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The superb Second World War nightfighter operations D.F.C. and Bar, A.F.C. group of seven awarded to Flight Lieutenant H. “Jake” Jacobs, Royal Air Force, late Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve: as a Navigator-Radio Leader with ‘a very high reputation’, he was “teamed-up” with the famous ace John Braham, with whom he shared in the destruction of at least five enemy aircraft in 1942-43, actions that are vividly described in his hitherto unpublished wartime memoirs, the original manuscript of which is included in the collection
Distinguished Flying Cross, G.VI.R., with Second Award Bar, the reverse of the Cross officially dated ‘1942’ and the Bar ‘1943’; Air Force Cross, G.VI.R., the reverse officially dated ‘1945’; 1939-45 Star, clasp, Battle of Britain; Air Crew Europe Star, clasp, France and Germany; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; General Service 1918-62, 2 clasps, S.E. Asia 1945-46, Malaya (Flt. Lt., R.A.F.), mounted as worn, second clasp on the last loose on riband, generally good very fine (7) £12000-15000
D.F.C. London Gazette 9 October 1942. The original recommendation states:
‘I have the honour to bring to your notice the distinguished flying conduct of Flight Lieutenant Jacobs who is the Chief Special Signals Instructor at No. 51 Operational Training Unit, Cranfield.
In order to obtain first hand information as to the operational conditions of the Mark VII Special Signals apparatus he obtained permission to be attached to this Squadron [No. 29] for 14 days. On his second trip with this apparatus on 24 August 1942, by his expert and accurate instructions, he enabled his pilot to obtain a visual on an enemy aircraft at a low altitude. This aircraft is claimed as damaged.
Four days later, while on patrol on an exceedingly dark night, his directions were so accurate and gave his pilot such confidence that he was able to locate an enemy aircraft at sea-level and destroy it. Later the same night, he carried out a second patrol with the same pilot, and, in similar circumstances, enabled his pilot to locate and attack an enemy aircraft which is claimed damaged. Return fire was experienced and the pilot was compelled to return on one engine. At the time, the aircraft was some way out to sea and only a few feet above the surface. The starboard engine was on fire and the port engine was also defective. Flight Lieutenant Jacobs remained unperturbed and cheerful and his behaviour materially assisted his pilot to bring his damaged aircraft across the coast and make an emergency landing.
The keenness and example of Flight Lieutenant Jacobs during his short stay with the Squadron were an inspiration to the other Navigators/Radio of this unit.
On a previous operational tour of duty while an Air Gunner with another Squadron, Flight Lieutenant Jacobs assisted his pilot to destroy an enemy aircraft at night. It will be seen therefore that Flight Lieutenant Jacobs assisted in the destruction of two enemy aircraft, and the damage of two more.
In all the circumstances I strongly recommend that the question of submitting the name of Flight Lieutenant Jacobs to His Majesty the King for the award of the D.F.C. may be favourably considered.’
Bar to D.F.C. London Gazette 5 May 1943. The original recommendation - written by Bob Braham - states:
‘Flight Lieutenant Jacobs was posted to 141 Squadron, at the special request of Wing Commander J. R. D. Braham, on 3 August 1943. He came from 488 Squadron, where he was Navigator Radio Leader, with a very high reputation, and crewed up with Wing Commander Braham.
Although the normal period of special technical training required for this Squadron’s work is three weeks, Flight Lieutenant Jacobs showed such aptitude and skill that he was considered fully operational within eight days. In the specialised work of this Squadron, the Navigator Radio must not only possess a marked ability as a Navigator and as an A.I. Operator, for without his expert handling of special equipment the pilot would stand little or no chance of engaging an enemy aircraft
On 17 August 1943, Flight Lieutenant Jacobs brought Wing Commander Braham into visual range of an Me. 110, which was destroyed off Emden. Continuing the same patrol this crew destroyed another Me. 110 off Borkum.
During ensuing patrols Flight Lieutenant Jacobs repeatedly brought his pilot to visuals on enemy aircraft and on 27 September 1943, enabled his pilot, after a long chase, in which his ability and tenacity were of paramount importance, to destroy a Do. 217 West of Hanover.
