PESSIMISTIC

Humphrey ‘Pip’ Phillips, DFC, flying engineer and author. Born: 20 August 1920 in London. Died: 26 April 2018 in London, aged 97.

Flight Lieutenant Humphrey Phillips was a flight engineer with No 102 squadron and flew in two of the Raf’sthree“thousandbomber Raids” devised by Air Marshall Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris of Bomber Command to show the RAF’S strength and hit Nazi Germany’s cities by night during the summer of 1942. Though casualties from the three raids were high, they broke tradition thinking and were deemed acceptable.

The following year, Phillips took part in the infamous Battle of Berlin bombing campaign, which Harris had hoped would deliver a knockout blow to end the war. However, with the Luftwaffe nightfighter force not incapacitated, the campaign proved a failure, in fact a defeat, with the RAF sustaining the highest losses than at any other period of the war.

In all, it lost 1,047 bombers, with 1,682 damaged or written-off, and lost well over 7,000 aircrew, culminating in the raid on Nuremberg on 30 March 1944, when of a strike force of 795 aircraft, 94 bombers were shot down and 71 were damaged. Phillips received the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery.

Phillips went on to become one of the UK’S oldest published authors at the age of 97 with the publication of his memoirs, ‘A Thousand and One’ last year.

This, however, was very different from what he had set out to do as a young man.

Born in North London in 1920, Humphrey Bernard Phillips was sent to live in Suffolk from the age of six to benefit from the country air. After working on a farm, he went to school at the age of 10 and left five years later. His father, who worked for an aircraft manufacturer, advised him to do a mechanicsapprenticeshipbut he ignored this and became a rose grower.

With war looming however, he became an apprentice motor mechanic at a local company, where he developed a love of engines. Soon after, in 1940, he was called up to join the war effort joining the RAF and becoming a flight engineer for bomber squadrons in Lincolnshire; he was responsible for making sure all the aircraft systems were functioning during combat and training operations.

With bombers developing and the introduction of new four-engine bombers, a new aircrew category of flight engineer was created, responsible for the management of the engines and fuel system. Initial candidates were drawn from serving RAF mechanics and, in April 1942, Phillips was one of the first to volunteer.

Upon completion of a brief course, he joined No 102 Squadron Conversion Flight as an instructor. Shortly after becoming operational, despite being training units, the squadron was called-up to make up the numbers for the first of the “Thousand Bomber” raids being launched by Bomber Command on industrial centres while targeting “the morale of the enemy civilian population”.

Harris wanted Hamburg for its symbolic status; PM Winston Churchill wanted Essen as the heart of Germany’s industrial might, though scientists advised Harris that Essen was not a good target because the city was often covered by an industrial haze even at night and bomb aiming might prove difficult. Lastly, those who worked at the Operational Research Section advised that Cologne would be the ideal target as it was reasonably near for the planes in terms of flying and as a major railway hub, its destruction could seriously damage Germany’s ability to move goods around in that area.

On the night of 30-31 May 1942, Phillips –on his first operation – flew in a Halifax with a scratch crew on the raid to Cologne as part of 1,047-strong attack force taking off from 53 bases around Britain. A few nights later, he flew on the second raid, this time to Essen. Once again, losses were high.

Soon after, he became Flight Engineer Leader at 1656 Heavy Conversion Unit, where he supervised the training of flight engineers and invented a number of training aids, including a fuel system with illuminated links to the fuel cocks and an undercarriage rig, with full electro-hydraulic operation, both for Lancaster bombers.

Towards the end of 1943, Phillips was selected to join the newly formed No 626 Squadron flying Lancasters and became an instructor and engineer leader at the training unit. Within days of joining, the handpicked crews made three hazardous sorties to Berlin, but the Luftwaffe lay in wait and casualties rose. Over the next few months, Phillips completed nine operations to the capital in addition to attacking other major industrial centres.

On the night of 26 April 1944, disaster nearly struck. Upon arriving at their target, an armaments factory in Essen, and dropping their bombs from 18,000ft, they were hit by five incendiary bombs dropped from another RAF bomber above them.

Fortunately, none of the bombs detonated as they had not fallen far enough for the strikers to overcome their creep springs and fire their detonators. Phillips grabbed an oxygen bottle, shuffled down the fuselage to investigate and discovered a huge hole and extensive damage near the gun turret and bomb bay. He also found Dick Tredwin the mid-upper gunner unconscious, having lost his oxygen mask, and with a bad head wound after receiving a direct hit to the head.

Still under heavy enemy antiaircraft fire, Phillips reported back to the pilot, New Zealander, Squadron leader Johnny Neilson, who reduced height while Phillips and another crew member returned to administer oxygen and tend to the head wound. They remained with Tredwin, by the exit door, for the return.

The Lancaster, now riddled with holes, limped back to RAF Wickenby in Lincolnshire where “it was a touchand-go landing because all their hydraulics were shot up so they’d lost their brakes, their flaps and everything.” Neilson skilfully landed the plane however.

Tredwin recovered in hospital and a few weeks later, he along with Phillips and Neilson were awarded the DFC.

Phillips left 626 Squadron in the summer of 1944 having completed 27 operations, becoming an instructor and engineer leader at a bomber training unit where he was again mentioned in despatches.

Demobbedinapril1946with the rank of flight lieutenant, he returned to London and enjoyed a successful career as transport manager for the 600 Group, a manufacturer and distributor of machine tools, and later became involved in the Freight Transport Association, serving on various committees and liaising with the Ministry of Transport.

He also joined a nearby tennis club where he met his wife, Iris (née Webber). “I took her for dinner on Dover Street down by Piccadilly. A friend of mine worked in the restaurant and had always said that if I needed a good meal to ask him,” he said.

“She was very impressed when the chef came out and said the meal was on the house.”

After 52 years of marriage, Iris died in 2003, leaving Phillips bereft so he began to put his life story on paper to give him something to focus on and help manage his grief.

Upon completion, fellow authors discouraged him from getting the book published. Recounting the story, Phillips said, “I’d originally been writing about pilots in the RAF, based largely on my own experiences. Once I’d finished the book, I spoke to some other authors in the field to get their advice, but they were very pessimistic and told me it wouldn’t sell, so I gave up hope for a little while.”

Fortunately, he met historian Sean Feast and the pair collaborated to shape the manuscript. ‘A Thousand and One’ was published in October 2017.

Phillips is survived by three daughters. MARTIN CHILDS The Scotsman welcomes obituaries and appreciations from contributors as well as suggestions of possible obituary subjects. Please contact: Gazette Editor n The Scotsman, Level 7, Orchard Brae House, 30 Queensferry Road, Edinburgh EH4 2HS; n gazette@scotsman.com