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Warrant Officer Norman Samuels Signed Naval Art
Warrant Officer Norman Samuels
Initially flying Typhoons with 193 Sqn, Norman then transferred to 610 Sqn flying Spitfires on fighter sweeps over France, heavy-bomber missions, and operations against VIs. Returning to ground attack Typhoons over Europe with 193 Sqn, he was shot down in March 1945 and taken prisoner of war. Mr Samuels was born in Newbury in 1921 and grew up in the West Berkshire market town. In 1940, aged 19, he joined the Royal Air Force Oxford University Air Squadron. At that time the UK had no place for trainee pilots. So, after six weeks of basic training he was sent to America to learn to fly under the Arnold Scheme, a training programme run by United States Army Air Corps General 'Hap' Arnold. In 1941, at ease in the cockpit of almost any flying machine, he says, he was sent back to the UK. He said: I joined 193 Squadron in Devon, and that was where I met my future wife, Barbara Lean, on Christmas Day 1942. A Spitfire squadron had lost six of its 12 pilots in one day, so they moved us across to 610 Squadron. They were marvellous planes to fly, and I enjoyed every moment. We had Spitfire MkVs then - they weren't fast enough for war really at that time. We cleaned them with car polish, and that gave us an extra 5mph, then they clipped the wings and that gave us another 5mph. Of course we were still 100mph short of the Germans' speeds, but what could you do?
He helped defend London, and fought over Beachy Head, but with losses elsewhere he was drafted back to 193 Squadron, which was by now in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1944. After surviving the ill-fated Battle of Arnhem in Holland in September, 1944, his luck ran out in a Typhoon near the same town in 1945, just weeks before the end of the war. He said: It was the last push by the Germans and on March 18 I was shot down. I'd already fought in the Battle of Arnhem, when we suffered heavy losses. Going back, I wasn't so lucky.
He continued: I didn't have time to think if I was going to die. I must have been knocked out clean by my gun sight. I'd put rubber on it because I was always hitting it with my hand. I'd seen men die in crashes; they hit their head and it killed them. The rubber must have saved my life. To be honest looking back I should have died many times over. I ended up walking through Germany, got on a train, and that was bombed by the Allies. I walked and walked, right up to the Baltic Rhine, I scavenged for food and did what I could to survive. It was a long time between being shot down and being captured. Every day was 'live or die'.
The Germans eventually caught up with him and sent him to Stalag Luft I, a camp filled with about 9,000 PoWs. He said: I had lost weight by the time I arrived, and we didn't have a lot of food. I remember a battle with a Welshman who kept stealing my bread. Luckily I was only there a few weeks before we were liberated, by the Americans, on my wife's birthday, April 30, 1945. I started the war with the Americans, and finished it with the Americans.
After the war he worked as an engineer for the Southern Electricity Board.
| Warrant Officer Norman Samuels - Signed Naval Art Naval Crew Signatures |
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| Text for the above items : |
Winter of 41 by Nicolas Trudgian. With the Battle of Britain won, and the first chinks in Goerings armour exposed, RAF Fighter Command is at last able to carry the war to the enemy. It is the bittersweet winter of 41. Mk Vb Spitfires, having taken off as the first streaks of dawn spread across the morning sky, return to a snow-covered airfield after a dawn patrol over the Channel. Inhabitants of the sleepy English village begin to stir with the familiar sound of Merlin engines, counting each and every one of their fighter boys home. |
The Final Show by Robert Taylor. In May 1944 Wing Commander Roland 'Bee' Beamont led three squadrons of Hawker Tempests into operations for the first time. Flying from RAF Newchurch in Kent, one of the advanced landing grounds constructed in preparation for the invasion of France, they formed 150 Wing RAF. The far-sighted Beamont had almost single-handedly overseen the transformation of the Hawker Typhoon into the most potent ground attack aircraft of its day before turning his attention to its successor - the Tempest. With thinner wings, greater range, improved ailerons, a redesigned windscreen and all-round 'rear vision' canopy it was a significant improvement on the Typhoon. Through the last year of the war the unwavering pilots who flew these two mighty aircraft became the scourge of the German Army, blasting their way through armoured formations, destroying airfields, shipping, barges, bridges, trains, marshalling yards, rail hubs, anything to support the advancing British and Canadian armies as they battled their way through Belgium and the Netherlands towards the Rhine. And, as an increasingly desperate enemy fought back with V-1 'Doodlebug' flying bombs, the Typhoon and Tempest pilots destroyed those too - 150 Wing alone accounting for 638 V-1s destroyed. As the remnants of Hitler's once-fabled army collapsed under the onslaught, many high-ranking Nazis were faced with a choice - go down fighting or cut and run. Many chose to run, heading north to the Baltic coast with one aim in mind - a last-chance passage to neutral Sweden. The Tempest pilots of 150 Wing were amongst those tasked with stopping their escape. Some of the greatest pilots of the RAF flew this iconic aircraft and this painting depicts the final combat of the war for one such pilot - the legendary fighter Ace Pierre Clostermann. A Flight Commander with 3 Squadron, Clostermann is at the controls of his distinctive Tempest Le Grand Charles during a strafing raid against the heavily defended seaplane base at Grossenbrode, on the coast to the north of Lübeck. Having just destroyed two Dornier Do18 flying boats on the water, he now helps finish off a Bf109 and a Fw190 that have tried to pounce from above. |
Clipped Signature - Norman Samuels. A Typhoon pilot with No.193 Sqn, he spent some time on Spitfires with No.610 Sqn before returning to Typhoons. He was shot down in March 1945, evaded capture for some time before being taken prisoner for the last few weeks of the war. |
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