Stand out Spitfire pilots

Carolyn Grace just for all the hard work she has put in to get to where she has to day. I met her 2 years ago and she is a very nice person . And she clearly loves her spitfire

Neil Williams – the Hanna’s never even came CLOSE!

A tough question, those who stand out? The historians have listings based on how many enemy shot down, already there are mentions of those who have met Spitfire pilots. I like the references to recent pilots who displayed the Spitfire.Dont forget the many ATA ferry pilots.

After looking at the series recently shown about becoming a fighter pilot filmed at Duxford I am full of admiration for all those who soloed the Sitfire and went on to fly it. Then to go into combat. In particular I think the many wing men stand out for sticking with the leader and having the self discipline to do the job as briefed.

For every known ace on Spitfires there were also hundreds of others who had the guts to keep going into combat knowing that they lacked experience and still had courage to do what had to be done.

PO Jerry Smith RCAF ….. first person to deck-land a Spitfire (though not particularly through choice!)

also nobody has noted a “legless pilot” Douglas Bader , but there are many fine pilots.

Take another look at post 8. Not Bader but ‘legless’ none the less.

Nigel Lamb

Ah, of course. Thanks. Silly me.

There were many many outstanding Spitfire pilots during the war. I think it would be very difficult to make a top ten list.
Ofcourse we have top ten ACE lists etc but there were many non ACE pilots that flew as well and in many cases better than the Aces.

Post war, one of the outstanding Spitfire pilots has to be Jerry Billings.
He pretty much flew Spits starting from wartime up until sometime around year 2000. Much of his Spit flying was with Cliff Robertsons MK 9 Spit.
However he flew many other Spits for owners as well.
It has been discussed before but most likely he is the highest time Spit of all.
Does that make him a stand out Spit Pilot? Most likely.
I for one have seen Spitfire routines by many of todays Spit pilots in Canada, England, US etc and have to say most didn’t do the aerobatics routine that Jerry did. His high amount of hours really showed in his flying.
Either way, I enjoy seeing a Spit in the no matter who is flying it.

Wartime Spitfire pilots that have impressed me when I’ve personally met or talked with include Bill “Hawkeye” Wells, Bill Kain and Alan Peart. Wells was a NZ ace, Alan wrote a fantastic book about his wartime.

One I never met but admire greatly is of course one of the greatest of the greats, Al Deere.

Modern day Spitfire pilots who have impressed me include Stephen Grey (first pilot I saw display a Spitfire); Ray Hanna of course (I never had the pleasure of seeing Mark in a Spitfire); Sir Tim Wallis, the late Tom Middleton, Keith Skilling, John lamont and Nigel thingy, the Red Bull and OFMC pilot who’s name escapes me suddenly. I’ve seen them all do very impressive displays, but then is it possible to do an unimpressive display in a Spitfire??

Nigel Lamb

Wartime Spitfire pilots that have impressed me when I’ve personally met or talked with include Bill “Hawkeye” Wells, Bill Kain and Alan Peart. Wells was a NZ ace, Alan wrote a fantastic book about his wartime.

One I never met but admire greatly is of course one of the greatest of the greats, Al Deere.

Modern day Spitfire pilots who have impressed me include Stephen Grey (first pilot I saw display a Spitfire); Ray Hanna of course (I never had the pleasure of seeing Mark in a Spitfire); Sir Tim Wallis, the late Tom Middleton, Keith Skilling, John lamont and Nigel thingy, the Red Bull and OFMC pilot who’s name escapes me suddenly. I’ve seen them all do very impressive displays, but then is it possible to do an unimpressive display in a Spitfire??

Mark Hazard well done, I forgot about the brilliant Neil Williams:o

No problem, he was the first modern day Spitfire pilot I began to recognise when visiting air shows.

In the early 70s, when I started to take a deeper interest in aeroplanes (I had been taken to air shows since a babe in arms) and taking a camera, my first aircraft photos are of MH434 which I believe he flew into Halfpenny Green air show in 1972.

Would you believe that I actually managed to walk up to her, nipping under the single rope barrier 😉 (along with a crowd of other folk) and take close up photos of her, and even touch her – not a chance these days, unless you have a flourescent jacket and like getting in the way of paying punters trying to get a shot 😡 – but that’s for another thread.

Can’t speak for World War Two, before my time old boy!

But post-war i would certainly mention Neil Williams, Ray (and Mark) Hanna, Tony Bianchi and Andy Sephton.

Out… Roxeth.

Mark Hazard well done, I forgot about the brilliant Neil Williams:o

Sdr Ldr Glaser

Sdr Ldr Glaser DFC was a personal friend sadly departed from this world. He had over 3000Hrs operationally on Spitfires and flew in the Battle of Britain right through to 1945 in Australia. This has to be close to a record for operational hours. I have loaded two pictures one of him in1940 and another in 1945.

Text under taken from dailly telagraph

SQUADRON LEADER DAVE GLASER, who has died aged 80, was an RAF pilot mistakenly shot down off Plymouth, Devon, by a British warship during the Battle of Britain.

Struggling to free himself from his parachute, which had enveloped his head, Glaser had all but given up hope when the chute floated away and he was rescued. Aged 19, Glaser had joined No 65 Squadron at Hornchurch on July 13 1940, just three days after the date regarded as the beginning of the Battle of Britain, which raged overhead until October 31, when the RAF’s supremacy ended the threat of German invasion.

