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