Billy Drake
Billy Drake | |
|---|---|
 Wing Commander Billy Drake in 1943. | |
| Born | 20 December 1917 |
| Died | 28 August 2011 (aged 93) Teignmouth, Devon, England |
| Military career | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
Branch | Royal Air Force |
Service years | 1936–1963 |
Rank | Group Captain |
| Commands | RAF Chivenor (1962–63) No. 20 Wing RAF (1943–44) Krendi Wing (1943) No. 112 Squadron RAF (1942–43) No. 128 Squadron RAF (1941–42) No. 421 (Reconnaissance) Flight RAF (1940–41) |
Conflicts | Second World War |
| Awards | Distinguished Service Order Distinguished Flying Cross & Bar Distinguished Flying Cross (United States) |
Group Captain Billy Drake, DSO, DFC & Bar (20 December 1917 – 28 August 2011) was a British fighter pilot and air ace. He was credited officially with 18 enemy aircraft destroyed, two shared, two unconfirmed, four probables, two shared probables and five damaged and one shared damaged with the Royal Air Force during the Second World War.[1] Further revisions to these statistics increased this total to 20 destroyed and seven damaged with a further 13 destroyed and four damaged on the ground.[2][Note 1]
Drake flew Hawker Hurricanes, Supermarine Spitfires and Curtiss P-40s (Tomahawks/Kittyhawks), with squadrons based in France, England, West Africa, North Africa and Malta. He was the top-scoring RAF P-40 pilot and the second-highest-scoring British Commonwealth P-40 pilot, behind Clive Caldwell.[4]
Early life and education
[edit]Drake was born in London, to Gerda Browne and Dr Dennis John Drake on 20 December 1917. Gerda was one of fifteen children of Irish Catholic heritage born in Australia. It is claimed that his father was a descendant of Francis Drake, the 16th Century explorer and naval commander who led an English fleet against the Spanish Armada in 1588. Gerda's family were successful gold miners in Queensland; they purchased a schooner and became merchants.[5][6]
Billy was christened as such soon after birth; he was not given the name William. Drake's father traded and travelled around the southern Pacific and his infant son accompanied him to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and ultimately Tangiers in Morocco where Drake senior set up a clinic. Drake began school at the Lycée Regnault until the family moved to England.[5]
Drake was sent to Prior Park, a Catholic-run preparatory school, which was appropriated by the Congregation of Christian Brothers in 1921. Drake's formative years were unremarkable and he developed an interest in history and architecture. Drake's father taught him to use a shotgun at the age of twelve, beginning his interest in marksmanship and shooting. The family then moved to Switzerland and Drake completed his elementary education at the Kollegium Maria Hilf boarding school, run by German–Swiss Catholics. Drake rapidly learned the German language during this period. Drake was one of the few English pupils at the school which was dominated by Italians and Germans. Two years later Drake moved to the French–Swiss Institut Florimont school in Geneva, where he learnt French.[5]
When Drake returned to England the threat of future war was present, a consequence of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini's aggressive foreign policies, and he began to contemplate a military career. Drake had visited Alan Cobham's Flying Circus as a small boy in the twenties and spent half a crown on a twenty-minute flight. After this experience, Drake spent his time reading aviation books and reading about First World War aviators. He decided to pursue a career as a military aviator, encouraged by a subscription to The Aeroplane. His parents were adamantly opposed to his career path.[7]
RAF career
[edit]In the summer, 1936, Drake stumbled across an advertisement in Aeroplane for applicants to join the Royal Air Force (RAF) on a Short Service Commission (SSC). The four-year term offered came with a £300 gratuity. Drake overcame his parents' opposition through his own misreading of the advertisement, which he read to be an annuity not a gratuity. The size of the non–existent annuity persuaded his family to relent. When the error was discovered they allowed him to attend the interview at the Air Ministry, certain he would be turned down. Drake passed the interview but failed the eyesight examination. He returned after three months and passed the second test.[7]
