29. An Aerial Meeting of Enemies – and Eventual Temporary Allies
Captain Partridge joined the Norwegian Campaign on April 24th, 1940, when he was made commanding officer of No. 800 Squadron, aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. His unit flew Blackburn Skuas – low wing carrier-based two-seater, single-engine planes, that combined the functions of dive bombers and fighters. Within 24 hours of taking command of the squadron, Ark Royal was positioned 120 miles off the Norwegian shore, and Partridge was in the thick of the fighting.
On April 27th, Partridge, with Lieutenant R. S. Bostock in his plane as radio operator/ aerial gunner, led his men on a sweep north of the Norwegian capital, Oslo. They came upon a flight of German Heinkel He 111 bombers without fighter escort. Most of the bombers scattered upon sighting the British airplanes, but one of them, flown by a lieutenant Horst Schopis, doggedly flew on. Partridge led three Skuas in falling upon it. They shot up the bomber’s port engine, forcing it down in a remote mountainous area miles away from anywhere.