For Battle of Britain Day: P/O Art Donahue-Message from Minnesota

My contribution to the day is to remember Art Donahue. Art was from a small town in Minnesota called St. Charles, about two hours south of where I live.

I had no idea that my home state of Minnesota could claim a Battle of Britain connection until I dove headfirst into my passion for the Spit XII. During a correspondance with Bill Mart a former member of 91 Squadron, living in New Zealand, he happened to mention that he’d flown Art Donahue’s wing when they were both with 91 in 1942. He then mentioned that Donahue was from Minnesota, much to my surprise.

Some research turned up that Donahue had written about his experiences with the RAF in two books. The first dealt with his time with 64 Squadron in the Battle of Britain. “Tally Ho-Yankee in a Spitfire” was first published in 1941. Donahue then wrote about his time flying Hurricanes in the defense of Singapore in a book called “Last Flight From Singapore” that was published in 1943. Sadly, Art Donahue was killed on September 11, 1942 after engaging a Ju88 over the English Channel while flying a Spitfire VB with 91 Squadron. He had to ditch, the weather closed in and he was never found.

I hunted high and low for his books, finally making a trip down to his home town, where I was able to find copies of both in the local library. I now have copies of both. Sadly, Art is essentially unknown in his home state outside of a few of us.

Something Art wrote in his first book has always stuck with me. He is describing his motives for joining the fight.

“Knowing that one of England’s greatest problems was inferiority in numbers in the air, I felt it a duty as a follower of the civilized way of life to throw my lot in if they would take me. To fight side by side with these people against the enemies of civilization would be the greatest of all privilages……I knew I should be scared to death many times and regret my decision often, for as I said before I am not overendowed with courage; but I also knew that I’d never forgive myself if I rejected this opportunity”

Art survived the B of B although he was shot down and wounded. He was wounded again over Singapore and of course lost his life.

His courage and sacrifice for something he could easily avoided, should not be forgotten.

Dan

Almost forgot. Art Donahue had “Message from Minnesota” painted on at least one of his Spits.