WWII ACES that you have personally met?

I had the privilage to meet Billy Drake about 4yrs ago when he visited airframe assemblies. What a really nice guy & so modest as well. RIP.

Steve

I HAVE BEEN PRIVILIGED OVER THE YEARS TO HAVE MET SEVERAL NOTABLE AVIATORS JAMES GOODSON, TWO GERMAN F.W.190 PILOTS, THE TWO PILOTS OF THE MEMPHIS BELLE, AND RUDI OPITZ THE M.E.163 TEST PILOT, BUT THE MOST UNASSUMING OF THEM ALL WAS THE LATE GREAT S/L JAMES GINGER LACEY.
I CHATTED TO HIM AT THE SMALL AIRFIELD AT GRINDALE NEAR BRIDLINGTON MANY TIMES AND MANY OF THE YOUNG PEOPLE HE TOOK ALOFT FOR THEIR PARACHUTING COURSES DID NOT EVEN KNOW WHO HE WAS.
TO THEM HE WAS JUST AN OLD CHAP IN A STRAW HAT WHO GOT THEM INTO THE AIR , I THINK THIS AMUSED HIM IT CERTAINLY DID ME.
THE FIRST THING HE DID AFTER GETTING OUT OF THE AIRCRAFT WAS TO KNOCK HIS PIPE OUT ON THE PROP AND THEN RE FILL IT.
HAPPY DAYS BRIAN C D

Not a personal one on one meeting, but 40+ years ago I was at an airshow at Cottesmore, Douglas Bader flew in, in a light a/c and Johnny Johnson, who was the station commander at the time, came out to greet him, all this happened a few feet away, right in front of me, I witnessed the famous Bader leg swing out the cockpit.
Does this count.

I was there that day too!

I posted after Legends last year, but any excuse to tell the tale again, my son and I met Captain Eric Brown last year during one of his book signings at the show.

It was hot, and Captain Brown moved from tent to tent, with a smile, and hand shake and a kind word for everybody who queued to meet him and some words of encouragement for my son who mentioned wanting to be a pilot. I just think he is an incredible man, who has done so much in his life, and I was honoured to meet him however briefly.

I’ve lost count..

Agreed Hornchurch, in fact when I build a model I deliberately depict a lesser known aircraft if possible.
The aviation related meeting which has meant most to me related to such a crew who quietly got on with their job with little fanfare. It occurred on a car park near Lincoln, on what was the site of RAF Skellingthorpe. There I met the nephew of the tail gunner of the Lancaster my great uncle was w/op on. All the crew were killed in Belgium in 1943. It was very strange to be stood together on the same soil they’d taken off from for the last time.

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Have met countless aircrew (& to a much lesser extent, groundcrew) who served in WW.II in both the USAAF & RAF.

On topic, the most famous ‘Ace’ & fighter-pilot I’ve ever met personally was the 336th F.Sq’s James Goodson from the 4th F.G.
It was 1992 at North Weald & they were commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the arrival of the USAAF 8th Air-Force to the U.K.

He and his lovely wife had a small trestle-table set up & they were selling copies of his book (‘Tumult In The Clouds’) & a few other bits too.

I got chatting to Jim for about 25-30 minutes & he was a very nice-natured & friendly chap, the conversation only breaking when the P.51 marked-up as “Candyman Moose” appeared overhead !

I’d already read his book several times over, so, bought a B/W drawing instead & he offered to autograph it ~ when asking “whom would you like it dedicated to ?”, I was like, “er, not me as that’s too vain (laughs), so, could you sign it to my wife please ?” (well, we’d been together for 14 years at that point, so I thought it a fair idea).

We shook hands & he gave me his contact-card with his address & telephone details (he lived in a small village in Kent at the time) as I was suprised he’d married an English girl & settled down here !
(yes, I still have the card he gave me).

Finally, as we (mate & I) were on our motorcycles (mine was the GS.1000 in my avatar), I asked his wife…..”do you have a cardboard-tube so I can avoid the print getting squashed ?”

Sadly they didn’t, so, I had to roll it up in my jacket on the ride home & here it is, still with the odd creases or five !

[ATTACH]200442[/ATTACH]

Two of my American friends in the USAF are neighbours to two other elderly 8th Air Force ‘aces’ in neighbouring states & because they been to their respective houses & spent time socialising, they very kindly (& without telling me) posted me a signed picture each – to me personally , from Bob ‘Punchy’ Powell of the 352nd F.G. (Blue-nosed/Bodney) & also from Robert Rankin of the 56th F.G. (Zemke’s Wolfpack)…….thanks guys (Larry & Bart).

Aside from aces I’ve had some notable time & chance meets with other WW.II aircrew, the ones which stand-out are….