On 29 September 1943, notwithstanding a great confusion of friendly and enemy aircraft in the area, he assisted Wing Commander Braham to destroy an Me. 110 over Zuider Zee and, ten minutes later, in the same area, they attacked and severely damaged a Ju. 88 which would certainly have been destroyed if the Beaufighter’s cannon had not jammed.
Flight Lieutenant Jacobs was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 28 September 1942, prior to which date he had been instrumental in destroying two enemy aircraft, probably destroying one enemy aircraft and damaging one other enemy aircraft, in addition to procuring many visuals on others. His scrore is now six enemy aircraft destroyed, one probably destroyed and two damaged.
Since joining 141 Squadron Flight Lieutenant Jacobs has set a fine standard of efficiency, keenness and steadfast application to duty, which has been an inspiring example to the rest of the Squadron.
In view of the foregoing it is recommended that Flight Lieutenant Jacobs be awarded a Bar to his Distinguished Flying Cross.
A.F.C. London Gazette 3 April 1945. The original recommendation states:
‘This officer is responsible for the navigation instruction to all complete crews and individual Navigators who operate G.H. in No. 2 Group. During the course of his instruction he has flown in all weathers and with more than 60 different crews. The success of the work is largely due to the example and high standard of instruction set by Flight Lieutenant Jacobs.’
Henry “Jake” Jacobs, who was born in April 1907, was commissioned into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as an Acting Pilot Officer in February 1940, and commenced training as an Air Gunner at R.A.F. Penrhos in May of the same year. Posted to No. 264 Squadron in the following month, he gained his first experience of firing ‘four Browning machine-guns mounted in a magnificent powered turret installed on the back of a Boulton and Paul Defiant’, and, a week ot two later, having transferred to No. 600 Squadron at Northolt, his ‘first spot of night flying’ in a Blenheim.
His new squadron, an exclusive Auxiliary Air Force unit that still boasted a large number of its original pre-war “weekend flyers”, was in the process of training for night fighter operations, and, in early August 1940 moved to Manston, just in time for the onset of the London Blitz. Here, Jacobs noted, the ‘Luftwaffe came every day, and several times a day’, causing numerous casualties and a great deal of damage, so much so that No. 600 was effectively ‘bombed out’ of its new base, and had to move to Hornchurch, and thence to Redhill, because once again things had become ‘too hot’. On the 28th of the month he flew his first operational patrol, with Flying Officer “Banger” Rawlence - ‘a high-powered motorbike man and more than slightly over-weight’ - at the controls of their Blenheim, a sortie that nearly ended 10,000 feet over London, amidst ‘quite a lot of enemy activity’ and flak bursting all around, when one of their engines cut-out. Luckily, after one aborted attempt, an emergency landing was effected although ‘bombs were still falling on the airfield as we climbed out of our useless Blenheim’.
A week or two later, however, Jacobs was to gain his first “victory”, while manning the guns of a Blenheim piloted by Flight Lieutenant C. A. Pritchard, an Australian. It was the night of 15-16 September 1940, and their victim, an He. 111, which had been caught by our searchlights at 12,000 feet, went down in flames and crashed into the sea off Bexhill:
‘ ... Charles pressed the tit and hose-piped him with his four Brownings while I whooped, “Bits and pieces are coming off him!” Of course bits and pieces were also coming from him, bits of deadly steel and pieces of lead were pouring from his turret, but he started to burn and, as we slowly overtook him, Charles allowed me to empty a drum of ammo. into him. Well on fire, the Heinkel crashed near Bexhill. Twenty-five minutes later, we were safely down on the ground ...’
