stonecutter
05-16-2007, 12:46 AM
Dang -- only 5 Canadian Battle of Britain pilots left.... :(
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070515.OBOBRIAN15/TPStory/Obituaries
One of the last Battle of Britain pilots
Canadian gave up a desk job to become a decorated flier; he later served the Queen and helped historians
F.F. LANGAN
Special to The Globe and Mail
May 15, 2007
Group Captain Peter O'Brian was one of the last six surviving Canadian pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain in 1940, when fighter pilots held off the German Luftwaffe, saving Britain from invasion and gaining time needed to fight the war.
Mr. O'Brian was born and educated in Canada but served with Britain's Royal Air Force for almost 25 years. He flew Spitfires against the Germans in 1940, won the Distinguished Flying Cross twice and served as an aide-de-camp to the Queen in the late 1950s.
It was in the summer of 1940, while at a Royal Air Force desk job, that Mr. O'Brian volunteered to return to flying and was demoted two ranks for the privilege.
"I flew a Spitfire six times. I flew a Hurricane four times. And then, on Aug. 18, was posted to a fighter squadron. When I arrived, the situation was a real wake-up," Mr. O'Brian said in a documentary, Skies of Fire, broadcast in 2005.
Print Edition - Section Front
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Mr. O'Brian started flying Spitfires from 152 Squadron based at Acklington, in northern England. He and another pilot scored their first victory against a Heinkel 111 bomber. It was the first time Mr. O'Brian even pressed the button on the guns, he told an interviewer later.
On Sept. 15, 1940, the day later recognized as the culmination of the Battle of Britain, he and another pilot shot down another Heinkel.
Mr. O'Brian's father, Geoffrey, was a lawyer but had flown fighters over the Western Front during the First World War. After the war, he stayed in the military, and became part of the newly formed Royal Canadian Air Force in 1924. As a squadron leader, he founded 400 Squadron in Ottawa and later rose to the rank of air commodore, the modern equivalent of a brigadier.
Peter was born in Toronto in 1917. He attended Crescent School in Toronto, was a boarder at Trinity College School in Port Hope and finished high school at the University of Toronto Schools. He wanted to go into the RCAF, but his father thought the way to fast-track his son's career was to use connections to get Peter into Cranwell, the RAF college. One of the advantages of the two-year course in Britain was that students there learned to fly early. Mr. O'Brian was accepted and graduated in 1937.
Shortly after graduating, he and some other young pilots were seriously injured when their car hit a double-decker bus head-on. The young pilots were unconscious and laid out on the side of the road. "I guess they figured we were all dead," Mr. O'Brian told the Toronto Star in 2000, interviewed for the battle's 60th anniversary. People passing by stripped insignia and badges from the uniforms of the unconscious pilots.
After the Battle of Britain, he was promoted to squadron leader, then wing commander, the air force equivalent of a lieutenant-colonel. During this period he flew sorties against targets in Europe, especially German-occupied France.
They were called "rhubarbs" because they were often flown in the shape of the plant's leaf. The pilots flew at low altitude, looking for targets of opportunity, such as trains. Just after D-Day, one such attack by another pilot shot up the staff car of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, seriously wounding him.
It was for one of these forays in France that Mr. O'Brian was awarded his second Distinguished Flying Cross. Shot down crossing the English Channel on the night of April 16, 1943, he parachuted into the water and spent eight hours in a dinghy waiting to be rescued or captured.
Both German and Free French torpedo boats went out looking for the downed pilot. But the French craft, operating out of southwestern England, knew his precise location. "We accelerated to 32 knots, our maximum speed," a member of the Free French crew wrote later. "The distance to cross was about 98 nautical miles, about three hours away."
They found the downed pilot and brought him back to the base at Dartmouth, and "a few days later, Wing Commander O'Brien [sic] sent us a case of excellent Bordeaux, which we drank to his health," the French crewman recalled.
Mr. O'Brian's DFC citation reads: "This officer has displayed high qualities of leadership, great skill and courage, setting an example which has contributed in a large measure to the high efficiency of the squadron he commands. Wing Cmdr. O'Brian has completed large numbers of sorties and has invariably displayed great keenness. On one occasion, when he had to abandon his aircraft over the sea, he was subsequently adrift in his dinghy for eight hours before being rescued. Despite this, he led his formation on its next operation."
Mr. O'Brian decided to propose to his girlfriend, Edith Beatty, back in Toronto. He wrote a letter and enclosed a diamond ring in the envelope. He waited many weeks for a reply, not knowing that the ship carrying the letter had been torpedoed by a German U-boat.
