RAF pilot who flew in secret battle for Russia marks 100th birthday

Midland fighter hero fought on Eastern Front in bid to halt German advance

THE last survivor of a covert RAF squadron tasked with saving a beleaguered Russian port in the Second World War has celebrated his 100th birthday.

Eric Carter was part of Force Benedict, given the highly dangerous job of saving Murmansk from the Nazi invaders.

The operation was kept under wraps because Stalin did not want the world to know the Red Army needed outside help to beat back Hitler.

In fact, Force Benedict remained a little known secret for nearly 70 years until the discovery of a medal bestowed to its wing commander, Group Captain Henry Neville Gynes Ramsbottom-Isherwood.

Mr Carter, who celebrated the milestone last week, had an important birthday present – a letter from the Russian Embassy arrived at his home in Chaddesley Corbett, near Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire.

It informed the former Spitfire and Hurricane pilot that he is to receive the Russian medal marking the 75th anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War, as it is known there. He has already received one honour from Russia as one of only four foreigners to receive the country’s greatest military honour, the Order of Lenin.

His medal was sold at Sothebys in 2009 for £46,000.

Raised in Kings Norton, Birmingham, Mr Carter’s 100th year was celebrated with a party at Hogarths Stone Manor Hotel in Kidderminster, attended by 50 RAF colleagues.

His wife, Phyllis, died 15 years ago – they were married for 62 years – but only son Andrew flew from America for the event.

“Mobility is his problem,” said Andrew. “His knees are shot, which is why he needs a full-time carer.

“Apart from that, he’s remarkable and very sharp. If pushed, he will talk about the war.”

Mr Carter was just 21-years-old when he was ushered onto a blacked-out train in Hull and, with fellow Hurricane pilots from 81 Squadron, taken to Liverpool.

From there, the airmen were spirited onto a ship. None knew their destination. The men believed they were heading to Africa, but plunging temperatures soon quashed that rumour.

They were to protect Murmansk and train Russian fighter pilots. The latter was something Stalin was at pains to keep from Soviet citizens. Mr Carter was plunged into dramatic dogfights above the port, which is on the very lip of the Arctic Circle.

In a previous interview with the Post’s sister paper, the Sunday Mercury, Mr Carter said: “Force Benedict was a very well-kept secret. Stalin did not want his people to know that he had asked the West for help, and we were threatened with a court martial if we said anything.

“I was young and must have been mad, but perhaps we were just a tougher generation.

“I knew the average lifespan in the air was just 15 minutes, but I was determined to volunteer after hearing the atrocities the Germans had carried out on the Russians.” Mr Carter joined the RAF in 1939 and was first posted to the famous 615 Squadron, who was recuperating in Wales following the 1940 Battle of Britain.

He served with them for a year, defending the skies over Liverpool and Manchester, before being transferred to 81 Squadron.

Alongside 134 Squadron, they made up 151 Wing, which was sent to save Murmansk.

“Murmansk was a pivotal point in the war,” said Mr Carter.

“It was Russia’s Battle of Britain – the battle for their very survival – and we had to hold on to the port at all costs.

“Our job was to escort Russian bombers and fight off the German planes. We went on 60-odd missions and never lost one bomber. Yet we were only 10 miles from the German base. Their general repeatedly asked Hitler for more men so they could overrun our airfield, but he refused, so we got lucky there.”

Life in the freezing under-siege city was tough and the threat of death constantly stalked the British pilots – with German bombers above and trigger-happy Russians on the ground.

“Murmansk was like Beirut, it was all rubble,” Mr Carter recalled.

“The Russian soldiers didn’t bother to ask who you were, they just killed you on sight.

“So we were issued with special passes and had to hold them in front of us as we walked anywhere or else we would have been shot. It was minus 40 degrees most of the time.

“Our aircraft and transport vehicles had to be started up every 20 minutes to prevent them from freezing for good. Life was so cheap out there. Labourers working on the airfield would sometimes freeze to death after a night drinking and in the morning they would be just scooped up and put in the back of a truck.

“But that helped build the strongest camaraderie with your pals because that was all we had. You depended on them for your life and they were all that you lived for.

“We never thought Murmansk was a hopeless cause, never considered defeat and never contemplated that Britain might be invaded if we lost. “We were determined to win – and that’s what we did.

“When you were up in the air you were nearly always in trouble, but Murmansk was the key to everything at that point so we just had to survive.

“We used to fly in pairs to cover each other and shot down our fair

share of Luftwaffe, but the Germans gave us a very hard time.

“Although we lost a pilot on the first day, we only lost one other during our time there.”

Wing 151 carried out 365 sorties during a four-month stay in Murmansk, shooting down 11 Messerschmitt fighters and three Junker 88 bombers before handing the secured port back to the Russians on October 13, 1941.

By then the blizzards had begun and the German army was set to stall within sight of Moscow.

It was the beginning of the end of Hitler’s invasion of Russia – and the turning point of the Second World War. Mr Carter and his comrades returned to Britain without fanfare after the operation. He married Phyllis, who he described as “a wonderful wife and mother”, while on leave in 1943, before being posted to Burma for the remainder of the war, flying Spitfires and supply missions in Dakotas from Rangoon to Calcutta. After the war he took an engineering degree and worked as an electrical engineer.

The people of Murmansk have never forgotten Mr Carter’s bravery and he has been invited back to the city many times. Over there, he is still feted as a hero.

“The Russian Government has never forgotten what we did for them,” said Mr Carter, who is the last survivor of 81 Squadron – and the last remaining member of Force Benedict.

“Me and my wife were invited to the Russian Embassy in London during the 1980s for a ceremony of remembrance with the ambassador.

“It was a funny occasion and he had a big rant about Margaret Thatcher. I didn’t know where to put my face.

“And I have been repeatedly asked back to Murmansk to remember what we did for them.”