ATA and the Battle of Britain

80 years ago on July 10^th 1940 the Battle of Britain began. ATA was still a young organization with around 100 pilots.  What better reason to trawl through the handful of logbooks (among the 140+ in our collection) which were kept by ATA pilots serving at the time of the Battle of Britain.  We have managed to find these entries which we hope will interest you. You can find all these logbooks in the online archive on this website https://archive.atamuseum.org/logbooks.php

Philip Wills (later Director of Operations)

17 August               Hurricane                St Athan – Tangmere

19 August               Spitfire                    Kirkbride – Middle Wallop

Jimmy Nettleton

28 August               Spitfire                    Hamble – Westhampnett (now Goodwood)

Stanley Brown (seconded from BOAC)

3 September           Hurricane                White Waltham – Kenley

10 September         Spitfire                    Brize Norton – Middle Wallop

27 September         Spitfire                    Little Rissington – Warmwell (satellite of MW)

30 September         Hurricane                Aston Down – Middle Wallop

15 October             Hurricane                Wroughton – Shoreham

Arnold Watson

4 September           Hurricane                Aston Down – North Weald (Essex)

Josep Carreras (the only Spanish pilot in ATA, the first ATA pilot to fly a Liberator bomber and an instructor on Catalina flying boats)

10 September         Spitfire                    Brize Norton – Middle Wallop

Peter Mursell (later Director of Training)

23 September         Spitfire                    ??? – Tangmere

29 October             Spitfire                    West Malling – Gravesend

The ‘official’ end of the Battle of Britain was 31 October 1940.