questioning. “I certainly wouldn’t have verbally insulted a higher ranking officer in his presence for the fear of him splitting on me and I’d have been hauled before a military court. But other than that, we got along without any major disagreements.”
“Would you trust him with your life?” I tried not to sound dramatic.
“In war time you had no choice but to trust your comrades.”
“How well did you know him?”
“Personally, you mean?”
I nodded.
“There was very little time to get to know anyone personally at Duxford. The war took its toil on a regular basis; eat, sleep and fly and that was about your lot. After Ralph went missing, a few months on I was deployed to a European airbase helping the Allies drive the Germans back to Berlin. Deveron remained at Duxford.”
“How did Craven get on with Deveron?”
“They got on together, if that’s what you mean.”
“They never fell out at anytime?”
“I wasn’t aware of any disturbance between them.”
“What about the flight path Ralph Craven flew that day?”
“Ah-well, that’s difficult to remember. But I think his flight path would have taken him around the coast of Ireland, probably twenty or thirty miles out into the Atlantic before heading north, circling the Scottish Isles and then back down the West of England. It’s hard to be precise. And Ralph was a bit of a Tally Ho man; he loved the thrill of fast flying.”
“And this Squadron Leader Deveron, he also took the same route?”
“As I told you, young man, Deveron was Ralph’s escort. His job was to protect Ralph’s plane if he came under hostile fire, say from the submarines gun cannons or even a marauding German fighter. It was virtually impossible for a pilot to defend his craft and snap pictures at the same time. And even if the task of doing both was mastered, it didn’t make any difference to a converted reconnaissance plane because the craft didn’t carry any weapons.”
“So Craven wouldn’t have been able to defend himself if he came under attack?”
“That’s correct, young man; totally vulnerable. It took a brave man to fly photographic reconnaissance, especially on those lonely flights across Europe and into enemy territory. The Spitfire MK X1 had a Merlin 60 series engine. It was incredibly fast and powerful and speed was the essential defence for reconnaissance flights; speed and larger fuel tanks. Even then the power of the Merlin engine wasn’t fast enough with the excess weight the Spitfire carried. A directive came from the high command to strip the craft of every conceivable item the Spitfire didn’t need in order to achieve that excessive speed. All weapons, radio equipment, everything that wasn’t welded or bolted down was dismantled and disregarded. The Spitfire became a shell but a hell of a lot lighter and faster.”
“Would there be any reason for a third Spitfire to fly alongside Craven and Deveron?”
Josh bane frowned with my question. “I shouldn’t think so, young man. Not unless they’d defied orders. And may I add proudly, insubordination was rare to nonexistent in the RAF.”
I thought of what Billy Slade had told me. “Would this Deveron fellow be crazy enough to shoot down another Spitfire?”
“That’s a strange question. I suppose friendly fire has been known to occur on occasions. A plane gets caught in the crossfire. It can happen in an aerial fire-fight. But there was nothing in Deveron’s report suggesting that they’d experienced an enemy attack.”
He hadn’t clicked to what I was getting at. I took a deep breath, hoping that what I was about to reveal to him didn’t cause his heart to seize into a solid lump.
“No. I meant deliberately shoot another Spitfire from the sky.”
Josh Bane stared at me in astonishment, his mouth half open, his lips trembling as he tried to speak. He swallowed hard and said, “Are you implying that Deveron downed Ralph’s Spitfire on purpose?”
“It’s what I think
“Would you trust him with your life?” I tried not to sound dramatic.
“In war time you had no choice but to trust your comrades.”
“How well did you know him?”
“Personally, you mean?”
I nodded.
“There was very little time to get to know anyone personally at Duxford. The war took its toil on a regular basis; eat, sleep and fly and that was about your lot. After Ralph went missing, a few months on I was deployed to a European airbase helping the Allies drive the Germans back to Berlin. Deveron remained at Duxford.”
“How did Craven get on with Deveron?”
“They got on together, if that’s what you mean.”
“They never fell out at anytime?”
“I wasn’t aware of any disturbance between them.”
“What about the flight path Ralph Craven flew that day?”
“Ah-well, that’s difficult to remember. But I think his flight path would have taken him around the coast of Ireland, probably twenty or thirty miles out into the Atlantic before heading north, circling the Scottish Isles and then back down the West of England. It’s hard to be precise. And Ralph was a bit of a Tally Ho man; he loved the thrill of fast flying.”
“And this Squadron Leader Deveron, he also took the same route?”
“As I told you, young man, Deveron was Ralph’s escort. His job was to protect Ralph’s plane if he came under hostile fire, say from the submarines gun cannons or even a marauding German fighter. It was virtually impossible for a pilot to defend his craft and snap pictures at the same time. And even if the task of doing both was mastered, it didn’t make any difference to a converted reconnaissance plane because the craft didn’t carry any weapons.”
“So Craven wouldn’t have been able to defend himself if he came under attack?”
“That’s correct, young man; totally vulnerable. It took a brave man to fly photographic reconnaissance, especially on those lonely flights across Europe and into enemy territory. The Spitfire MK X1 had a Merlin 60 series engine. It was incredibly fast and powerful and speed was the essential defence for reconnaissance flights; speed and larger fuel tanks. Even then the power of the Merlin engine wasn’t fast enough with the excess weight the Spitfire carried. A directive came from the high command to strip the craft of every conceivable item the Spitfire didn’t need in order to achieve that excessive speed. All weapons, radio equipment, everything that wasn’t welded or bolted down was dismantled and disregarded. The Spitfire became a shell but a hell of a lot lighter and faster.”
“Would there be any reason for a third Spitfire to fly alongside Craven and Deveron?”
Josh bane frowned with my question. “I shouldn’t think so, young man. Not unless they’d defied orders. And may I add proudly, insubordination was rare to nonexistent in the RAF.”
I thought of what Billy Slade had told me. “Would this Deveron fellow be crazy enough to shoot down another Spitfire?”
“That’s a strange question. I suppose friendly fire has been known to occur on occasions. A plane gets caught in the crossfire. It can happen in an aerial fire-fight. But there was nothing in Deveron’s report suggesting that they’d experienced an enemy attack.”
He hadn’t clicked to what I was getting at. I took a deep breath, hoping that what I was about to reveal to him didn’t cause his heart to seize into a solid lump.
“No. I meant deliberately shoot another Spitfire from the sky.”
Josh Bane stared at me in astonishment, his mouth half open, his lips trembling as he tried to speak. He swallowed hard and said, “Are you implying that Deveron downed Ralph’s Spitfire on purpose?”
“It’s what I think
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