“By husbanding his resources in July, Dowding managed to increase his pilot strength to 1 434 at the beginning of August- helped by a contribution, on loan, of sixty-eight from the Fleet Air Arm. But a month later the number was down to 840, and losses were averaging 120 a week. By contrast, no more than 260 fighter pilots were turned out by the RAF’s Operational Training Units during the whole month. In September the scarcity became worse, as the number of highly skilled pilots shrank, while the hurriedly trained new arrivals were more vulnerable through inexperience. Fresh squadrons brought in to relieve tired ones often lost more than those they replaced. Tiredness was in numerous cases accompanied by declining morale and increasing nerviness.”
BH Liddell Hart “Liddell Hart’s History of the Second World War”
The story behind “The London Gazette” announcement of the “Distinguished Flying Medal” award to Thomas Young Wallace on October 25th, 1940, the first to a South African, reads like copy about a “Battler Britton” comic book hero.
Born in Johannesburg and one of four brothers educated at Jeppe Boys High, Wallace commissioned in 1939 and in June 1940, Pilot Officer TY Wallace reported for duty with No 610 Squadron at RAF Wittering in Cambridgeshire. Court- Martialled after taking absence without leave to visit a member of the fairer sex in London, Wallace resumed duty as a Sergeant-Pilot on July 17th flying No 111 Squadron Hurricanes.
Sergeant TY Wallace accounted for several enemy aircraft during August, “baled out” landing on a roof after an exchange with a Me109 on September 7th but was back flying within days. The October 25th “London Gazette” citation suggests Wallace was one of the highest scoring South African “Battle of Britain” pilots but “conspicuous courage and fighting ability” had touches of unsubtle “Orwellian” irony as the award would have been a “Distinguished Flying Cross” had he not been demoted!
Rested as a flying instructor in Canada after the “Battle of Britain” Wallace, returned to Britain and commissioned status in 1943 to fly Hawker Typhoons. Squadron Leader TY Wallace DFM was commanding No 609 Squadron when he lost his life on November 11th, 1944. His brother Hugh, a seconded SAAF pilot had been killed five months earlier flying RAF Liberators in a bombing raid.
From “Against Unfavourable Odds”, chapter 5 of Jon Eagar's book. About the book.