Cirecooks the story bb

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Lt M. E. (Eric) Robinson was the pilot of a number of interesting aircraft as part of No 1 Squadron, South African Air Force, during the desert campaign in WW2.

He named is aircraft “CireCooks”. This was a combination of the nicknames of himself and his wife.

Crooks being her nickname and Cire being Eric spelled backwards.

Photographs exist of most of the versions up to “CireCooks VIII” excluding “CireCooks II and VII”.

The name first appeared on a Hurricane with the code letters AX-O. Thereafter, when 1 Squadron converted to the Spitfire, they appeared on all subsequent aircraft flown by Robinson.

Lt Robinson used a number of aircraft during the campaign in the western desert. He used two Hurricanes and a number of Spitfires of which photo’s of these were found in his photo album: Hurricanes AX-A serial ??925 without any name AX-O serial ??957 as CireCooks.

Spitfires No photo’s or detail known of CireCooks II. AX-N serial ER214 CireCooks III. AX-N serial EE116 CireCooks IV (aircraft worn-out and replaced).

AX-N serial ER874 CireCooks V. AX-N serial JG959 CireCooks VI. AX-N serial ER720 CireCooks VII (aircraft received on 13 June 43 and crashed on 14 June 43 on Malta - undercarriage failure).

AX-B serial ER286 CireCooks VIII with 5 ½ victories.

Lt Robinson was killed in a flying accident outside Pretoria on 12 November 1944 at the tender age of 25 years. He was flying a P40 Kittyhawk (5301) which collided with a fellow aircraft (5302) during an air combat exercise.

Lt M. E. S. (Eric) Robinson “Cire”

“Cooks” his wife

2 Hurricane, AX-A, ??925, No 1 Squadron Flown by Lt M. E. (Eric) Robinson, the first aircraft to be flown by him in this campaign from LG92. No name was allocated at this stage. He had an accident with this aircraft and it was written off on 28/8/42. Prefix to the serial - unknown. This is the aircraft with which he claimed ½ a JU87 Stuka.

RADIO AND FIRST AID

AX

A

HD92

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Hurricane, AX-O, ??957, No 1 Squadron Flown by Lt M. E. (Eric) Robinson from LG154 in Sept 1942, the original “CireCooks”. This being the first Hurricane to be named by him. Note that the O code letter is smaller than the AX.

RADIO AND FIRST AID

AX

HD95

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3 CIRECOOKS II No details or photo’s can be found on “CireCooks II”. It is unknown if such an aircraft ever existed, their is also no mention of it in his logbooks.

Mk VB, AX-N, ER214, No 1 Squadron November 1942, LG172. Flown by Lt M. E. (Eric) Robinson and named “CireCooks III”.

Note: red wingtips on aircraft being a 1 Squadron trademark at that time.

AX

RT or

BALLA ST + FIRST AID

N

Spitfire Mk VC, AX-N, EE116, No 1 Squadron First half of 1943, Castle Benito. Flown by Lt M. E. (Eric) Robinson and named “CireCooks IV”. He claimed one Me210 on the 25th March 1943 and one Me109 on the 2nd Apr 43. Note the name “Phyllis” painted on cannon barrel and code letter “N” repeated on lower cowling and also the white wheel covers. His log books report that this aircraft was worn-out and had to be replaced.

PHYLLIS

PHYLLIS

AX

RT or

BALLA ST + FIRST AID

N

4 Spitfire Mk VB, AX-N, ER874, No 1 Squadron March 1943. Flown by Lt M. E. (Eric) Robinson and named “CireCooks V”

AX

RT or

BALLA ST + FIRST AID

Spitfire Mk VC, AX-N, JG959, No 1 Squadron March 1943. Flown by Lt M. E. (Eric) Robinson and named “CireCooks VI”. He shot down two Bf109s on 22 Apr 1943 while flying this aircraft.

AX

RT or

BALLA ST + FIRST AID

5 CIRECOOKs VII. This aircraft appears in Lt Robinson’s logbook as a Spitfire Mk5C with serial number 720 and code AX-N. It was received on 13 June 1943 and flown from Ben Gardene to Malta. It experienced undercarriage problems and crashed on landing. It was subsequently written off. It is unknown if the name was painted on the aircraft as no photo’s of this aircraft exist.

Spitfire Mk 9C, AX-8, ER286, No 1 Squadron November 1942, LG172. The squadron codes AX-B and name “CireCooks VIII”. Standard desert camouflage for the Mk9C. This aircraft showing five and a half victories being his total for the desert campaign an d depicted on the side of this aircraft.

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