Following two or three more sorties, and an impromptu dinner with Winston Churchill, Jacobs was posted to No. 219 Squadron in early October 1940, with whom he gained operational experience in Beaufighters and trained as a Radio Observer. In fact he flew at least another 20 night operations between then and his transferral to H.Q., Tangmere as a Controller in November 1941, his nightfighter pilots including his C.O., old Etonian Squadron Leader J. H. “Jimmy” Little (who was killed in June 1943 after having been awarded a D.F.C.), and his Flight Commander, Flight Lieutenant J. G. “Johnnie” Topham (by the War’s end a well-known 13-victory ace with a D.S.O. and two D.F.Cs). Of the latter, Jacobs later wrote, ‘I cannot remember any other pilot I flew with who could tool a Beau. around quite like him. His favourite trick was to place a wing tip in the vicinity of the perimeter track and make a circuit of the airfield at fairly high speed - and you can bet I had several exciting rides with him’.
He also flew with Wing Commander T. G. “Tom” Pike (by the War’s end a 6-victory ace with two D.F.Cs), when he arrived as the Squadron’s new C.O. at the turn of the year. Pike was a good friend of Douglas Bader, as a result of which Jacobs got to know the famous legless-ace quite well - ‘Tom Pike and I were going to drop a replacement leg for the one he had been forced to leave behind in his Spitfire’, but as is now well-known, the Air Ministry elected to have it dropped from an aircraft on a regular operational mission. It was about this time, too, that Jacobs first met “Bob” Braham, the legendary nightfighter ace who would end the War with three D.S.Os and three D.F.Cs, and his redoubtable ‘fast talking, smooth and sophisticated’ Navigator-Radio Sergeant, “Sticks” Gregory, himself to end the War with a D.S.O., D.F.C. and D.F.M. - ‘little did I guess what a great influence this pair were going to have on my future’.
Jacobs, who had been promoted to Flight Lieutenant in September 1941, was, as mentioned above, next posted to H.Q., Tangmere as a Controller, where he served for a brief period of time before joining No. 51 Operational Training Unit (O.T.U.) at Cranfield as Chief Special Signals Instructor at the end of the year. And it was here that he again encountered Bob Braham, who was also being “rested” and with whom he flew on occasion and quickly established a firm friendship. In fact, as a result of Braham’s “influence” with the Sector Commander, the aircrew of the O.T.U. managed to gain the occasional operational outing, a case in point being Jacob’s first such flight with Braham in a Blenheim on the night of 29-30 April 1942, during an enemy raid on Norwich - such was Braham’s impatience to get into the air that Jacob’s went into action with his pyjamas under his flying kit. But it was not until Braham was appointed a Flight Commander at No. 29 Squadron, and that his faithful Navigator-Radio Operator, “Sticks” Gregory, went on extended leave as a newly-wed, that Jacobs replaced him on attachment. And since he rapidly acquainted himself with the new Mark VII radar, the Braham-Jacobs team quickly went into action, flying their first sortie on the night of 24-25 August 1942:
‘By the time we were over Beachy Head, I had managed to fasten Bob into his parachute and strapped the Beaufighter to his backside. After getting myself organised and switching on the “black box”, we were ready for any customer that ventured across the Channel ... The controller had already informed us that a bandit was on its way over, quite low down. We pushed out to mid-Channel as fast as we could at about 1500 feet above the wave tops. The controller turned us at the right moment and I obtained a contact nicely ahead but well below. Bob held the Beau. steady at 500 feet above sea-level and after a few corrections of speed, spotted a Junkers 88 flying towards the English coast practically at sea level. Bob opened fire in a shallow dive and I spotted many explosive strikes on his fuselage and engine nacelles. Tracer came back at us and then we passed right over the top of our unfriendly target, as our dive built up too much speed to keep behind him ...’
Having claimed one Ju. 88 damaged on their very first trip, the Braham-Jacobs team went on to even better things just a few nights later on 28-29 August, when they flew two separate missions, on each occasion with a “passenger” in search of combat experience, and on each occasion with success:
‘Just before 8 o’clock we were airborne on dusk patrol carrying as a passenger one Lieutenant Kelly, a young signals officer of the United States Army Air Corps ... We were taken over by the Beachy Head controller and kept gently stooging up and down mid-Channel for about half an hour when he informed us that he thought he had a customer for us. After a few vectors and a let down to 500 feet, I got contact at two and a half miles range ... I was continually calling for Bob to descend lower and lower until he asked me if I thought he was flying a bloody submarine, when suddenly at quite long range he spotted the target flying at sea-level about 1500 feet ahead of us ... Bob opened fire with all we had got and the aicraft which we had all recognised as a Junkers 88 was covered in flashes as our cannon shells hit home. “It’s in the drink” excitedly called Kelly, “I saw it with my very own eyes”. We just couldn’t stop him talking on the way home and after landing filled him up with egg and chips to calm him down ...’
