HISTORY

Vaclav Jicha (* February 10th, 1914, Dnesice, Prestice county, + February

1st, 1945, Turf Law nearby Soutre), one of the great personalities of the

313 Squadron. He distinguished himself over France and Great Britain and is

credited with total of 7 confirmed kills, 4 of them in cooperation. Having left

the combat flying this exeptional pilot gained the fame as a test pilot primarily

working at Vickers Armstrong Ltd. (Supermarine) in Castle Bromwich near

Birmingham. During his tenure, i.e. from January 1943 until May 1944, he has

test-flown total of 1287 Spitfires of various versions, out of which 866 single

handedly and 421 in cooperation with other test pilots. He was mostly occupied

by researching the causes of the engine failures, which belongs among the most

dangerous tasks performed by test pilots. As a result he had to perform fifteen

emergency landings out of which nine were belly landing so successful that the

aircraft did not sustain any damage. „Venda was the best Spitfire pilot I have

ever had at Castle Bromwich“ wrote chief pilot Alex Henshaw respectfully about

Jicha. Jicha perished flying as a passenger in the twin-engine Anson which

crashed in bad weather into the Scottish mountains between Edinburgh and

Berwick. In addition to his Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) awarded for his

combat achievements he was later also awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) for

his contribution to the aeronautical research. He is one of twenty war comrades

to whom F. Fajtl dedicated the whole chapter in his book „The memories of the

fallen comrades“ (K. Beinhauer)

Vaclav Jicha entering the cockpit of his Spitfire

coded RY-D. (author’s collection)

Types of Offensive Operations Conducted

by Fighter Command

Circus

Small formations of bombers (initially predominantly made up of Blenheims,

and from 1942, Bostons) were in these operations escorted by a significant

number (up to 350) of Spitfires or Hurricanes to the designated target. The

purpose of these flights was to evoke a response from the enemy and to destroy his air assets in combat. The bulk of these operations were undertaken

by No.11 Group, Fighter Command, whose bases lay closest to occupied

Europe. It conducted Circus 1 on January 10th, 1941. In the spring, No.10

Group joined in, which conducted its Circus 1 on April 17th, 1941.

Ramrod

This was essentially the same as the Circus operations, but the goal was more

the destruction of designated targets by the bombers. The main task of the

escort was protection of the bombers from enemy interception. The pioneering unit of these operations was No.10 Group, Fighter Command, which

conducted Ramrod 1 on August 20th, 1941. If a raid during these operations was conducted without bombers (which were often replaced by ground

attack Hurricanes), it was designated ‘Fighter Ramrod’.

Roadstead

These raids were conducted against enemy naval targets in the Channel or

along the coast of occupied Europe. They were generally conducted by small

groups of bombers (Blenheims) or ground attack aircraft (Whirlwinds or Hurri-

18 eduard

canes) escorted by fighters. The first Roadstead raid was officially conducted

on February 10th, 1941.

Rhubarb

These raids were conducted as a rule by pairs of fighters against targets on

the coast of occupied Europe. They were conducted at low level to evade

radar. They were, also as a rule, conducted under poor weather conditions

or low overcast, which was then used on the way out as a source of protection against flak and enemy fighters. These operations were referred to as

Mosquito at first, and later the code Ranger was also used.

Rodeo

Similar to Circus, the purpose of these raids was to provoke the enemy into a

fight, but were conducted without the bomber component. The first such operation was officially conducted on October 27th, 1941, but similar operations

were flown earlier, either without a codename, or called other names, such as

Sphere.

Night Intruder

These were night offensives. These were patrols conducted near enemy air

bases and shooting down air assets during take-off and landing. There was

a list of codenames that were used for this type of offensive activity, such as

Gudgeon, Mandolin, Sunrise, Veracity, and Warhead, and so on. These missions were conducted against single, predetermined targets in enemy territory

or coastal areas.

INFO Eduard - January 2021