David Garrett's work on 154/232 Squadron

If you've been watching the pilot additions over the last few months, you may have noticed lots of pilots from 154 SQN being added to the site, complete with squadron dates, flight details (our mini-log book entries), bio, and images. If you want to know who has been submitting these pilots (232 SQN as well) then read on. David has been a great help to the site, encouraging us to add some new features, and, taking great care in detailing his entries. I asked David several questions starting with "tell us about yourself" and "why you are adding all these pilots" and questions like "what are your most interesting finds?". You will enjoy this read, including David's own adventures.

UPDATE: If you click the 154 Squadron link above, you will now see a map of the squadron's movement over time, including UK, Algeria, Tunisia, Malta, Italy, Israel, Syria, and France. You can animate their movements on that page. It's draft, in that some detachment details are missing and dates are approximate.

"I am David Garrett, I live in Sunbury-on-Thames near Hampton Court, west London. I am 80 years of age (big celebration a couple of weeks ago!). I grew up in Brazil, and have a thing about South America as a result. I Did a 25,000 Km rally round it once, so have visited corners that few get to. Passions are motor sport (did a lot of racing but packed it in a few years ago) and flying (had a PPL aged 17 and 1 month, could fly a plane before I had any idea of how to drive a car!). Am fascinated by the war in the air in WW2 and have a large library on the subject.

My particular interest in 154 comes from the fact that my father (F/L Idris T Garrett) was in the squadron from its formation in Nov 1941 through to April 1943, (when he was switched across the airfield in Tunisia to 232 to help plug their bad run of casualties). Dad came over from Brazil by boat to apply as a Volunteer Reservist in Sept 1940. He met Mum two weeks after arriving, married her 18 months later, and she and I set out for Brazil by boat in July 46 with me aged 5 months. So the story of 154 is very much bound up with the origins of our own Garrett family story.

According to my Profile, I have added 38 pilots. Naturally most of those are 154, but there’s a little sprinkling of 232 as well now, maybe half a dozen. (editor's note: he's also adjusted a number of existing pilots that were already on the site).

Does Merlin Davies count as a notable find? – still can’t believe that Christian name! I think my most pleasing find has been the locating of so many photos of 154 pilots, so that the names in Dad’s logbook, and in various reference and narrative books, all come to life. I think photos make such a difference – looking at my data, I have individual photos of 26 of the squadron pilots, which is pretty good going, I reckon. Also, I am quite proud of my detective work on the “Motor Industry Fighter Squadron” angle, finding out just what the 21 nominated planes were, where the came from (and when), their serial numbers, etc. For a very short space of time, they were all in one place – clearly they then dispersed pretty quickly, but of course the title was by then firmly lodged with 154. It’s quite an interesting story in its own right.

What’s left to do? One remaining mystery is how they managed to get the pilots AND the planes together for the October '42 pamphlet that featured them. I would be very interested to hear from anyone who is prepared to tackle it with me, or has any input of their own on the subject. Other than that, just anything to do with 154/232 – I’m already in good and constructive contact with Rhys Harvey in New Zealand, who has done some good work on his grandfather Gil Haase. Also anyone with any connection to that awful time for 232 at the end of April 1943, in Tunisia, when they had 10 planes shot down in the space of a fortnight (including Dad) – four killed, four POW. Just two got back to the squadron, including my father, who was on ops the next day.