Jeff West

On completion of training he reached the UK and was posted in the Spring of 1941 to 616 Squadron based at Tangmere. The Squadron at this time was part of the Tangmere Wing and was returning to the offensive, using No. 65's Supermarine Mk II Spitfires.

As a Sergeant Pilot West would fly, on a number of occasions, as wingman to Wing Commander Douglas Bader. On the 25th June he shared in the destruction of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 over Gravelines. By July 1941 the squadron had re-equipped with Mk Vb Spitfires and on the 10th of that month West destroyed a Bf 109F over north-east France. Flying offensive patrols over France carried their danger and on one occasion West had a narrow escape after his Spitfire had been heavily hit during an encounter with Messerschmitts. He was just able to fly his damaged fighter within sight of the English coast before the engine seized up, forcing him to bale out. Fisherman picked him up shortly afterwards.

Now operating from the airfield of Westhampnett Jeffery West damaged a Bf109 on the 7th August, destroyed one and shared in a further on the 9th, and claimed a further shared probable on the 4th September.

At the end of the summer he was awarded a DFM and was commissioned, but in February 1942 was posted out to Malta, arriving on the 16th aboard a Sunderland. Serving with 249 Squadron, using Luqa Airfield as a dispersed base as Te Kali was frequently bombed, West flew some of the first Spitfires to reach the island. On Sunday 15th March three Junkers Ju 88's with fighter escort raided Luqa and Valetta shortly before lunchtime. Eight persons were killed, including two soldiers. West, accompanied by Sgt Tayleur jointly damaged one of the bombers before being driven away by the escort.

On the 8th April Pilot Officer West, during another bombing raid, attacked a Ju-88 head on and saw strikes on its cockpit. He then turned onto the tail of a Bf 109 and closed, firing all his ammunition and causing black smoke to appear; this may have been a 6/JG 53 aircraft flown by Lt. Hans Möller which crashed into the sea off Valetta. Möller was later picked up by an ASR craft from Sicily.

On the 22nd April West courageously tried to save the pilot of a Spitfire who had crash landed near Rabat. Although he managed to extract the pilot (Plt Off Frank Jemmett) from his aircraft he died later in hospital.

West fell ill towards the end of April and was evacuated to Egypt at the end of the month. Here he later served with 103 MU, where many months later, after the fall of Sicily in August 1943, he was able to intercept a long-range reconnaissance Bf109G and shoot it down into the sea off the African coast. He was a Squadron Leader by this time.

Jeff West returned to Hamilton post-war and was an accountant there for many years. He died of a heart attack on the 4th April 1998.

This page is copied from Chris Hinch's as a precaution in case his page is not available, so copyright of the above belongs to Chris. The original site is here.

Note on pronunciation - the 'q' in Maltese is more like a 'w', so Luqa is pronounced 'Loo-wa' rather than 'Luke-a', and Ta Qali is 'Tawali'.