Johnny Meagher had a distinguished war record as a bomber pilot flying Wellingtons and Lancasters. He completed fifty operations and was twice awarded the DFC and also received an immediate DFM for his part in the daylight low-level attack against the Schneider factory at Le Creusot. After the war he joined BOAC and had an equally distinguished career, which included captaining some Royal Flights, for which he was appointed CVO, introducing the Bristol Britannia into service and finally managing the VC 10 fleet. He died aged 97 on September 21.
The photograph shows him at Buckingham Palace with his family after receiving the DFC and DFM.
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Maurice Webb was a Mosquito navigator who attacked shipping in the Bay of Biscay and off the Norwegian coast. He and his pilot were forced to bale out over Brittany after their aircraft was damaged by anti-aircraft fire whilst attacking a ship. He was sheltered by a farmer and the following day he met up with US troops and returned to England. He was awarded an immediate DFM. He continued flying operations and attacked a U-boat near Bergen which was damaged and sunk the following day by a Liberator.
Major Chris Crouch led a flight of Scout helicopters supporting a troop of SAS soldiers involved in a fierce engagement against dissidents in Aden. Throughout a long day, Crouch controlled his helicopters as they carried out reconnaissance sorties and redeployed troops to surround the enemy group. His helicopter was hit on three separate occasions by small arms fire. He was awarded a DFC. During an earlier tour in the Malayan Emergency, he flew Auster AOP aircraft and was twice mentioned in despatches.
Air Commodore Hughes led a number of attacks by Coastal Commands’s Beaufighter strike aircraft against enemy convoys sailing along the coasts of Norway and the Netherlands carrying essential raw materials for German industry. On his 27th operation he led a torpedo attack against a large merchant ship off the island of Borkum. The ship caught fire but as he turned away from a second attack using his cannons, his aircraft hit the cable of a balloon flying from an escort vessel. Despite the damage to his aircraft he managed to return to base. He was awarded an immediate DFC. On 8 August 1944 he led his flight in the anti-flak role in support of a torpedo attack by other Beaufighter squadrons. After the attack, his aircraft caught fire and he baled out at a perilously low height. He paddled ashore in Norway but was captured. He had a long and successful peacetime career in the RAF. He died in Scotland aged 99.
This photo shows Hughes (left centre) about to land in the sea in his parachute as his Beaufighter crashes off the Norwegian cost.
Don Briggs had a flying career that spanned over 60 years. He started RAF life as an aircraft apprentice but later became a flight engineer on Lancasters in the Pathfinder Force. He completed 60 operations and was awarded the DFC. After the war he trained as a pilot and flew all three V-bombers. He was the second pilot on the third and final testing of the British hydrogen bomb during Operation Grapple at Christmas Island. He spent five years as an instructor on the Vulcan and after retiring from the RAF he trained future airline pilots at Oxford. He retired from flying when he was 84 years old.
Mary Ellis, who has died aged 101, was one of the pioneering women who became famous as one of the ‘Spitfire Girls’ who flew with the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She joined in 1941 and by the end of the war she was a first officer and had flown 1,000 aircraft which amounted to 72 different types. After the war she moved to the Isle of Wight and was managing director of Sandown Airport for 20 years, the first woman to hold such a position. She flew in a Spitfire on her 100th birthday and attended the film Spitfire just two weeks before she died on July 24.
Tony Farrell was 100 years old when he died. During a flying career that spanned almost 50 years, he accumulated over 16,000 flying hours. After a long spell as an instructor, he completed 80 operations flying the Mosquito with Bomber Command’s Pathfinder Force. Using the radar bombing aid ‘Oboe’ he marked targets for the following main bomber force. His final target was Hitler’s Eagle Nest at Berchtesgaden. His wartime service was recognised by the award of the DFC and the AFC. After the war he returned to civilian life and was a flying instructor, first with Marshall’s of Cambridge, then with Air Service Training and the College of Air Training at Hamble.
Don Laubman was one of Canada’s most successful fighter pilots. After a period instructing trainee pilots he joined No. 412 (RCAF) Squadron based initially in England. The squadron moved to Normandy in June 1944 to support the Allied armies. In a three day period in September he was credited with shooting down eight German fighters; a feat that was never repeated. By the end of the war he had destroyed at least fourteen and shared in the destruction of a further two enemy aircraft. He was twice awarded the DFC. During the years that followed he flew Sabre and F.104 fighters, first as a squadron commander and then in command of the RCAF’s No. 3 Wing based in Germany. He later commanded all Canadian forces stationed in Europe. He died on June 20 aged 96.
Geoffrey Wellum was still eighteen years old when he was flying a Spitfire in the Battle of Britain with No. 92 Squadron. By early September the squadron was at Biggin Hill and Wellum shot down a Heinkel 111 bomber. The pressures on one who had been a schoolboy a year earlier were intense and Wellum captures the mood and his own experiences in his evocative memoir First Light, a book described by Max Hastings as ‘one of the best memoirs for years about the experience of flying in war”. After the Battle, Wellum was awarded the DFC and later flew Spitfires from Malta before he was evacuated home on medical grounds. He was an instructor and remained in the RAF until 1961.
Tom Neil who has died aged 97 was one of the last two surviving Battle of Britain ‘aces’. Just 20 years old, he shot down eleven enemy aircraft serving on 249 Squadron and was twice awarded the DFC. He went on to fight over Malta and later served with the USAAF and saw action in north-west Europe. Post war he became a test pilot and later commanded a Meteor fighter reconnaissance squadron in the Middle East, being awarded the AFC. He wrote extensively and was a strong supporter of the Battle of Britain Memorial Trust and other associations.
GRAHAM PITCHFORK 