be Rawlham. Angus just wants him to land so he can get
out as it is nearly dark. They land with
the aircraft finishing its run with its nose in a ditch and its tail cocked
high in the air. To their horror, they
see the nearest plane is a German Heinkel and Angus turns to Nutty and says
“You fush-faced fool.
I said ye were off your course.
You’ve landed us in France. These
are Germans”. Nutty fires his pistol at
point plan range into the fuel tank of their Tiger-Moth in order to set it on
fire. They then run for their lives and
hide in the woods. Deciding on a plan to
sneak back and steal a German plane, Angus insists that this time he will
fly. As they are about to climb into the
selected aircraft, they are addressed by Lord Bertie Lissie “Here, I say, what
the dickens do you fellers think you’re playing at?” Angus and Nutty are astonished to find they
are on a British aerodrome! Bertie had
forced the German Heinkel to land there that morning. Squadron Leader Bigglesworth turns up to find
out what is going on. He greets Angus,
saying they were wondering what had become of him and he tells Nutty that he
too has been posted to 666 Squadron with effect from tomorrow. Nutty had been absent without leave and was
unaware of that.
This chapter was originally a 4 page
story – with illustrations – from issue number 337 of “The Modern Boy” (week
ending 21st July 1934) entitled “Flying Luck”. The story was collected in “Biggles in
France” and published by the Boys’ Friend Library in issue number 501 dated 7th
November 1935. The differences in the
original story are these. Firstly, the
original story was a First World War story rather than a Second World War
story. It starts at 266 Squadron, R.F.C.
and, although in “Biggles in France”, chapter five is headed “Biggles Gets a
Bull”, in the first printing in the Modern Boy the chapter is actually headed
“That Sinking Feeling!”. The weather is
foul but Biggles insists on going flying in his Sopwith Camel. He decides to go over to 187 Squadron but in
the bad weather gets completely lost. He
lands in a field with the same consequences but it is a French
second-lieutenant of the French Flying Corp that is mademoiselle’s fiancé. They fly in a “rather dilapidated Breguet
‘plane”, heading to Maranique, where Biggles is stationed. They drop out of grey clouds and crash land
in near dark only to see a German Rumpler ‘plane. The officer in Royal Flying Corps uniform who
speaks to them is called Lynsdale. He forced the Rumpler to land that morning
and they are at 281 Squadron at St. Marie Fleur. This story can also be found in the June 1941
edition of Air Training Corps Gazette where it is vastly abridged from
the Spitfire Parade book version. This
version starts with Angus and Nutty going to the Tiger Moth and all the
preceding story cut out. The edits
remove all reference to Biggles appearing in the story at all, but Lord Bertie
Lissie does appear at the end.