He sent another letter and it crossed the North Atlantic safely - but he couldn't afford another diamond ring. Miss Beatty came across the Atlantic and they were married in St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square in London on Dec. 15, 1942.
The war ended, but Mr. O'Brian stayed with the RAF until 1959, stationed in Britain, Germany and the United States. He was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1954, and served for almost two years to an aide-de-camp to the Queen.
"I got to go to a lot of garden parties at Buckingham Place and helped aim people in the right direction to get what they wanted," he told the Star.
After his RAF career, he returned to Canada to take a job as vice-president of Southam Publishing. Over the years, he helped many historians studying the Battle of Britain and other aspects of the air war. In 2005, he was interviewed for Skies of Fire, by Barna-Alper Productions.
Mr. O'Brian always remained modest about his contribution during the war. He didn't like being called one of "The Few," as Battle of Britain fliers became known. But he did realize that the action was a turning point in the war.
"I think the outcome decided the course of World War II, thereafter. I know ... Mr. Churchill made a defiant speech during which he referred to the spirit of the nation as being to value freedom more than their lives. I think that was the expression, 'to value freedom more than their lives.' "
There is some debate about how many Canadians flew in the Battle of Britain, although the Air Force Association of Canada says there were 105, of whom just five now remain.
Steve Harris, chief historian for the National Defence Department, says that although he accepts those figures, there are different ways of looking at them.
"There were three kinds of Canadians involved: Canadians who had joined the RAF before the Second World War; Canadians in the RCAF who had individual postings to RAF squadrons; and the RCAF pilots of No. 1 (later 401) Fighter Squadron (RCAF)," Dr. Harris wrote in an e-mail.
"The problem is that the Brits claim some of the first group as being British; traditionally, the RCAF claimed anyone with the merest connection to Canada as 'Canadian,' " he said.
The Air Force Association says there were 77 Canadians who flew with the Royal Air Force - Mr. O'Brian among them - and 28 who flew with 401 Squadron of the RCAF, at the time the only RCAF squadron in Britain.
In his spare time, Mr. O'Brian liked to sail and play golf; he became a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, after having been an RAF station commander at nearby Leuchars in the mid 1950s.
PETER O'BRIAN
Peter Geoffrey St. George O'Brian was born in Toronto on Sept. 16, 1917. He died in Toronto of heart failure on April 15, 2007. He was 89. He is survived by his wife, Edie, brothers James and Liam, and sons John and Peter.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070515.OBOBRIAN15/TPStory/Obituaries
One of the last Battle of Britain pilots
Canadian gave up a desk job to become a decorated flier; he later served the Queen and helped historians
F.F. LANGAN
Special to The Globe and Mail
May 15, 2007
Group Captain Peter O'Brian was one of the last six surviving Canadian pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain in 1940, when fighter pilots held off the German Luftwaffe, saving Britain from invasion and gaining time needed to fight the war.
Mr. O'Brian was born and educated in Canada but served with Britain's Royal Air Force for almost 25 years. He flew Spitfires against the Germans in 1940, won the Distinguished Flying Cross twice and served as an aide-de-camp to the Queen in the late 1950s.
It was in the summer of 1940, while at a Royal Air Force desk job, that Mr. O'Brian volunteered to return to flying and was demoted two ranks for the privilege.
"I flew a Spitfire six times. I flew a Hurricane four times. And then, on Aug. 18, was posted to a fighter squadron. When I arrived, the situation was a real wake-up," Mr. O'Brian said in a documentary, Skies of Fire, broadcast in 2005.
Print Edition - Section Front
Enlarge Image
Mr. O'Brian started flying Spitfires from 152 Squadron based at Acklington, in northern England. He and another pilot scored their first victory against a Heinkel 111 bomber. It was the first time Mr. O'Brian even pressed the button on the guns, he told an interviewer later.
On Sept. 15, 1940, the day later recognized as the culmination of the Battle of Britain, he and another pilot shot down another Heinkel.
Mr. O'Brian's father, Geoffrey, was a lawyer but had flown fighters over the Western Front during the First World War. After the war, he stayed in the military, and became part of the newly formed Royal Canadian Air Force in 1924. As a squadron leader, he founded 400 Squadron in Ottawa and later rose to the rank of air commodore, the modern equivalent of a brigadier.
Peter was born in Toronto in 1917. He attended Crescent School in Toronto, was a boarder at Trinity College School in Port Hope and finished high school at the University of Toronto Schools. He wanted to go into the RCAF, but his father thought the way to fast-track his son's career was to use connections to get Peter into Cranwell, the RAF college. One of the advantages of the two-year course in Britain was that students there learned to fly early. Mr. O'Brian was accepted and graduated in 1937.