Drake joined the RAF on a SSC in July 1936, having only just reached the minimal service age requirement of 17. He was sent to Hamble in Hampshire to attend the Air Service Training (AST) unit and made his first flight, with instruction, on 14 July 1936. Six weeks of intensive training followed, which included learning aerobatic manoeuvres and to restart the engine when airborne. Navigation training in cross–country flights occurred in mid-August over Yatesbury and Filton. On 3 September 1936, Drake passed out as an average–rated pilot. He had accumulated 60 hours flying, half solo, plus five and a half hours on instrument–based piloting. Drake was granted £50 to purchase his uniform and other items from the Army and Navy Store on Victoria Street in the City of Westminster.[8]
Drake was sent to RAF Uxbridge as a Pilot Officer on probation, and there he learned parade and drill. After completion of this training Drake was sent to 6 Flying Training School at Netheravon in the Salisbury Plain area of Wiltshire. He took his first flight with instruction in a Hawker Hart on 22 September and then flew solo on 7 October. On 1 January 1937, Drake failed the Chief Instructor's Flying Test after attempting a deliberate near–stall manoeuvre to prove he could fly the aircraft slower than his instructor and remain airborne. The examiner took control before the Hart entered an irrevocable stall and failed him immediately on landing. On 9 January his instructor passed him and he was sent on leave with 138 hours in his logbook.[8]
On his return, Drake met Francis Ronald Swain who held the world altitude record and who later became his commanding officer. Drake flew the Hawker Audax and Hawker Fury from 2 February 1937. On 14 May he survived a crash when the Fury he was flying went into a spin after ground crews had overloaded it. On 19 May Drake completed gunnery training at Armament Practice Camp and was ready for a squadron posting.[8]
He joined No. 1 Squadron that same day at RAF Tangmere. His Squadron Leader was Swain. The unit was equipped with the Fury.[8] At 1 Squadron Drake became one of the unit's acrobatic pilots and gained experience in perfecting deflection shooting. On 29 August 1938 Drake flew a Gloster Gladiator for the first time. On 19 October he flew his first monoplane, a Hawker Hurricane. Drake ferried various aircraft to flying schools and when picking up a Hurricane from Brooklands, he received a personal brief by test pilot Dickie Reynell, who was killed in action in 1940. On 11 January 1939 Drake was permitted to fire the guns for the first time, in contravention of pre-war stringency. He also undertook some night flying. In March he received an average rating as a fighter pilot.[9]
World War II
[edit]On 3 September 1939 Britain and France declared war on Nazi Germany after the invasion of Poland. 1 Squadron moved to Vassincourt on 9 October 1939 during the Phoney War. The squadron had orders to protect airfields of the RAF Advanced Air Striking Force.[10]
On 19 April 1940 Drake scored his first victory. The squadron was scrambled to engage high-flying aircraft that they could not reach. During the flight Drake spotted nine Messerschmitt Bf 109s. During the subsequent dogfight he claimed one destroyed and one probable over Metz. The second Bf 109 was pursued into Germany at low–level and Drake reported he crashed into a hill near Gau-Bickelheim. The squadron claimed three; German sources state two were lost. The German fighters belonged to 7. Staffel Jagdgeschwader 53. A Leutnant Sievers was killed and the anonymous second pilot apparently ran out of fuel escaping from Drake, which the German record asserts as the cause of the crash.[11] Fighter Command records list only one claim for Drake made over Thionville.[12]
Battle of France and Netherlands
[edit]On 10 May 1940 the Wehrmacht (Nazi German armed forces) began Operation Yellow (Fall Gelb). The German forces occupied Luxembourg, invaded the Netherlands, and Belgium, part of the wider Battle of France. 1 Squadron operated from a small village, Berry-au-Bac, near Rennes. On the morning of the attack Drake was driving to the airfield when German aircraft appeared over the region.[13]