The Wellington rear-gunner who was a school caretaker in the mid 70’s & retrieved my prized wooden-glider from a 2nd story school balcony ~ he saw me almost in tears as my prized glider had been caught in a gust & went waaay adrift ~ took him 25 minutes to fetch the keys & retrieve it !!!!!!!!

Knocking at my front door, he said “Here; you like planes then?” & “I guess you’ve never heard of a Vickers Wellington ?”
Enthusiastically, I showed him several Airfix Wellington’s I’d made (both the old 75 Sqdn ‘AA-D’ & the newer “Zuider-Zee” box-art 425 Sqdn ‘KW-E’) & we talked for a while.

I never forgot his kindness for retrieving that expensive glider, as I’m SURE many caretakers WOULDN’T have given a flying-fig ~ his attitude & kindness sincerely impressed me as a kid !

Also, the 387th B.26 Marauder top-turret-gunner that my Wife & I became friendly with in a restaraunt in St.Mere Eglise when we were touring Normandy during the 40th Anniversary on our Kawasaki Z.1000.
As a B.26 Marauder “nut”, I wish I’d’ve had more time with him (he ONLY chimed up when I told him we lived close to Ongar ~ Willingale).

My immediate next-door-neighbour in 1971-75; he was an Avro York Navigator who’d married a girl from Berlin ~ not only did I learn about Avro York’s as a ten year old, but over countless dinners & picnics & trips to the park, I heard from his Berlin-wife just what life was like for her underneath “our” Halifaxes/Lanc’s/B.17’s & B.24’s as a 15/16/17 year old girl in Charlottenburg !

Lastly, the Father of a Romford Conservative M.P. who came round to my “in-laws” solely to show me his photo’s & log-book(s)
They kindly arranged the rendevous at their house, as he was a former Short Stirling & Handley Page Halifax Pilot who was once shot-down & had later served flying Halifaxes as troop transport & parachute dropping (yes !) in Egypt in the late 1940’s (his photo’s were remarkable….paratroops jumping out of Halifaxes over the desert, circa 1947 IIRC & sadly, not seen by the mainstream) ~ it was certainly an eye opener for me.

P.S, Kev.35 ~ I’ve ALWAYS related & resonated with your viewpoint

If I make a model aircraft or buy a diecast a/c, then I’m happy if it’s flown by the lowliest pilot, or serviced the most humble ‘erk’, they ALL count equally in my book.

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I once had the pleasure of hosting ‘Bee’ Beamont to dinner at home and have corresponded with Tom Neil, John Beazley, James Pickering regarding my uncle Peter Waghorn. Recently I have been fortunate to make contact with Ray Sherk who served with my other uncle Bryan Waghorn. Ray was one of the pilots who went looking for Bryan when his Spitfire went down in the channel. Also I have built a good friendship with Ron Smyth who served with Peter Waghorn and has given me photos and memorabilia from his personal collection regarding my uncle. A kindness I can never repay.

Wonderful men all and I am very grateful to them and the time they gave me.

Gladiator and Halifax pilot Per Waaler, Halifax navigator Anton Wang, Spitfire pilot and squadron leader Wilhelm Mohr. Had long chats with all three.

Sat beside Hans Ekkehard-Bob at North Weald (The Squadron) but chickened out and did not want to bother him and his son.

I once had the pleasure of flying with John Cruikshank VC (in a Nimrod I might add) we went from Kinloss to Keflavik. John is the most pleasant person in the world and doesnt like a fuss, so you can imagine what happened at Kef when we landed and every man and his dog was there to greet him.

On our way home I think he spent most of the time up front, long time ago though.

One of our Vice Presidents here at Martlesham is Don Strait

http://acepilots.com/usaaf_strait.html

He last visited us here at Martlesham in 2008. We had a lunch for him at the ” Black Tiles” and establishment he used when he was CO at Martlesham with the 356th Fighter group. He was their highest scoring Ace. You may have seen him in the signing tent at the Legends Show
he recently sent me the document below which I think is rather nice. Its shows him as a Major which he was at Martlesham, but he actually retired as a Major General.

He is now in his 90s

Great Guy

Interesting thread. All of my “Ace friends” happen to come from the “other side” (my father served in 6th Bomber Group, RCAF). The late Franz Stigler was a personal friend of mine, having taught me the ways the ways of the Messerschmitt (Bf108) that belonged to the late (Brit) Dr. Allan High in the 70’s. Through Franz, I met Adolf Galland a couple of times and got him to sign my copy of The First and the Last. He also signed the photo of him confronting Goering at the Pas de Calais, at the time he made the famous “squadron of Spitfires” reply. I vividly recall witnessing a number of “waiving hand dogfights” between Galland, Stigler and an RAF P-40 pilot (from North Africa that Stigler had fought against with Marseille) whose name now escapes me. It was quite a thrill for me as an airplane crazy 16 year old. As a youngster, for a school book report (Stuka Pilot), I wrote to Hans Ulrich Rudel who replied (after a circuitous routing of my letter which ultimately landed in Paraguay) with a personally written note on an original Luftwaffe propaganda ministry postcard photo of him with all his decorations. I imagine this item may be worth something some day as Rudel (an ardent Nazi to the end) is considered by many to be the highest achieving soldier of any nation in the history of warfare.
Mk.1

I can’t compete with all the illustrious names mentioned here, but I did used to work with a BoB veteran – IIRC he flew Hurricanes with 501 Sqn

I also met Eric Brown and Peter Twiss at after dinner events.

