GAUNTLET BY ANTHONY SAUNDERS  Portsmouth August 26th 1940, the lone spitfire of Squadron Leader Sandy Johnstone breaks the ranks and picks off one of the menacing Heinkels only to encounter an equally determined attack from a BF109. Accompanying the artists signature are three signatures from pilots of 602 Squadron: Air Vice Marshal Sandy Johnstone, Air Commodore Micky Mount and Wing Commander Hector MacLean. Air Commodore Micky Mot, CBE, DSO, DFC  Flying Officer C.J Mount joined NO.602 squadron on August 8th 1940 after a brief conversion course on Spitfires. On August 18th his Spitfire L1005 was severely damaged in combat with JU 87's and BF109's over Ford. Micky was unhurt. he again escaped injury when his Spitfire X4270 was damaged landing at Tangmere. he served in many of the theatres of WW2 and he flew Hurricanes in Malta and North Africa and Wellingtons in the Middle east. Micky is now retired and lives in Ascot in Berkshire. Wing Commander Hector Maclean  Hector was flying with No 602 squadron before war broke out. A gallant young man, his fighter pilot days were drawn to an abrupt halt on August 26th 1940 when his leg was severely injured during battle, but the war was not by no means over. After his recovery he was posted to Rosemount for duty as a fighter controller, in the rank of Squadron Leader. hector is now retired and lives in Kilmacolm near Glasgow. Air Vice-Marshall Sandy Johnson CB, DFC, AE.  Sandy was in command of no. 602 squadron during the critical days of the Battle of Britain, flying with the squadron before the war though to 1941, when he was posted to the Middle east, he also served with 229 and 249 squadrons in Malta during the Islands most fateful days of the war. sandy is now a successful author living near Ipswich in Suffolk The Gauntlet Action South of Portsmouth 26th August 1940. We were brought to readiness in the middle of lunch and scrambled to intercept mixed bag of 100+ Heinkel III's and DO 17's approaching Portsmouth from the South.  The controller did a first class job and positioned us one thousand feet above the target. with the sun  behind us, allowing us to spot the raiders from a long way off. No escorting Messerschmitts were in sight at the time, although a sizable force was to turn up soon after. then something strange happened. I was about to give a ticking off to our chaps for misusing the R/T when I realised I was listening to German voices. It appeared we were both using the same frequency and, although having no knowledge of the language it sounded from the monotonous flow of the conversation that they were unaware of our presence. as soon  as we dived towards the leading formation, however we were assailed immediately to loud shouts of  Achtung Spitfuern Spitfuern! as our bullets began to take their toll. In spite of having taken jerry by surprise our bag was only six, with others claimed as damaged, before the remainder dived for cloud cover and turned for home. In the meantime the escorting fighters were amongst us when two of our fellows were badly shot up. hector Maclean stopped a cannon shell on his cockpit, blowing his foot of above the ankle although, in spite of his grave injuries, he managed to fly his spitfire back to Tangmere to land with wheels retracted. Cyril Babbage's aircraft was also badly damaged in the action. forcing him to abandon it and take to his parachute. He was ultimately picked up by a rescue launch and put ashore at Bognor, having suffered only minor injuries. I personally accounted for one Heinkel III in the action (Sandy Johnson). No. 602 'City of Glasgow' auxiliary squadron was a household name long before WW11 began. It had been the first auxiliary squadron to get into the air in 1925, two of its members, Lord Clydeside and David McIntyre  were the first to conquer Mount Everest in 1933; the squadron sweeped the board in gunnery and bombing in 1935, beating the regular squadrons at their own game. It was the first auxiliary Squadron to be equipped with Spitfire Fighters as far back as March 1939 and it was the first squadron to shoot down the first enemy aircraft on British Soil. The squadron moved south from Drem airfield in east Lothian on August 14th 1940. to relieve the already battered no. 145 squadron at Westhapnett, Tangmere's satelitte station in Sussex. the squadron suffered 5 casualties during the battle. The squadron remained at Westhampnett until December 1940 to be replaced by no. 610 auxiliary airforce squadron. No 602 squadron itself remained active up until 1957 when it was put into mothballs.