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Cranston Fine Arts  Aviation Art World War Two Veteran Signatures UK and Commonwealth M  Murphy, Geoff |
Squadron Leader Geoff Murphy
Geoff Murphy started flying with Aberdeen University Squadron as a 17 year old student in April 1941. He was called up in October and completed his flying training in Florida in August 1942. After staff piloting duties at a radio school, he was posted to fly Hurricanes in mid 1943 flying convoy patrols over the North Sea. Early in 1944 he converted to Typhoons and joined 245 Squadron in mid May 1944, just in time for D-Day. He had only fired four practice concrete head rockets before going on his first op. He stayed with 245 Squadron for the remainder of the war. He became a Flight Commander and was Mentioned in Despatches. At the end of hostilities in Europe, he had completed 141 operational sorties. After the war he stayed on in the Air Force, his duties including command of the first Jet Provost Squadron in the RAF. -- The slaughter in the Pocket continued up yo about 25th August with the lanes in the bocage country bordered by high banks being death traps to tanks, vehicles, men and horses which tried to move along them. The destruction and casualties were appalling and even from the air the stench of death was apparent from inside closed cockpits. As the noose tightened, it became clear that the one type of equipment which the Germans did not abandon in their headlong flight was their flak, as was evident from the casualties sustained. The ground attack pilots and the German flak gunners were constant daily adversaries throghout the campaign, since on every operation, in order to hit their targets, pilots had to dive into a cone of concentrated flak, remaining within it until their weapons were aimed and released and perhaps being most vulnerable when pulling out. We had armour plate at our backs underneath the cockpit, but the engine and flying control systems were unprotected and in a steep climb away from the target, as speed was rapidly reducing, it was advisable to turn the aircraft rapidly from side to side to spoil the gunners aim. Alternatively, keeping the aircraft very low and using the maximum speed attained at the bottom of the dive to get away from the target at roof-top height, made it very difficult for the gunners to keep their sights on the aircraft. This technique led, however, to the risk that when a climb to height to join up with the rest of the Squadron was eventually commenced, airspeed was lower and the rate of climb poorer, so that any other flak batteries within range in the area had a greater chance of hitting you.
| Squadron Leader Geoff Murphy - Signed Aviation Art |
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Rocket Firing Typhoons at the Falaise Gap - Normandy 1944 by Frank Wootton. Perhaps the most historically significant painting by Frank Wootton, painted onthe site of the battle just a few days after it took place. |
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