Just before 3 a.m., and this time with a new “passenger”, one Flight Sergeant Stanley, the Braham-Jacobs team set-off on another sortie. Jacobs ‘did his stuff on the magic box’ and a visual was obtained at 2000 feet range, and they all saw the familiar strikes of Braham’s marksmanship moments later, thereby adding a probable Ju. 88 to the confirmed victory obtained earlier that night. But, as Jacobs would recall, their Beaufighter had been damaged by return fire, ‘our port engine practically blowing-up, showers of sparks and ugly flame licking from under the cowling ring’. Worse was to follow as they approached the south coast at low altitude, the other engine starting to cut out and also showering sparks, but mercifully the controller got them to the airfield at Friston, where Braham ‘stuffed the nose of the Beau. into the ground’, whence Jacobs escaped through the top hatch at ‘a speed favourably comparable to one of our own cannon shells’.
The Beaufighter was a complete write-off but all the crew lived to fight another day, although it was quietly noted that a cannon shell had passed through Braham’s seat - ‘Not the fleshy one, thank God, but the metal one’.
Much to his disappointment, the return of “Sticks” Gregory to the operational scene a few days later heralded Jacobs’ enforced return to his training duties at No. 51 O.T.U., although strictly against orders, he managed to get back to No. 29 for a brace of further patrols. It was on returning from one of these illegal outings at the end of September 1942, that he was placed under close arrest. Having, at length, been brought before the station C.O. and given a severe reprimand, he was delighted to discover that he was to be awarded the D.F.C. - ‘Just before the end of the year I was summoned to Buckingham Palace to receive my D.F.C. from the hands of His Majesty King George VI ... amongst the 200 odd recipients of gongs was Bob Braham, so naturally we had a happy re-union celebration in Town.’
In November 1942, Jacobs was posted to another nightfighter unit, No. 488 (N.Z.) Squadron at Ayr, but in January 1943 he attended a Navigator-Radio Leader’s course at Ford, where he once again ran into Braham and managed a sortie to France - ‘had a squirt at a flashing beacon’. He also flew with Wing Commander R. “Rory” Chisholm, afterwards the author of Cover of Darkness - and a D.S.O., D.F.C. and Bar - but their ‘violently weaving target’ evaded them. Further courses and attachments would follow during Jacobs’ remaining time with No. 488, but he flew operationally on several occasions with the C.O., Wing Commander Burton-Gyles, D.S.O., D.F.C., prior to his departure for No. 141 Squadron in August 1943, a move hastened by the “resting” of “Sticks” Gregory and the inevitable invitation from Braham - ‘I gave Bob the short answer and within a day or so my posting signal arrived ... a farewell binge and I was soon installed as Nav. Leader on No. 141 Special Duties Nightfighter Squadron’.
Here Jacobs swiftly digested the finer points of the Squadron’s Serrate radar equipment, recently introduced technology that allowed its operator to home-in on the enemy’s night fighter radar, and technology that would quickly return the Braham-Jacobs team to top-scoring form. It was, however, a moment of quiet reflection for Jacobs, who, in his mid-thirties, and with an envious operational record already under his belt, wondered whether the additional risks of now operating over enemy territory were risks worth taking - apart from anything else, he was concerned how he might be treated if taken a prisoner of war, but the Squadron I.O. had assured him that ‘captured Jewish personnel were reported to have received no different treatment to other prisoners’. Luckily, as it transpired, he never had to test the accuracy of such intelligence.
