Hill, Desmond Fairfax

Flt Lt Desmond Fairfax Hill, RAFVR

Killed in Action 13th June 1943

Desmond was born in Sussex in 1912 to Charles Frederick and Frederica Edith Hill (née Smith).  His father Charles was an importer of foreign foods and the 1911 census records the family living in a very large house in Keymer named Silverdale.  They had a cook, housemaid and nurse living in.  Desmond had a brother Kenneth Charles and a sister Freda Monica.  He went to Haileybury, a public boarding school in Hertfordshire.  His uncle and aunt,  Percy and Daisy Hill and his cousins Joan, Roger, Christopher and Priscilla  lived at another very large house, Birnam in Hassocks.  They also had three live-in servants.  His cousin Christopher was killed in 1941 and is on the war memorial in Clayton.  (See his page for more details).  Desmond  married Doris Isobel.

It is not known exactly when Desmond joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve but because of his service number it was possibly before the start of the war.  He was posted to 228 Squadron, Coastal Command.  This squadron flew Sunderland flying boats.

228 Squadron Sunderlands (IWM)

At the outbreak of war the squadron returned to Pembroke Dock from Alexandria, Egypt.  Detachments were based at Invergordon and at Sullom Voe, and the squadron flew patrols between Scotland and Norway.  In November 1940 Sunderlands from No.228 were amongst the aircraft used to watch the Italian fleet in the build-up to the Fleet Air Arm’s dramatic attack on Taranto.

In late 1940 the Squadron was moved from Pembroke Dock to Malta, where it remained until March 1941 when it moved to safer waters at Alexandria. During this period the squadron concentrated on fleet reconnaissance duties and on anti-submarine patrols.

In April 1941 the squadron took part in the evacuation of British and Commonwealth troops from Greece, flying them directly back to Egypt. Nearly 900 people were rescued from Greece by RAF aircraft, mainly by 228 Squadron’s Sunderlands.  Amongst them were the King of Greece and the majority of senior Allied commanders.

Short Sunderland Mark I’s of No 228 Squadron RAF (T9048 ‘DQ-N’ in foreground), and No 230 Squadron, RAF (L2160 ‘NM-X’ centre), moored in Messinia Bay off Kalamata while evacuating RAF personnel from Greece. (IWM photo.)

In March 1942 228 Squadron moved to Oban to begin anti-submarine patrols.

228 Squadron Sunderland ‘The Saint’
http://www.rafoban.co.uk

DV980, sister aircraft to Desmond’s DV967, moored at Pembroke Dock (Sunderland Trust)

In May 1943 228 Squadron moved back to RAF Station Pembroke Dock.  The squadron’s best known exploit during this period was the rescue of the crew of the Kensington Court, a tramp steamer that had been torpedoed seventy miles off the Scilly Isles.  One Sunderland from No 204 Squadron and another from No 228 (Desmond’s aircraft) managed to land close to the one overcrowded lifeboat and between them rescued the entire crew. (www.historyofwar.org) Desmond flew in DV967 pictured here.

‘Return to Pembroke Dock (Sunderland DV967 of No.228 Squadron RAF Coastal Command returns to Pembroke Dock after a successful air-sea Rescue 29th May 1943)’
(Picture held by Sunderland Trust)

June 1943 was a critical time in the Battle of the Atlantic.  During the previous month, May, the Allies had sunk over 40 U-boats, seen as a milestone and turning point in the Atlantic Campaign.

German U-boats would transit the Bay of Biscay from their French west coast bases to their Atlantic patrol lines and the RAF and its Allies used air patrols to catch the U-boats on their dangerous journeys.  At that time the U-boats went in groups of three, four, or five to provide mutual defence, and they stayed on the surface and fought back, using heavy anti-aircraft guns.

U Boat 106 being attacked and sunk (Aug 1943) (Sunderland Trust)

At that time Sunderlands were equipped only with .303 machine guns and had to fly straight, level and very low in order to have any success in attacking submarines.

Desmond was one of a crew of eleven men who flew in DV967.  On 13th June 1943 (only a couple of weeks after the air-sea rescue) his Sunderland, as well as another from his Squadron, were patrolling a sector of the Bay of Biscay near Finisterre.  A group of five U boats was spotted at 8pm.  Flying Officer Bertrand Lee, the pilot of Desmond’s aircraft, immediately attacked U564 which was slightly separated from the others.  Their plane had been spotted however and a barrage of anti-aircraft fire began as the plane came in to attack the U boat.  Depth charges were dropped either side of the U boat but by then the plane had been severely damaged by the anti-aircraft fire.  The Sunderland, with eleven crew on board, crashed into the sea leaving no survivors.  The next day the damaged U boat U564 was sunk by another aircraft.

The crew on the day were:

Flying Officer Bertrand Leonard Lee

Flying Officer Desmond Fairfax Hill

Pilot Officer George Lough

Flying Officer Alfred Keith McDougall   RCAF

Flying Officer Robert Jasper Agur   RCAF

Sergeant Vincent Murray Goldstone   RCAF

Sergeant Robert Alexander Shaw   RCAF

Sergeant Richard Evelyn Joseph Smith

Sergeant James Watt Fraser

Sergeant Andrew Carmichael

Sergeant Dewi Davies

(Much of this information came from John Evans, Sunderland Trust, First U Boat Flotilla by Lawrence Paterson and http://www.uboat.net.  I am very grateful to him.)
Following Desmond’s death, probate was granted to his widow and father:

Desmond is commemorated at Runnymede Memorial, Surrey, just one of over 20,000 names of airmen who were lost and who have no known grave.  They served in Bomber, Fighter, Coastal, Transport, Flying Training and Maintenance Commands, and came from all parts of the Commonwealth. Some were from countries in continental Europe which had been overrun but whose airmen continued to fight in the ranks of the Royal Air Force.

The memorial was designed by Sir Edward Maufe with sculpture by Vernon Hill.  The engraved glass and painted ceilings were designed by John Hutton and the poem engraved on the gallery window was written by Paul H Scott. The Memorial was unveiled by The Queen on 17 October 1953. (cwgc.org)

Runnymede Memorial

228 Squadron Motto means ‘Help from the Heavens’

Keymer War Memorial