Why Was This Battle Of Britain Pilot Called 'Grumpy'?

the raw flying Corp and the raw Air Force that it later helped form has many fine Traditions anybody can do that and the coing of nicknames is one of its best those who walk the messes of the land branded forever with a nigar normally acquire the new Mona through amusing traits or circumstances the same could be said for Battle of Britain pilot grumpy George anwin the then 19 Squadron flight Sergeant was introduced to the world as Grumpy in a wartime book written under an alias to protect the identity of his fellow Squadron matate it would take 50 years for anwin to be able to refute the claims made in the book Spitfire and tell his version of why a 27-year-old fighter pilot was just so very grumpy born near Doncaster South Yorkshire in 1913 George was loathed to follow his coal miner father into the pits with little other prospects in the area George was helped by school Master to apply for a position as an RAF Apprentice this 2-year administrative course between 1929 and 1931 enabled him to apply for pilot training in 1935 having gained his wings this coal miner son would become a sergeant pilot and future member of the few he arrived at 19 Squadron in August 1936 joining a flight led by flight liutenant Harry broadhurst and became a long serving member of that Elite Squadron threee War it was 19 Squadron that won all the competitions the RAF careed to organize be it navigation shooting or tactical skills they also traditionally took on whichever was the latest fighter to be introduced to fighter command from the Bristol Bulldog to the gluster gauntlets with the exception of the hurricane that was first given to treble one Squadron no doubt when the Spitfire arrived at Duckwood in 1938 no one at 19 Squadron then cared about having had the Drone beaten up by a squadron of 12 gleeful treilers showing off the then best fighter in the RAF soon 12 spit Fighters repay the compliment over northal flight Sergeant anwin flew with the Squadron right through the phony war and was present at horn church when the Squadron arrived there on the evening of the 25th of May 1940 the next day would be the squadron's first real taste of action and also the day Brian Lane claimed George became grumpy smoking talking 14 Pilots assembled on the tarmac wondering who would be the Unlucky two who would have to stay behind we had brought 12 aircraft with us and two extra Pilots had come down by Road the previous night the section leaders alone looked quite happy for they knew they were definite starters for fairness we drew names out of a hat and face after face lighted up as its owner's name was called in my flight The Unlucky One was flight Sergeant U and he stood looking at me with a hurt expression on his face for all the world like a dog who had been told he can't come for a walk I went over to try and console him but he just shook his head sadly and said well I'm damned sir I couldn't help it I burst out laughing while the other Pilots shot humorous remarks at him go on grumpy you'll live to fight another day don't get too drunk while we're away and that was why from that time on one flight Sergeant was called grumpy flight Sergeant anwin needn't have worried the next day he was in action himself and claimed an hs1 126 destroyed with flying officer Brinston unwind would go on to fight operations with 19 Squadron throughout the Battle of Britain before being posted to number two Central flying school for arrest at the end of 1940 he was commissioned the next year and served in training command until 1943 grumpy was back on operations with 613 Squadron in 1944 flying mosquito fighter bombers and in 1945 was teaching Gunnery to new pilots at RF Catos grumpy stayed in the RAF until 1961 and even flew bristle briggins during the Malayan emergency in 1952 it wasn't until the early 1990s that win Commander Unwin finally explained how he had really gained the name grumpy and it had everything to do with a young man he had met in 1931 a man who had recently lost both legs in an ill-advised low rooll in a Bristol Bulldog as is often the case with men we now associate most strongly the battle Britain George anwin disappeared from the public eye almost the minute that Brian Lane's book was published in 1942 George was not one for tooting his own trumpet nor did he frequent reunions or Gatherings held for RF servicemen from the war this all changed when a retired policeman came calling while doing research on a book about 19 Squadron had it not been for historians like dilip sakar and others like him the stories of Pilots such as George anwin Jeffrey wellam and Bob do to name but a few of the few would have been lost so in his own words this is how George grumpy anwin remembers getting the name oh I didn't you know I'm known as grumpy and that was due to the fact that he on one of these visits to the east coast when we used to uh uh Patrol the convoys uh I went up there with him and I said now this time if the balloon goes up you can lead and fler number two this is the first time he was going to leave and he went we did this and he forgot to put his we were whistled off the ground on a uh what is now hamon Faith Norwich airport they were building it then and we had a small piece of grass uh to take off from very short but enough and off we went and he forgot to put his aircraft into find pitch for takeoff and never got airborne and crashed as a result he needed two tin legs he wasn't hurt the aircraft was a right off he was wasn't had except for both his legs were ruined and uh we got a new pair but of course they're not machine made and and and and so they had to be adjusted and we used to arrive at this place we had a little bungal that's all we had at half 3 in the morning well the first thing you want to do is put your head down and get some sleep and I was trying to do this one way uh and he's trying to adjust his legs with a file and a tin of oil and the thing was going scrape scrape scrape scrape scrape then it strap it on and they go squeak squeak squeak as he walked around and you can imagine after heing the hearing the scrape you're then waiting for the squeak and eventually I said for God's sake if you must do that go outside and do it and the Seven Dwarfs were on locally and they said oh shut up grumpy and from then on that was it but he was a wonderful leader he really was having heard the story from the horse's mouth surely this is the definitive answer to how George became grumpy for 41 years of service in the RAF however when you look at the evidence this explanation really doesn't hold that much water so does that mean that Brian Lane got it right to begin with if you draw up a basic timeline of events then you see that Brian's explanation for the nickname must have occurred on the morning of the 26th of May 1940 George claims that the naming was down to a crash bar had at hamon Faith which is recorded by the historian Michael G Burns as having taken place on the 31st of March 1940 based on this the filing and squeaking that led to one of the best nicknames for a member of the few probably happened around the 2nd or 8th of April nevertheless the story that George Unwin recounted to Conrad wood the interviewer for the Imperial War Museum on the 25th of September 1990 doesn't make sense for one thing barer and Unwin only flew together in a section on two occasions the only time B LED Unwin at a section Commander was on the 16th of March 1940 on the day of the crash when the self-professed superior pilot B forgot to select fine pitch for takeoff Unwin wasn't even flying another misremembered aspect of his story is when he said B was with 19 Squadron over Dunkirk and only then moved to treble 2 Squadron as a flight Commander this is untrue bar left 19 Squadron on the 16th of April 1914 a full month before the balloon went up over Kirk however he would still have been stationed at Duckwood with triple 2 Squadron this is by no means me calling Unwin a liar rather it just highlights the realities that memories fade and play tricks on any individual the key memory is that b was incredibly inconsiderate with his leg maintenance and no doubt given the man's huge personality led to a witty comeback after being reprimanded by a lowly flight Sergeant initially I had thought that Brian Lane wasn't pres at ham some faith when the remark was made on closer analysis on the only two days bar and anwin were on early Readiness at the Ford base the 2nd and 8th of April Lane was also flying the obvious conclusion is that he had not been kept up by the noise and didn't register the comical retort made by bar no doubt the name grumpy was muttered a few other times over the following two months whenever flight Sergeant Ann made any complaint coming to her head in front of the entire Squadron gathered on the tarmac at horn Church during operation Dynamo whatever the circumstances we mustn't think that George anwin was some contous antisocial NCO rather he was a bloke 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