Jacobs completed his first Serrate operation with Braham on the night of 12-13 August 1943, and two equally uneventful trips followed to France, but on the night of 17-18 August, while acting in support of the bomber force assigned to attack the enemy’s top secret rocket experimental station at Peenemunde, they quickly found themselves in contact with a large force of enemy night fighters. Following extensive and skilful commentary from Jacobs, Braham closed in on their first victim:
‘I was now looking out ahead, having spun round in my revolving seat as Bob pressed the tit. Tracer, incendiary and explosive shells were pouring out of the four 20mm. cannon, mixed with a lighter but equally lethal dose from our six 303s and the whole blessed lot seemed to be biting into the aircraft just in front of us. Within three seconds the enemy aircraft was a mass of flames and by its own light could clearly be recognised as a Me. 110. It fell away below us, leaving a plume of smoke clearly visible in the moonlight. We watched him curve towards the sea and knowing full well that it was unnecessary, did not attempt to follow him down. Burning wreckage on the sea indicated that this was a positive kill and we could claim with confidence an enemy aircraft destroyed. Our cockpit had filled with choking cordite fumes, pungent even through our oxygen masks. Bob opened up his clear vision panel and we were soon back to normal. That three second burst of gunfire had sounded like a battery of pneumatic drills yammering away, noisy even above the incessant roar of our big two motors ...’
A few minutes later and another contact presented itself on Jacobs’ radar screen, and once again he cooly directed Braham in for the kill. For a moment he thought they might overshoot the target, yelling at Braham to throttle back, but in the end all was well and another Me. 110 went spiralling down in flames. It was an exceptional night’s work by any standards, but the celebrations may well have been greater had they then known the identity of the two enemy pilots, both in fact Luftwaffe nightfigher “experten” from NJG 1, namely Fw. Heinz Vinke, a 54-victory ace and Obfw. Georg Kraft, a 14-victory ace. More were to follow.
In their next Serrate operation on the night of 23-24 August, again operating in defence of a heavy bomber strike against a German target, Jacobs obtained a contact and an inconclusive dogfight ensued, but the trip was more memorable for the flak, Braham having decided to take their Beaufighter into the target area, rather than wait outside it - ‘Bob assured me that they were not shooting at us and that I was to keep my head down into the set, but I couldn’t resist frightening myself by taking frequent peeps at the flak bursts all around me. Bob was weaving the Beau. about to such an extent that the bomb bursts and the gun flashes appeared above me in the black night’.
Three nights later, when again over enemy territory, their Beaufighter’s starboard engine packed-up, an event witnessed by the Squadron’s I.O., who had come along - strictly against regulations - as a “passenger”. Jacobs, painfully aware that Braham would happily go into action even on one engine, thus chose to refrain from informing him that in the interim he had picked up a strong contact on his radar - ‘He came within half a mile of us’. After they had effected a forced landing at an airfield back in Essex, however, his guilt caught up with him, and he duly confessed. Braham just laughed, telling him that all the while they were flying home over the sea the temperatures of their remaining engine were “off the clock”.
In September, Braham and Jacobs flew several notable sorties, bringing the latter’s tally of operations to safely over the 50 mark and increasing their score card by two confirmed victories and another damaged. The figures may well have been higher had Jacobs’ Serrate equipment not gone “phut” in the middle of a promising contact over Aachen on the night of 23rd, a breakdown caused by the tightness of their Beaufighter’s turns - and the resultant ‘G’ forces. They also claimed a military supply train on the Paris-Dieppe line one night, Braham dropping down to an estimated 100 feet to rake it with cannon fire. He possibly went even lower, because on inspection of their Beaufighter back at base, it was discovered that a six foot gun-bay panel had been torn out of its metal framework - ‘We had hit something like a signal post or a tree’.
The first of their September victories was claimed on the night the 27th, some ten miles to the west of Hanover, when Jacobs locked onto a Dornier 217 and Braham engaged it from 1000 feet, quickly turning it into a mass of flames. But on their return trip they flew into heavy flak over Texel, one shell ‘neatly slicing off the streamlined fairing of our port engine nacelle, which protruded a few inches aft of the trailing edge of the mainplane - not many inches further and we may well have had a spot of trouble getting home’.
