With its sleek, striking good looks, the Westland Whirlwind Mk. I is, nonetheless, one of the RAF’s lesser-known fighters of World War Two.
It was Westland’s first single seat fighter to serve with the RAF and the first twin-engined fighter to enter service. It had good performance at low level, operating range and massive firepower but was hampered by the unreliability of the two Rolls-Royce Peregrine engines which powered it.
Partly because of this it only served with two squadrons from December 1940 to 1943, equipping Nos. 263 and 137 Squadrons (with a few being trialled as night fighters). They were mostly employed on bomber escort missions and shipping and ground strikes over the Channel and France.
The New Zealand link to the Whirlwind comes in the form of one pilot, Desmond Arthur Roberts.
He was from New Plymouth and joined No. 137 Squadron in 1942.
Not only is he believed to be the only New Zealander to have flown the Whirlwind operationally, he also scored a combat victory on the type.
The Taranaki Daily News reported excitedly on 11 March 1943 under the headline ‘New Plymouth Pilot Now Flies Whirlwinds’ the circumstances of the victory: ‘The sole New Zealander in the Whirlwind fighter-bomber squadron is 22-year-old Flight Sergeant Desmond Roberts, of New Plymouth, who recently shot down a Dornier 217 over the Channel.
He later met the German pilot after he had been picked up at sea by the rescue service. Flight-Sergeant Roberts said: “The Germans baled out just as the Dornier broke up. I just dipped my port wing in time to miss one of them”.’
Desmond Roberts was later commissioned and joined No. 485 (NZ) Squadron in June 1943 with whom he served until September 1944. He survived the war and returned to New Zealand in September 1945.
