This page should be read in conjunction with Eugene Esmonde’s as both relate to the same incident during WW2 but from different viewpoints.

 

William Anthony Kevin Igoe (Bill),was born 27/04/1911 to R.I.C. Constable John Igoe and his wife Bridget (Delia) Coyle at their home in William St, Nenagh. John was a Mayoman and Delia was from Roscommon. 

 

William was their second son. He was educated at Presentation College Bray and the Engineering College of University College Cork. This led him to win a scholarship to study Aeronautical Engineering in London. From there he joined the R.A.F. The threat of Fascism in Europe saw the R.A.F expanding at the time. William qualified as a fighter pilot and Flying Boat Captain. 

 

Initially Bill he was posted to Egypt with 29(F) Squadron in 1935. The following year he was posted to 23(f) Squadron at R.A.F. Biggin Hill, Kent and later to 213 Squadron at Northolt, North London. Unfortunately while at Northolt he suffered a serious flying accident on 12/04/1937, which left him with 3rd degree burns. This effectively ended his flying career. It didn’t however end his R.A.F. career. He also found time to get married to his devoted wife, Karin Ridsdel.

 

When war broke out in 1939, Bill presented himself to his old station at Biggin Hill. He was Gazetted as Flying Officer  with Administrative and Special Duties Branch on 14/09/1939. His previous flying experience meant he was invaluable as a Sector controller and quickly rose by Summer 1940 to be Squadron Leader. Bill used the Dowding System of Radar Plotting he swept the Channel for enemy incursions.  The plotting system was simple but effective. The blips on the screen could determine whether they were Aircraft, Freighters or Battleships.  

 

It was Bill who found the German ships Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prinz Eugen as they made their dash through the Channel from Brest to their home berths at Kiel and Wilhelmshaven. Bill identified the 25 knot speed which could only be Battleships.

The German battle group of 66 ships, with continuous air cover provided by 250 day and night fighter aircraft, left Brest at night on 11 February 1942 and reached the Dover Straits, virtually undetected, at about 11.00am on 12 February. A breakout was long expected as the Germans had cleared Minefields and had in place sufficient aircover to suggest that this was to facilitate the Channel Dash.

 

Bad weather meant that the British were totally reliant on the Dowding System. Bill as Chief Controller of 11 Group, came on duty the morning of 12/02/1942 and spotted the 25 knot blips which could only be Battleships. He scrambled two Spitfires from Hawkinge Aerodrome who confirmed the enemy ships were on the move. The hunt was on.

 

The guns at Dover fired on the German Flotilla with little effect. There were attacks by Motor Torpedoe Boats and by Destroyers laying in wait. Throw into the mix, the Forlorn Hope mission by Bill's fellow Tipperary man, Eugene Esmonde as he set out on his suicidal flight against vastly superior enemy forces which was to see him awarded a V.C. Although more than 30 torpedo attacks were launched against the German battle group, not a single hit was achieved.  As a last resort, in the largest Bomber Command daylight operation of the war so far, 242 British aircraft were sent out against the German battle squadron but all to no avail.  The only damage inflicted was by mines hit by Scharnhorst and Gneisenau but even that was minimal. The German Fleet made it home.

Bill had proved the Dowding system worked and indeed this exercise is used as textbook material for modern day Air Surveillance systems.

 

Controlling had turned Bill into something of a specialist in the infant Radar equipment, and 1943 saw him posted to command RAF Beachy Head, one of the famous “Chain Home” stations which now became a Fighter Direction Station, and from where he was to spend the rest of the war developing the use of Radar for Fighter Control.

Bill Igoe epitomised Churchill’s “Give us the tools” He got the tools and he did the job - did it so well, that he finished the war at Beachy Head with the highest record of Doodle-bugs intercepted and shot down in the whole of England. When he and his team got their 500th doodle-bug they threw a party. ….He finished with a record of 516 doodle-bugs and over 300 aircraft destroyed.

 

After the war, Bill moved to Rhodesia and ran a Tea Plantation with over 5000 employees. A noted Golfer Rugby player and businessman, he proved to be quite popular. He also achieved the honour of being appointed FRAES (Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society). He died on 15/11/1993.