Eagle Squadron: the life and battles of an American fighter squadron
Vic Atkinson
Contributor
March 3, 2008
Hawker Hurricane airplanes sit in a field, ready to fight.
On Sept. 3, 1939, the Second World War began when Great Britain declared war on Nazi Germany. The decision to go to war was an attempt to halt the resurgence of German aggression. Germany had ruthlessly conquered several countries in Eastern Europe, demonstrating their threat to world order.
European politicians saw the reality of the situation and realized that Germany’s warlike intentions would soon be unstoppable, if allowed to continue unabated. Horrors that Germany had inflicted upon them only 25 years before, were still fresh in their memories and they reluctantly prepared for the worst.
Serious as the German threat was, the United States of America wanted nothing to do with European affairs, and at that time, turned a blind eye to the aggression.
When young men of many nationalities began volunteering to enter the conflict in defence of Britain, America frowned on any of its citizens volunteering their services. So the government announced that the U.S. Neutrality Act would be strictly enforced.
But a small, determined group of Americans sought ways in which to cross the Atlantic and fight on England’s side.
One of the first to head to Britian was William Meade Lindsley Fiske. Born into a wealthy banking family, Billy Fiske was a successful stockbroker, film producer, and the youngest winner of an Olympic winter sports medal.
To enter the war against his government’s orders, Fiske assumed a Canadian identity. With the help his influential friends, he was eventually accepted into the Royal Air Force where he was given a commission and trained as a fighter pilot. Fiske was attached to 601 Squadron operating from Tangmere airfield in West Sussex.
When Tangmere came under attack by a large force of JU87 dive-bombers, Billy Fiske and his fellow pilots took to the air in their Hurricane fighters to defend the base.
In the space of several minutes, Tangmere suffered appalling damage and the field was riddled with bomb craters. Into this carnage limped Billy Fiske’s Hurricane trailing a long plume of smoke. Hit by return fire from the rear gunner of the JU87 he was attacking, Fiske’s Hurricane was badly damaged. As he approached the field, the Hurricane’s engine seized and Fiske had to glide the aircraft in a wheels-up landing. Skidding across the pock-marked airfield, the Hurricane burst into flame trapping Fiske in the cockpit. Severely burnt, Fiske was pulled from the cockpit by several ground crew who braved falling bombs to rescue him.
Suffering from burns and severe shock, Fiske was rushed to hospital where he died the next day. Fiske was the first American to give his life in the Battle of Britain.
Eight other young adventurous Americans also defied their authorities and eventually found their way to England. Once on English soil, they volunteered their services to the Royal Air Force and were inducted and trained as fighter pilots.
Soon, romantic stories began to surround these American volunteers and three of the group, all posted to 609 Squadron, would be nicknamed “the three musketeers”; they were Red Tobin, Andy Mamedoff and Shorty Keough. It didn’t take long for the romantic epitaph to wear off as all three found themselves thrust into the thick of the battle. Tobin, the realist, pointed to the pilot wings on his tunic and said, “I reckon these are a one-way ticket”, and he was right; all three were killed in action.
The survivors of the original group continued to fight valiantly. Pilot Officer C.R. Davis shot down six Messerschmitts and was subsequently shot down himself, plunging to his death in the back garden of a country cottage.
Pilot Officer A.S. Donahue found himself in a scrap with a Messerschmitt and was lucky to escape with a badly damaged Spitfire and his life. Several days later his luck ran out when he was forced to bail out. Although some of the original group survived the Battle of Britain, most were eventually killed in the later stages of the air war.
From the moment that the American volunteers set foot on English soil, they were grudgingly greeted by the stuffy traditional attitude of RAF High Command. Air Vice Marshall Trafford Leigh Mallory, expressed his distaste at the idea of Americans serving in the RAF. Chief of Fighter Command, Sholto Douglas, was also cynical and quick to express his reservations. But once set in motion, nothing could stop the flow of American volunteers wishing to fight for England.
Eventually, special Eagle Squadrons 71, 121 and 132 were formed where American volunteer pilots could fight alongside the RAF. The romantic notions and stories that surrounded the Eagle Squadrons soon reached the attention of Hollywood moguls. Someone came up with the bright idea to make a movie about them.
Filming began on English frontline airfields where Eagle Squadron pilots were fighting. Unfortunately, the war had its own script, and continuity was constantly interrupted as pilot after pilot was lost to enemy action. Finally, Hollywood took the idea back to America and made the film with actors and simulated battle scenes. The romanticized fabrication would have been enough to make poor Billy Fiske turn in his grave.
When America finally entered the war, England had stood alone for two years withstanding the onslaught that Nazi Germany. The American Eagle Squadron volunteers, who had fought alongside the RAF, were amalgamated into the US Air Force that had taken up residence at British bases.
US pilots would fly from English bases and distinguish them in the air war over Europe. But fate still had one last card to play. It was decided that a final mission would be flown with Eagle Squadron pilots escorting a large bomber force to a raid on the Brest Peninsular. The mission meant flying across the widest part of the English Channel.
On the day of the mission, there were many delays as the weather deteriorated. Pilots took a strangely casual attitude to the mission. Many didn’t attend the briefing, and those that did were given an erroneous meteorological report. It predicted a 35-knot headwind at the mission height of 28,000 feet. When the Squadron finally took off, many pilots had forgotten their maps and had failed to note the radio frequencies of the bombers. Take-offs were erratic and there were near collisions. Eventually, the 35 Spitfires were airborne and headed to meet the bombers.
The predicted 35-knot headwind turned into a disastrous 105-knot tail wind. Both bomber formations and the fighters were blown hundreds of miles off course. Radio contact between bombers and fighters was a shambles. The bomber group decided to jettison their bomb loads and abandon the mission. By the time the Spitfires decided to turn back, they were critically low on fuel.
They began to descend through thick cloud and as an indistinct coastline appeared, they were fooled into thinking it was the English coast and they prepared to land. Unfortunately, they were over the highly defended Brest Harbour in France.
A massive anti-aircraft barrage ripped into the descending Spitfires and in a matter of moments 10 were hit, four pilots were killed, six more parachuted or crash landed and two Spitfires simply disappeared.
And so ended Eagle Squadron’s final mission.
