P/O Robert Lorimer (third from left) would die the following month in the same action as Clisby Flying Officer Clisby (second from left) with fellow No.1 Squadron officers in France, April 1940. The following day in the same vicinity, he claimed a Messerschmitt Bf 109. However, it wasn’t until 1 April 1940 that Clisby, by now promoted to Flying Officer achieved his first aerial victory, a Messerschmitt Bf 110 twin-engined fighter over Moselle. He first claimed an Me 110 damaged, and then on 2 April he hit and severely damaged Major Werner Molders’ Me 109. On 1 April, now based at Vassincourt, Clisby began to demonstrate the aggression with which he was soon to become a noted aerial combatant. Little action with the Luftwaffe occurred in January and February, but in March 1940 action became more frequent. The winter of 1939/40 was a particularly bad one. In October the squadron flew over enemy territory for the first time and soon claimed its first victory, shooting down a Dornier Do 17 on 31 October. Through the autumn and winter of 1939–40 a succession of small and indecisive clashes took place between the Allied air forces and the Luftwaffe. 1 Squadron deployed to Le Havre in northern France with the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force that accompanied the British Expeditionary Force. 303-inch (7.70 mm) machine-guns its commanding officer, Squadron Leader Patrick Halahan defied regulations and ordered the guns to be sighted to converge at 250 yards (228.6 m) instead of the regulation 400 yards (457m) greatly increasing their effectiveness. The squadron was equipped with the then new Hawker Hurricane Mk.1 armed with eight. On 26 August he was granted a five-year commission in the Royal Air Force and was shortly thereafter posted to No.1 FTS (Flying Training School) at Leuchars in Scotland, after which he was posted to the leading fighter squadron of the day (No.1 Squadron RAF) based at RAF Tangmere in Sussex. As it turned out, he was only the second man in Australia to escape using an Irvine parachute which entitled him to become a member of the Irvine Parachute Caterpillar Club.Ĭlisby graduated flight school in mid-1937 and, under a pre-war arrangement between the British and Australian governments, volunteered for transfer to the Royal Air Force (RAF) he sailed for Europe that July. While there he crashed a Gypsy Moth (A7 45) on 26 April 1936, escaping by parachute. He was at Point Cook, Victoria, when he applied for an officer cadet course (Course A) in 1936. Having an aptitude for mechanical engineering, he joined the RAAF as a ground crew member in 1935. Leslie Clisby was born in McLaren Vale, South Australia, on 29 June 1914, the second of four children to carpenter Albert Clisby and his wife Mabel, née Chapman.
0 kommentar(er)
