American Volunteers

I am curious who was the wingman for Ed Orbison on the day of his death (Feb 9, 1941). I have several books which describe the accident, but none of them agree about the circumstances of the accident:

Childers book “War Eagles” (page 13-14) says:

“Not long after that day, two of the Eagles, Bud Orbison and another man [my guess is Satterlee? MS] , were off somewhere flying when the weather closed in. The sky turned into a gray much, and the clouds came down almost to the ground.

“No one can fly in such filthy weather,” the other Eagles said, as they sat in dispersal waiting. “No one can fly in weather like this. Even the birds are walking.”

Quick to detect their growing tension as the boy worried about Orbison and the man with him, their commanding officer ordered Robinson, the squadron intelligence officer, to begin a lecture on aircraft recognition, the art of recognition, the art of recognizing a plane when it is still far off and determining whether it is a friend or foe.

Robinson began talking, but he had hardly begun when they all heard two airplanes flying somewhere above them, circling the field low, searching for it, then going away. Only to come back again, coming in low, feeling for the landing field, then going away and the sound of the motors dimming.

Then from high above they heard the grinding, whirring, rasp of a plane spinning down. One of the planes was out of control and was spinning until in the midst of the rasping sound there was a sudden silence.

“He spun in,” said Mike Kolendorski, half raising in his chair.

“There is a lecture on,” the English commander said.

And Robinson went on talking about aircraft recognition.

Then the door was flung open and the other Eagle who had been flying stalked into the room. He was dripping with rain.

“I’ve seen death,” he said. “He spun in, Bud’s dead.”

“There’s a lecture on,” the commanding officer said.

And Robinson went on talking.

“But he spun in. He’s smashed to nothing. He’s dead. I’ve seen death, I tell you.”

“You’re back just in time to hear the rest of the lecture. Sit down.” He waited until the boy had sat down, sort of cowering there in the corner. Then the commanding officer looked back at Robinson. “Yes,” he said.”

Byron Kennerly’s book, “The Eagle’s Roar!” has a different account (page 210-211), but again the wingman is not named, just noted as D. Kennerly had quite a questionable history, that I really don’t know what to believe about him.

Kennerly writes:

“It was a foggy day in early February that Bud Orbison and D. went up with one of the new members of the squadron. Then they came back, D. and Bud circled the airdrome while the new boy came in for a precarious landing in the mist. Just as the fledgling came in, Bud’s Hurricane spun out of the fog and crashed at the edge of the airdrome. When we reached the aircraft, we found Bud dead. This was a tough blow to me as Bud and I were particularly good friends. Apparently his plane had lost too much flying speed as he anxiously tried to observe the landing of the new pilot.”

Vern Haugland, in “The Eagle Squadrons” (page 35) has a different account of Orbison’s death:

“During patrol on February 9th, Bud Orbison apparently became disoriented in thick clouds and spun in from about four thousand feet.”

Philip Cane, in “American Pilots in the RAF” claims that Orbison spun into the sea (page 153):

“This fact was brought home to the members of 71 Squadron just a month after the Leckrone accident when Ed Orbison, the pilot who had collided with Leckrone, apparently got vertigo and spun into the water from about 4,000 feet.”

This is the first account that says that Orbison’s aircraft ended up in the water– can anyone confirm or deny this?

Any help greatly appreciated!

Spriso

HI Dave. I correspond with an ex eagle pilot, Red Cambell and put your query to him by forwarding the forum page to him, here is his reply to me. Hi John. I tried to send my to forums my information but could not, I do have info on Orbison and Laughlin. Loran L Laughlin was flying in a formation when his aircraft started trailing white smoke which indicated his engine may have overheated and blown the pressure cap on his glycol tank and smothered him, this was a problem with early Hurricanes as they used 100% Glycol , later this was reduced to 70% which was not as flammable nor as toxic, he was not on oxygen as he was only at approx 2500ft, had he been the fumes may not have been fatal, I remember him talking about being in the U S marines prior to the war, he just nosed over and went straight in. Bud Orbison, It is my understanding that he spun in due to a high speed stall at low level coming out of a dive at to low a level, he claimed to have flown in Spain during the revolution, I do not know for sure but he was an air show pilot in the 30s as I can remember reading about him at the time.
Hope this is of some help Dave.

This from www.rafweb.org

: [email]halfpint@cvtv.net[/email]
Date: 1 Sep 2005
Time: 23:04
Comments
enjoyed this site and found the history of Squadron 71 of particular interest. I have a cousin buried at the cemetery located Kirton-in-Lindsey,
Lincolnshire, England. Edwin Ezell “Bud” Orbison was a Pilot Officer with American Eagle Squadron 71. Born 8 Dec 1917 in Altus, Jackson
County, Oklahoma USA, Ezell died when he crashed his plane on 9 February 1940 at Kirton-in-Lindsey.

LaDoris Doughty Weber
Family Genealogist

Moggy

P3097

Dave,

If it is of any help to you, back in 1972 I recovered parts of Hurricane P3097 from a 20 foot hole dug into clay near Brattleby Lincs. Parts recovered included Vacuum pump, Oil separator tank, gunsight reflector glass, various instrument parts, items of engine/frame support and bulkhead, upper part of cockpit frame with Perspex, fragment of flying helmet including chinstrap and 1 earpiece.
It was clear from the crash site that the Hurricane had dived vertically in to the ground from altitude. There was no evidence of fire damage. There was no evidence of damage caused by gunfire. Only unused .303 rounds (date stamped 1938) were recovered during the dig.

An account of the crash is given in a book called, ‘The Eagle Squadrons’. In it the author recalls that ‘The Squadron was flying in formation when for no apparent reason his wingman (Laughlin) dove out of formation and into the ground’.

I also obtained information from locals who had visited the site at the time of the crash and they could only recall seeing the tail unit sticking out of the ground.

Loran Lee Laughlin came from Morgan Hill, Texas and was aged 29.

He is buried in Kirton In Lindsey (Military) cemetery.

Hope the above information is helpful.

Regards

Mike

East Lindsey

Geoff,

Thanks for the information you provided and the suggested lines of enquiry. Hopefully, this might be one jigsaw I can put together!

Regards,

Dave,
North Lincolnshire.

Dave,

From Air-Britain ‘RAF Aircraft V1000 to W9999’ ‘P1000 to R9999’ and ‘X1000 to Z9999’

V6983 – ‘abandoned near Redbourne 9/2/41’

P3097 – ‘dived into ground 2m NW of Scampton 21/6/41, cause not known.’

Z3831 – ‘Spun into ground during dummy attacks 5 miles S of Louth, Lincs 19/4/42.’

As these all seem to be flying accidents, I would email the RAF Museum and ask them to send you a copy of the ‘Accident Record Card’ for these, remembering to quote the type, date & serial number etc. by following this link. http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/hendon/research/enquiries.cfm

You also should check the relevant squadron’s Operations Record Books at The National Archives(TNA) (Formerly the Public Record Office/PRO). See here for their website http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/default.htm

Geoff.