Shortly after graduating, he and some other young pilots were seriously injured when their car hit a double-decker bus head-on. The young pilots were unconscious and laid out on the side of the road. "I guess they figured we were all dead," Mr. O'Brian told the Toronto Star in 2000, interviewed for the battle's 60th anniversary. People passing by stripped insignia and badges from the uniforms of the unconscious pilots.
After the Battle of Britain, he was promoted to squadron leader, then wing commander, the air force equivalent of a lieutenant-colonel. During this period he flew sorties against targets in Europe, especially German-occupied France.
They were called "rhubarbs" because they were often flown in the shape of the plant's leaf. The pilots flew at low altitude, looking for targets of opportunity, such as trains. Just after D-Day, one such attack by another pilot shot up the staff car of German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel, seriously wounding him.
It was for one of these forays in France that Mr. O'Brian was awarded his second Distinguished Flying Cross. Shot down crossing the English Channel on the night of April 16, 1943, he parachuted into the water and spent eight hours in a dinghy waiting to be rescued or captured.
Both German and Free French torpedo boats went out looking for the downed pilot. But the French craft, operating out of southwestern England, knew his precise location. "We accelerated to 32 knots, our maximum speed," a member of the Free French crew wrote later. "The distance to cross was about 98 nautical miles, about three hours away."
They found the downed pilot and brought him back to the base at Dartmouth, and "a few days later, Wing Commander O'Brien [sic] sent us a case of excellent Bordeaux, which we drank to his health," the French crewman recalled.
Mr. O'Brian's DFC citation reads: "This officer has displayed high qualities of leadership, great skill and courage, setting an example which has contributed in a large measure to the high efficiency of the squadron he commands. Wing Cmdr. O'Brian has completed large numbers of sorties and has invariably displayed great keenness. On one occasion, when he had to abandon his aircraft over the sea, he was subsequently adrift in his dinghy for eight hours before being rescued. Despite this, he led his formation on its next operation."
Mr. O'Brian decided to propose to his girlfriend, Edith Beatty, back in Toronto. He wrote a letter and enclosed a diamond ring in the envelope. He waited many weeks for a reply, not knowing that the ship carrying the letter had been torpedoed by a German U-boat.
He sent another letter and it crossed the North Atlantic safely - but he couldn't afford another diamond ring. Miss Beatty came across the Atlantic and they were married in St. Martin in the Fields in Trafalgar Square in London on Dec. 15, 1942.
The war ended, but Mr. O'Brian stayed with the RAF until 1959, stationed in Britain, Germany and the United States. He was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1954, and served for almost two years to an aide-de-camp to the Queen.
"I got to go to a lot of garden parties at Buckingham Place and helped aim people in the right direction to get what they wanted," he told the Star.
After his RAF career, he returned to Canada to take a job as vice-president of Southam Publishing. Over the years, he helped many historians studying the Battle of Britain and other aspects of the air war. In 2005, he was interviewed for Skies of Fire, by Barna-Alper Productions.
Mr. O'Brian always remained modest about his contribution during the war. He didn't like being called one of "The Few," as Battle of Britain fliers became known. But he did realize that the action was a turning point in the war.
"I think the outcome decided the course of World War II, thereafter. I know ... Mr. Churchill made a defiant speech during which he referred to the spirit of the nation as being to value freedom more than their lives. I think that was the expression, 'to value freedom more than their lives.' "
There is some debate about how many Canadians flew in the Battle of Britain, although the Air Force Association of Canada says there were 105, of whom just five now remain.
Steve Harris, chief historian for the National Defence Department, says that although he accepts those figures, there are different ways of looking at them.
"There were three kinds of Canadians involved: Canadians who had joined the RAF before the Second World War; Canadians in the RCAF who had individual postings to RAF squadrons; and the RCAF pilots of No. 1 (later 401) Fighter Squadron (RCAF)," Dr. Harris wrote in an e-mail.
"The problem is that the Brits claim some of the first group as being British; traditionally, the RCAF claimed anyone with the merest connection to Canada as 'Canadian,' " he said.
The Air Force Association says there were 77 Canadians who flew with the Royal Air Force - Mr. O'Brian among them - and 28 who flew with 401 Squadron of the RCAF, at the time the only RCAF squadron in Britain.
In his spare time, Mr. O'Brian liked to sail and play golf; he became a member of the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland, after having been an RAF station commander at nearby Leuchars in the mid 1950s.
PETER O'BRIAN
Peter Geoffrey St. George O'Brian was born in Toronto on Sept. 16, 1917. He died in Toronto of heart failure on April 15, 2007. He was 89. He is survived by his wife, Edie, brothers James and Liam, and sons John and Peter.