Four pilots of A Flight intercepted a reconnaissance aircraft of 7./Kampfgeschwader 3 and destroyed it but one Hurricane force-landed due to return-fire. Drake scrambled with B Flight and, with Flying Officer Boy Mould, claimed a Heinkel He 111 each. The victories were confirmed. A bomber flown by Oberleutnant Willy Partl crashed with all the airmen killed while another crashed with the crew taken as prisoner of war. The German aircraft were from 5./Kampfgeschwader 53. A third bomber was damaged with a crew member wounded. A Hurricane pilot survived a bale out after being hit by return fire.[14] Drake's records indicate he was credited with only a shared victory.[13] Fighter Command records list the victory clearly as a solo claim, filed at circa 05:00 near Verdun.[15] Other sources state this combat occurred in the afternoon.[14]
The airfield came under attack as A and B Flight returned. A hangar was destroyed and three French labourers and their horses were killed.[16] On 11 May, 1 Squadron fought inclusive engagements with Kampfgeschwader 2 and other German formations.[17] On 12 May, 1 Squadron flew as fighter escort for Fairey Battle squadrons in the Battle of Maastricht. The French and British made a vain attempt to destroy the bridges. Drake wrote; "all we saw were 10/10ths [reference to cloud coverage severity] and Bf 109s".[13] Drake stated there was little he could do, "so we pissed off".[13]
The following day Drake was on a combat air patrol but was forced to leave his formation because of oxygen failure.[18] On the return flight he spotted three Dornier Do 17s he thought were unescorted and claimed one shot down. Lining up a second Drake was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 110 and was forced to bale out.[19] Drake was credited with one bomber destroyed. The claim against the second Dornier was unconfirmed.[20][21] The Bf 110 belonged to either I./Zerstörergeschwader 52 or V (Zerstörer)/Lehrgeschwader 1.[22] Drake was wounded by splinters in the leg and back. He was operated on to repair the damage and evacuated to Paris, then Le Mans and finally was flown back to England in a Fairey Battle.[23]
Battle of Britain and Channel Front
[edit]Drake returned to duty on 20 June 1940 as a flying instructor to No. 6 Operational Training Unit (OTU), at RAF Sutton Bridge during the Battle of Britain.[2] Sutton Bridge is on the Lincolnshire coast, in Eastern England. During this time Drake met, and in some cases trained, future aces. Among the foreign contingent were Antoni Głowacki, František Fajtl, Stanisław Skalski, and Witold Urbanowicz. Of these pilots, Drake remarked that there was little they could learn from him.[24]
Drake made repeated requests to be returned to operational duty. Eventually, he was sent to No. 213 Squadron RAF on 2 October 1940 at RAF Tangmere on the English Channel coast with the rank of Flight Lieutenant and commander of A Flight. The transfer earned Drake the distinction of being one of the so-called "Few" of Fighter Command in the Battle of Britain, which ended on 31 October 1940. Drake claimed a probable Bf 109 on 10 October, the only claim with the squadron.[2] According to the logbook Drake flew his first mission on 3 October and his last on the 23rd. He engaged hostile aircraft on six occasions and flew only Hurricanes. On one occasion his flight was attacked by Supermarine Spitfires.[24]
Drake volunteered for No. 421 (Reconnaissance) Flight RAF with Spitfires, flying specialised low-level reconnaissance patrols over the English Channel and the French Channel coast.[2] On 13 November on patrol with Jim Crow and Pilot Officer James Eric "Jas" Storrar they were surprised by Bf 109s. One of the Spitfires was severely damaged and force-landed in a field.[25]
On 20 November 1940, Drake claimed a Do 17 damaged at 09:00 near Calais, France.[26] On 6 December Drake claimed a shared probable Do 17 over the French coast again and on 27 December his logbook shows a second probable claim. The book was annotated for army observers confirmed the crash. Sergeant Arthur Charles Leigh of