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In memory of a little known Battle of Britain ace:
Frederick William "Taffy" Higginson- a 12 victory ace of the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain with 56 Hurricane Squadron.
He was born in Swansea on 17th February 1913, the son of a policeman. He was educated at Gowerton County Intermediate School. He joined the RAF as an Aircraft Apprentice in January 1929 and passed out in December 1931 as a Metal Rigger. He was posted to 7 Squadron as a Fitter/Air Gunner.
Taffy Higginson later applied for pilot training and on 6th August 1935 began his elementary flying at 4 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School, RAF Brough and moved on to 5 Flying Training School RAF Sealand (near Chester and the North Wales border)on 2nd October.
With his training completed, he joined 19 fighter Squadron at Duxford on 1st July 1936 but when 'C' Flight became 66 Squadron on 20th July , Higginson went with it.
From 13th April 1937 he was with the AACU flights at RAF Biggin Hill and later RAF Bircham Newton.
"Taffy"Higginson joined 56 fighter squadron at RAF North Weald on 20th October 1937 and was still with it on 1st September 1939 with the rank of Flight Sergeant. Now flying Hurricanes with 8 Browning machine guns after his various previous squadron aircraft being biplane 4 gun fighters.
He went with 'B' Flight of 56 squadron during the Battle of France to Vitry-en-Artois, France on 16th May 1940.
In combat he claimed a Dornier 17 and a Heinkel III bomber destroyed on the 17th May and a Messerschmitt Bf110 on the 18th May.
On that evening the flight was evacuated from Vitry and went to Norrent Fontes. Higginson and Sgt. C Whitehead were sent back to destroy the remaining aircraft and stores. When they finally left the Germans were only 3 or 4 miles away.
Over Dunkirk on 29th May Higginson claimed a Messerschmitt Bf109E and on 15th July a probably destroyed Dornier 17.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal (gazetted 30th July 1940). The citation refers to 5 victories but wartime citations often meant Probables included. Citation reads:
"Despite being an airman pilot, he led a section of 56 Squadron during all operations, his determination in the face of the enemy and his cool and courageous leadership being an example to his squadron”
He now had at least 4 Destroyed and 1 Probably Destroyed.
56 Squadron fought in the Battle of Britain, building upon a tradition started in WW1 with famous pilots like McCudden VC, Ball VC and many others.
On 12th August 1940 "Taffy" damaged a Do17, on the 16th August, he destroyed a Do17, on the 18th shot down another, on the 25th probably destroyed a Me110, on the 26th destroyed a Me110, on the 31st a Me109, on 14th September a Do17, on the 27th he damaged a Me110 and on the 30th he shared a Me110 and damaged another.One of his victories during this period was supposedly the Bf 109 of Hans Mellangrau over the Thames Estuary. Higginson recalled the fight 60 years later, when the pair met up at a Battle of Britain memorial event:
“I saw this Messerschmitt coming towards me and suddenly we were face to face. After he hit my Hurricane's engine with incendiary bullets I shot him down and he crash-landed in a field. By this time his incendiaries had set my engine on fire and I actually crash-landed alongside him"
He now had at least 9 and 1 shared Destroyed but some lists show as 12 and 1 shared victories. Between 12 August and 30 September, he had accounted for a further nine enemy aircraft, reaching a total of at least 15 victories destroyed or damaged. Some show this as 12 and 1 shared.
"Taffy" Higginson was commissioned on 24th September.
On 1st October he was appointed temporary 'B' Flight Commander, when F/Lt. RSJ Edwards was shot down on 30th September 1940. He held the post until 17th October.
On 17th June 1941, on Circus 14 to Lille, Higginson was shot down in Hurricane IIa Z2575 over France.
In the explosion his left boot was torn off and his trousers shredded. The control column was snapped off at the base making it impossible to control the Hurricane and forcing Higginson to bale out. He landed in a wood where he was confronted by a German officer and sergeant in a motorcycle combination.
Higginson was seized and placed in the sidecar but at that moment his captors were distracted by a low-flying Me109. Higginson seized the handlebars and tipped the motorcycle and sidecar over and ran off. After reaching Lille he met Paul Cole, a Dunkirk survivor, who took him to Abbeville where Abbé Carpentier, a local priest, provided him with false identity papers.
