Page 219 - They Also Served

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Roger Hall 1938.
Roger Montagu Dickenson Hall was born on 12th August 1917 and attended Haileybury College from 1931 to 1935.
He entered the Royal Military College Sandhurst, in 1936 as a gentleman cadet and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Tank Regiment
on 27th January 1938. Soon afterwards,
he suffered a nervous breakdown and
was sectioned into the Royal Victoria Military Hospital in Netley. Pronounced
fit again after treatment, he completed
his young officer training and joined his regiment at Andover in the summer of 1939.
In March 1940, he applied to join the RAF and conducted flight training at No.7 Elementary and Reserve Flying Training School at RAF Desford, near Leicester. He described himself as a moderately capable pilot who ‘scraped through’, unlike seven from his course who died in flying accidents. Given his background, he was initially selected for army cooperation flying but volunteered for Fighter Command and converted to the Spitfire at 7 OTU at RAF Hawarden. Posted to 152 Squadron at Warmwell near Dorchester on 1st September 1940, the squadron was tasked with defending Portland’s naval base from Luftwaffe attacks during the latter stages of the Battle of Britain.
In December 1940, Hall applied for a transfer to No.255 Squadron forming at RAF Kirton-in-Lindsey in Lincolnshire and equipped with the Boulton Paul Defiant. Originally designed as a day fighter with four machine guns in a manned turret, the single-engine Defiant was hopelessly outclassed by German fighters in the battle for France but found a new lease of life as a specialist night fighter. On 10th February 1941, Hall claimed the squadron’s first victory, shooting down a Heinkel He 111 over the Humber. Posted again in December to the Spitfire-equipped 72 Squadron at Gravesend as a flight commander, he was soon on the move again to No.91 Squadron at RAF Hawkinge in April 1942, flying Spitfires in sweeps over occupied Europe. Hall’s last operational flight was on 17th September and, medically downgraded, he
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