I’ve have been to the grave in Moscow of Soviet ace Ivan Kozhedub….

… and Alexander Pokryshkin….

They do proper commemorations in Russia.

Ken

Since my earlier 2007 post where I said I had met Des Scott, Bob Spurdle and Colin Gray and had interviewed Hawkeye Wells, I have had the pleasure and privilege of also meeting the following New Zealand aces:
The late Geoff Fisken
The late Jim Sheddan
Harvey Sweetman – on two occasions
Owen Hardy – on two occasions
Alan Peart – on several occasions
Jack Stafford

The only other ace I can think of that I had ‘contact’ with was the late great Johnny Checketts. When I was based at RNZAF Station Wigram in the early 1990’s he used to work there as a volunteer at the RNZAF Museum workshops. One day a friend and I were walking along the base road heading towards a parade, all dressed up in our SD’s. we spotted an officer coming the other way and just in front of him was an old gent who I recognised as Johnny as I’d seen him on TV and in books. As we approached my mate and I braced up and swung up a salute for the officer behind Johnny. Johnny’s face lit up, he braced up and he saluted us back! The young officer looked puzzled and so did my mate. As we went past my mate said, “What was that silly old coot doing?” I said, “That wasn’t a silly old coot, that was Wing Commander Johnny Checketts, fighter ace! Weren’t you saluting him? I was.” I think if the officer hadn’t been there and I hadn’t been on the way to a parade I’d probably have stopped Mr Checketts and had a chat, as he was a hero of mine. I wish now that I had, I never got to meet him properly.

I had lunch with Geoffrey Wellum last Saturday and spent an enthralling afternoon talking about his time as a test pilot on Typhoons for Gloster. A privilege and I day I will never forget.

I once had cause to double-check the name of the elderly and slightly gruff American who had pitched up in Liverpool in 1984 with a group of Eighth Air Force veterans, visiting the International Garden Festival that year.

Came the reply……….Curtis LeMay

((gulp!!))

I’m also connected rather distantly by marriage to Johnny Checketts, but that’s another story.

Waved Bader in at Abingdon 1981 ish when I was working at UAS/AEF flight there…he was winging at me for bringing his a/c into a parking bay a little remote from the Hangars,I just said sorry but thats where ATC said to park you (I did wonder why myself…personal clash perhaps ??)
As a complete contrast we had a rtd Air cdre who kept an auster in our Hangar for a while…I keep thinking Al Deere but am not sure,so if anybody knows if he kept an Auster in ‘B’ Hangar in 1981/82ish perhaps you could confirm/deny.

Also one weekend the BBMF diverted in to abingdon and parked the Hurri in our hangar overnight…in the morning one of our very quiet Chipmunk pilots was having a shufti in the cockpit,he had a fair chestful of medals (we usually saw them in flying gear !) so of course I couldnt resist saying ”I suppose you flew these in the war !!”….he answered quietly…”er no actually I was on spitfires”…our Chippie pilots were a grand bunch 🙂

Many years ago, while visiting my late father at work, I met Wing commander William “Cherry” Vale, I didn’t know who he was at the time. He worked as a quality engineer for HEM engineering in Mansfield. He was a very calm and quiet man and never spoke to any one about his life in WWII. dad used to tell me Bills favourite saying when confronted by mouthy upstarts and tallentless management was “I’ve probably Killed better men than you” he and dad often spent time talking and he told of his time in Malta, Gibralta, the middle east. He wasnt an ace, he was a multiple ace and a really nice man. You wont find much on him because he told the truth about another “ace” whos plane is still being looked for in france. But if you do want to read more about this lovely man, look him up on the web – just type in Wing Commander William “Cherry” Vale.

mick…

I met Douglas Bader when i was in the air cadets BUT my ace was my old warrant officer who was a tail gunner in a Lancaster.I think he told us he had 3 kills.
http://www.cambridgefirst.co.uk/news/war_veterans_share_stories_at_duxford_1_986201

http://www.ozarkairfieldartworks.com/lancasterdusk.html

Have never met any of the well known legends but my godfather had a long RAF career from 1939 to 1974. He was a pilot with 273 Squadron in Burma and shared in the destruction of a Ki46 (that I know of) amongst other achievements.