Ernest Derek Glaser, always known as Dave, was born on April 20 1921. In the First World War his father had been a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps. After attending Lancing House and Bloxham schools young Dave was accepted, in April 1939, for flying training in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

Glaser had been inspired to become a pilot some years earlier after meeting Jeffrey Quill who, in 1936, as a Supermarine test pilot, had flown R J Mitchell’s Spitfire prototype and earliest production aircraft. Quill had been a frequent visitor to The Bugle, Glaser’s father’s pub on the Hamble in Hampshire.

In 1940, Quill was temporarily attached to No 65 Squadron for – as he put it – “a spot of practical” in order to recommend modifications in the light of combat experience. Glaser was delighted, on his arrival, to find himself flying No 2 to his boyhood hero.

Glaser soon had examples of combat himself. On August 12 he was preparing to take off from Manston when a formation of low-flying Dornier 17s attacked the airfield at low level, damaging hangars and cratering the flight-path. Glaser recalled: “Everybody just opened up their throttles and went hell for leather.”

Awaiting the scramble bell during the Battle of Britain Glaser had occupied himself by fashioning a lucky talisman representing The Laughing Cavalier. Glaser reckoned that, together with a cavalier which he had had painted on his Spitfire (in an example of what was known as nose art), it helped to see him through the war.

In this period he was promoted flight lieutenant and was serving as a No 234 Squadron flight commander when he was shot down into the Channel off Plymouth in Devon. Vowing to be more circumspect in the vicinity of the Royal Navy, Glaser resumed operations with Group Captain (subsequently Air Chief Marshal Sir Harry) Broadhurst’s Spitfire wing based at Hornchurch, Essex, but frequently operated from Manston, the Kent coastal airfield, and other south-east England No 11 Group airfields.

Following the Battle of Britain, in 1941 Glaser became an instructor at No 53 Operational Training Unit until August, when he joined No 234, a Spitfire squadron carrying out offensive sweeps over northern France. In 1943, Glaser was posted to Australia to form and command No 549, a Spitfire squadron stationed at Darwin in the Northern Territory.

In the New Year of 1945 he received command of No 548, a Spitfire squadron similarly charged with defending Darwin against Japanese air attack. After two years he returned home, was granted a permanent commission and posted to Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire. There he was flight commander of No 64, a half-strength Hornet fighter squadron.

Glaser was delighted in 1949 when he was selected to qualify as a test pilot, again following his hero Jeffrey Quill. Glaser attended No 8 Course at the Empire Test Pilots’ School, then situated at Farnborough, Hants (and now based at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire).

In 1950, Glaser was employed as an RAF experimental test pilot at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, until 1953, when he joined Vickers Armstrong at Hurn, Bournemouth, Hants. Becoming chief production test pilot, Glaser was involved with the Varsity. This was a post-war replacement for the trainer version of the two-engine Wellington bomber. He also tested the world’s first turbine-powered four-engine airliner, Sir George Edwards’s Viscount – a plane then described as “a jump into the future”.

But his chief contribution was his exhaustive production testing of the Valiant, the first of the RAF’s four-jet bombers, which preceded the Vulcan and Victor in Britain’s V-bomber nuclear force. Glaser was also involved with the BAC 1-11s, one of Britain’s best selling airliners. When, in 1963, he first flew the jet, he handled it like a Spitfire and was apt to fly over Hurn airfield so low that onlookers were put in mind of a Flymo.

In 1979 Glaser was appointed flight operations manager and test pilot instructor of Rombac, an arrangement under which BAC 1-11s were built under licence in Romania, where his robust airmanship was much admired his pupils. Glaser retired in 1983 from British Aerospace – as Vickers, BAC and other merged aircraft manufacturers had become – and worked as an aviation consultant, while deriving much pleasure from sailing.

He was also invited to join a roadshow of British, American and German Second World War pilots, which toured American theatres under the billing A Gathering of Eagles. Glaser received the DFC in 1942 and Air Efficiency award in 1946. He was awarded Queen’s Commendations for Valuable Service in the Air in 1953 for military, and in 1968 for civil, test flying.

Glaser married, first, in 1949, Coral Gillie, an Australian. They had a son and a daughter. He married, second, in 1965, Diana Stewart-Smith, and, third, in 1985, Rodica Ghita, a Romanian.

Personally would have to be Canada’s finest squadron leader LVC Lloyd Chadburn DSO&bar.DFC, also nobody has noted a “legless pilot” Douglas Bader , but there are many fine pilots.

Alex Henshaw, Jeffrey Quill

Ken

Alex Henshaw and Jeffrey Quill (thanks to personal contact over many years).

Of late I’ve become a great admirer of the late Bill Klersy’s exploits, I’d love to see PL344 repainted with his squadron codes one day (it carries his kill markings again thanks to Roobarb) 🙂

Post war: Ray Hanna & Neil Williams.

Operational pilot Johnny Johnson

Test pilot Alex Henshaw

Modern day pilot Paul ‘Major’ Day.

Charley Fox DFC and Bar RCAF nickname “Train Buster” 153 enemy vehicles destroyed or damaged including Rommels staff car.

http://charleyfox.ca/index.html

Hap Kennedy is still kicking, talked with him this past summer.

Cheers dave C

Just wondering what pilots you chaps consider as stand out Spitfire pilots of ww2 and also post-war?

There’s thousands of them, but obviously some of them made their marks more than others. Any chance of piling up a list? All down to each persons opinion obviously!

Not an ace but an outstanding person, Sgt Rudolf Ptacek. No 222 sqd

The link is part one of his story, see the rest of the forum for the other 10parts of the story.

http://www.forumforfree.com/viewtopic.php?t=551&mforum=northwestway