Cole then escorted Higginson to Paris, where he lodged in a brothel until July, before going on by train to Tours and St Martin-le-Beau. But there he was questioned by a pair of German soldiers.
The Germans were not immediately satisfied with Cole's explanation that Higginson was an idiot seeking work and insisted on looking inside his valise. Fortunately, its contents were smothered in chocolate which had melted in the summer heat. When Cole opened his own bag they failed to discover a pistol and incriminating papers which had been rolled up in dirty laundry, and the pair were sent on their way.
After entering Vichy France Higginson reached Marseilles where he was welcomed by Georges Rodocanochi, a Greek doctor, and his wife Fanny who ran a safe house for Pat O'Leary's MI9 escape line.
It shocked Higginson, who was acutely aware of the debt he owed his companion, when he heard later that Cole, far from being the Army captain he claimed, was a sergeant who had absconded with mess funds. Among his many betrayals he had informed on Carpentier, who was later executed.
On 4th July Higginson caught a train to Perpignan where, impatient at being kept waiting, he teamed up with an Australian corporal and persuaded a Catalan guide to start them on their way to Spain. But they were stopped by gendarmes and Higginson, incensed by their attitude, struck one of them. But for this he might have been released. As it was he was imprisoned for six months for having false papers.
On 5th March 1942 he was about to be released when he was detained in reprisal for a raid on the Renault factory at Billancourt. Twelve days afterwards he was placed in Fort de la Revere above Monte Carlo, where he decided to assume the name Captain Bennett, since he believed the Germans particularly disliked airmen. At this stage MI9 in London urged O'Leary to make every effort to get Higginson out, in view of his exceptional record as a fighter pilot.
Using a Polish priest called Father Myrda as a go-between, O'Leary smuggled a hacksaw blade into the prison. On the night of 6th August Higginson and four others, under cover of a noisy concert, dropped through a coal chute and into a moat and some sewage.
Evading his pursuers, Higginson reached Cap d'Ail, where he found he had lost his ID card. Despite this setback he managed to reach a safe house in Monte Carlo. There tea was brought in by Eva Trenchard, a spinster who had run the principality's Scottish Tea House since 1924.
In due course Father Myrda provided Higginson with a cassock and accompanied him to Marseilles. On 17th September Higginson made for Canet Plage, a beach resort, where he was picked up from a dinghy by the Tarana, a Polish trawler employed on clandestine missions as a Q-Ship. A week later Higginson was put aboard the destroyer Minna and landed at Gibraltar from where he was flown home by the RAF in late September 1942.
Higginson rejoined 56 Squadron, then at Matlask, on 6th October, the squadron had exchanged its Hurricanes for Typhoons.
He was awarded the DFC (gazetted 9th February 1943).
From 5th January 1943 he was on special duties in London at Napier Aero Engines and on 1st April 1944 he was posted to 83 Group 2nd TAF, firstly at Redhill, then Thorney Island and from 6th August 1944 on the Continent.
In 1945 Higginson was serving with 11 Group on organisation duties. He went to RAF Staff College and Army Staff College and retired from the RAF on 5th April 1956 as a Wing Commander.
He joined Bristol Aircraft, as a military adviser, later becoming Sales and Service Director. After two years British Aerospace appointed him sales and service director in the guided weapons division. In 1963 his success in opening up overseas markets for guided weapons, particularly Bloodhound, was recognised with an OBE.
In 1969 he bought Peny-Coed, a 250-acre farm in his native Wales, with a large 17th century house..
He died at St Clears, Carmarthenshire on 12th February 2003, five days before his 90th birthday. His obituary in the Telegraph and other newspapers record 15 victories but generally this is thought to be 12.
Thanks to Battle of Britain Memorial Site/Battle of Britain Archive.
More here on this amazing Sgt Pilot, one of a few who stood out as leaders and examples of skill and courage in 1940 leading to promotion.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
There is a good book by Richard C. Smith: Fighter Command's Sergeant Aces of 1940: (The Story of Six Airmen Awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal During Britain's Finest Hour)
Higginson also featured in Aces High and other books including:The Vivid Air by Alex Revell.
Paul Davies |  |
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