S/L Richard Muspratt RIP

Kyt · Apr 3, 2009

Squadron Leader Richard Muspratt: wartime photographic reconnaissance pilot | Times Online Obituary

As a photographic reconnaissance pilot flying over enemy occupied France in 1941 and 1942, Richard Muspratt flew numerous sorties in 140 Squadron, notably in a Spitfire high-level reconnaissance aircraft. Lacking the camaraderie in the air that is available to the squadron fighter pilot, the PR pilot developed, as he penetrated enemy territory on his own, a certain lone-wolf mentality, knowing that he was always waiting for the enemy to pounce.

With the expulsion of the British Expeditionary Force from France in the spring of 1940 it became an RAF priority to find out for the British high command exactly what was going on in the enemy-occupied French harbours that faced the coasts of southern Britain. With the countryside of the Pas de Calais a veritable nest of German fighter fields, venturing alone into this heavily defended airspace was a perilous business.

Accurate navigation was also essential if the pilot’s photographs were to have any value (and if he needed to flee for home in a hurry). A thoroughly self-reliant pilot, Muspratt was very much at home in the lone-wolf (or as he preferred to put it “hare” ) role, and this quality subsequently made him a fine test pilot on the new, powerful single-engined aircraft types that were emerging in the second half of the war.

Richard Vivian Muspratt was born the son of an Indian Army major in 1917 and educated at Oundle, which he left in 1935 to take a diploma at Chelsea College of Aeronautical Engineering.

He had just emerged with a first-class pass when the war broke out and he enlisted in the RAF, to be commissioned in 1940. After a first posting to 53 (Army Co-operation) Squadron, he was posted in 1941 to 140 Squadron, where he embarked on a series of reconnaissance sorties, mainly taking photographs of French harbours from an altitude of just under 30,000ft.

On one occasion, in May 1942, while photographing the docks at Cherbourg, he was intercepted by a Focke-Wulf Fw190, a fighter that had demonstrated its superiority over the Spitfire when it had first come into action the previous year.

Having obtained his photographs Muspratt put his Spitfire into a steep diving turn which prevented the Fw190 from getting on to his tail at close range. He then used the PR Spitfire’s just superior speed to draw steadily away during a chase that lasted for 30 miles, with the despairing German pilot firing bursts at him from 600 yards astern as he drew away. “Chalk one up to the hare!” he recorded in his log book on landing later that day.

Among Muspratt’s most important sorties were the two that he flew over Dieppe on August 5 and 6, 1942. His large-scale photographs were to be part of a valuable intelligence resource for what nevertheless turned out to be the disastrous Dieppe raid of August 19, which at least demonstrated conclusively that an assault on a heavily defended harbour town could be no blueprint for any serious Allied landings on the German-occupied littoral (and when they eventually came in June 1944 it was over open beaches).

On being rested from operations Muspratt was awarded the DFC for his skill and leadership as a flight commander. The citation noted: “He never hesitates to undertake a difficult operational task himself rather than detail a less experienced pilot.”

In 1943 Air Marshal Sir Ralph Sorley, the controller of research and development, became increasingly concerned by the rising number of fatalities in test flying and a lack of standardisation of flying techniques. The result was the founding of the Empire Test Pilot’s Training School at Boscombe Down for whose No 1 course Muspratt was selected. He is its last survivor.

On passing through the school and being promoted to squadron leader he was invited to join Hawker, then developing a new generation of powerful piston-engined fighters, the Tempest and the Fury (and Sea Fury). Muspratt flew intensive testing flights in these superlative aircraft — the ultimate expression of the piston-engined fighter — with various weapon loads. With its level-flight top speed of 450mph the Tempest was to become highly effective in the role of intercepting V1 rockets, while the Navy’s Sea Fury, flew right through the Korean War where it scored a number of combat victories over the Russian MiG15. It served with the Royal Navy until it was replaced by the turbojet Sea Hawk.

After leaving Hawker in 1948 Muspratt joined the Ferguson tractor company and spent 13 years in Australia, where he greatly boosted the firm’s sales. Back in the UK after 1960, he bought and ran a business at Leamington Spa, Witney Welding and Engineering, which he ran until his final retirement in 1985.

His wife Jane, whom he had met and married during his time in Australia, died in 2003. He is survived by his two daughters.

Squadron Leader Richard Muspratt, DFC, wartime photographic reconnaissance and test pilot, was born on November 16, 1917. He died on January 15, 2009, aged 91
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Antipodean Andy · Apr 3, 2009

Now that is a, to steal a word from the obit, a superlative pilot. RIP.

oowebb · Apr 16, 2009

Dicky Muspratt was in my Grandfather's PR Squadron (140). They were great friends but alas my Grandfather was KIA 2nd May 1945 flying a Typhoon with 181 Squadron (124 Wing). I only found out he was still alive before Christmas but have now lost the chance of meeting him. My grandfather was Wing Commander George Francis Herbert Webb or "Sandy" Webb as he was known he had a DFC and bar along with The "Bronze Lion" from the Netherlands for his part in Operation Market Garden and the aerial recce that he organised.

Nick.

Kyt · Apr 16, 2009

Welcome to Chat Nick. I remember answering a quey about your grandfather over on TOCH (I am Amrit over there).

We would certainly love to read anything you would like to share with us about your grandfather.

I am sure you have a lot of info - have you seen this:

Onderscheidingen :: Onderwerp bekijken - W/Cmdr G. F. H. Webb DFC - Bronzen Leeuw

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