Valentine’s Day Encounter
Raymond Baxter became a household name in Britain in the post-war years as a broadcaster and TV personality. During the Second World War, however, he was a Spitfire pilot with 602 Squadron who had a uniquely ‘close Encounter’ with a V2 rocket. This event is the subject of our stunning cover artwork by Keith Burns.(inset below) Raymond Baxter later recalled: “Together with the similarly-equipped Nos 229, 453 and 603 Squadrons, we were given the task of maintaining vigorous patrol activity over the area from which the rockets were coming, mainly around The Hague – we dubbed our quarry ‘Big Ben’ sites. If V2 activity was spotted, we were given the clearance to sort it out immediately, but the Germans were masters at camouflaging these extremely mobile sites.
“In attempts to keep the pressure on the enemy, we were given a wide-ranging brief, and as we knew the Germans were short on fuel, any vehicle caught on the road in Holland was invariably assisting the war effort. We therefore ‘shot at anything that moved’ but went to great pains not to endanger Dutch lives.
“We also carried out pre-planned strikes on rocket storage areas and launch sites, based on information fed to us by the Dutch Resistance. We often had to rely on their accurate assessments of these targets, as from the air little more than wheel tracks at most could be seen.
“Our usual force on a typical anti-v2 mission consisted of four to six Spitfires loaded with a single 500 and two 250lb bombs, or just the latter with a centreline fuel tank. Once we departed RAF Coltishall, or its satellites at Matlaske, Ludham or Swannington (from where we operated for much of the campaign), we headed over the North Sea, climbing to 8,000 ft. As a formation leader, one had one’s hands full navigating a bloody long way over an expanse of water that had already claimed our previous CO [‘ace’ Squadron Leader ‘Chris’ Le Roux] just weeks before. Our navigational aids consisted exclusively of a map and a compass, and visual aids in the North Sea are few and far between! We quickly got to know the shape of the sand banks off the Norfolk coast, however, which gave us the means to check our drift since setting course after take-off and forming up.
“As we crossed the enemy coastline, we were traditionally greeted by flak thrown up by 88 mm anti-aircraft batteries, although these were easily evaded in a Spitfire as long as one continually altered direction and altitude in long gently climbing or diving turns. The V2 sites themselves were guarded by light flak, and we would vary our attack profiles to suit the weather and target layout. Occasionally, we would attack straight away. On other sorties, we dodged in and out of cloud until in the most favourable attack position. Our last strike method was to overfly the target as if we hadn’t seen it, then reverse course a little way away and come in out of the sun.
“One mission I remember vividly. On 14 February 1945, Valentine’s Day, we caught the V2 crew well into their launch countdown. We had already dropped our bombs, and my ‘No 4’* turned back into the target to perform a strafing attack when the V2 came climbing out of the clump of trees immediately in front of us, belching flame.
“He re-sighted his guns and fired a long burst at the rocket, but fortunately his attempts at becoming the first person to shoot down a ballistic missile in flight met with failure, for the resulting explosion might well have taken all six Spitfires down with it!”
*Appropriately, for the date of this event, the ‘No 4’ pilot was Flight Sergeant T L ‘Cupid’ Love of 602 Squadron.