Their second confirmed victory that month was an Me. 110 over the Zuider Zee, the result of a spectacular ten minute dogfight in which Braham hurled their Beaufighter around the night sky in pursuit of a highly skilled enemy nightfighter. Unbeknown to them at the time, they were on the tail of another “experten” of NJG 1, none other than Hpt. August Geiger, a 53-victory pilot. Braham won:
‘Bob opened up with all ten guns and in the light of its own flames we recognised our target as an Me. 110. The flames continued downwards until they were quenched in the Zuider Zee 20,000 feet beneath us’.
Another fight developed with a Ju. 88 some minutes later, but the Beaufighter’s guns jammed just as Braham was beginning to achieve some hits, so this last was claimed as damaged only. Yet, in those brief moments of hectic combat, Bob Braham had established himself as Fighter Command’s leading nightfighter ace, his achievements quickly hitting the home press, in which a friendly rivalry had been fostered with the equally impressive scoring of John “Cat’s Eyes” Cunningham.
Press attention aside, Braham was long overdue a rest from operations, and was - under protest - “grounded” for six months, a decision that resulted in the breaking-up of his highly successful partnership with Jacobs. Well, with one exception, that is, because in February 1942, Braham managed to take Jacobs on a “day ranger” to France in a Mosquito of H.Q., No. 2 Group, A.E.A.F., where they destroyed a petrol bowser near La Mans:
‘ ... We were flying along a main road, quite deserted, and approaching some woods ahead. My map told me that Le Mans was ahead ... suddenly a petrol wagon was coming towards us. Bob pressed his firing button and I saw the windscreen and radiator melt. We pulled upwards and over and gave the now stationary vehicle a squirt from the rear. A few of our cannon shells exploded ricocheting from the road and the tanker blew up in a mushroom of black smoke. The whole action could not have taken more than a minute and we were flying between chimney pots right down the main street of Le Mans ... All the locals were running doubled up, peeling off to right and left ahead of us and throwing themselves face down on the pavement, in shop doorways and front gardens. Of course, we were not shooting and had no intention of shooting ...’
It was Braham, in fact, that had recommended Jacobs join him at No. 2 Group, and, of course, for his second D.F.C., which decoration he received from the King at an investiture ‘in the Field’ at Hartford Bridge in July 1944 - ‘A battledress affair’. In the interim, Jacobs had briefly served in another Serrate unit, No. 239 Squadron at Ayr.
In August 1944, on the direct orders of Basil Embry, Jacobs joined 1508 Radar Flight, the first of two or three instructional postings that culminated with his appointment to the Tactics Staff of the C.F.E. in July 1945, postings that witnessed him notching-up many hours in Mitchell bombers with pupil pilots and crew, often challenging work that resulted in forced landings and the occasional “prang”. He was awarded a well-merited A.F.C. His Tactics Staff appointment also led to a tour of the Far East between February and April 1946, which services resulted in him being awarded the General Service 1918-62 Medal with ‘S.E. Asia 1945-46’ clasp, to which he added the ‘Malaya’ clasp following another tour in that part of the world in the early-to-mid 1950s.
The post-war era also saw the Braham-Jacobs team briefly united for some flights in a Meteor jet in late 1950. His old friend had been taken P.O.W. in June 1944 after being shot down off the Danish coast and, sadly, died aged only 53 in February 1974. For his own part, Jacobs was advanced to the substantive rank of Squadron Leader in July 1952 and retired in December 1958. He died in October 1978.
Sold with the recipient’s original Flying Log Books (2), bound in one volume, and covering his entire flying career from May 1940 to November 1958, the wartime operational entries often very detailed, with “victories” marked by individual swastika motifs; together with Jacobs’ handwritten manuscript for his hitherto unpublished wartime memoirs, 240pp., and annotated typescript of the same, written in a lively, unpretentious and readable style and an important record in respect of nightfighter operations, not just for technical and strategic input but also for an evocative and revealing insight into the character of Bob Braham, whose activities in the Mess - and in other all too short moments of relaxation - were clearly equally as dangerous as his operational sorties (copyright will pass to the successful purchaser); and Jacob’s wartime Navigator’s Brevet and tunic ribands.
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