Neville Duke

I don’t think we make them like this any more. From the obituary of Neville Duke:

In the
    summer of 1939 he applied to join the Fleet Air Arm, but was turned
    down. He joined the RAF in June 1940….He scored his first
    victory over Dunkirk in June when he shot down a Messerschmitt Bf
    109, followed by his second a few weeks later….In the space of six days, Duke was shot down twice
    and forced to crash land in the desert before being rescued. His own
    score started to mount, however, and by the end of the year he had
    destroyed at least four aircraft and damaged others. The squadron
    re-equipped with the superior Kittyhawk and with eight confirmed
    victories Duke was awarded a DFC…After
    attacking a large force of fighters over Beurat, Tunisia, he shot
    down two of the enemy before his ammunition was expended; and a few
    days later he shot down a Stuka dive-bomber. He was awarded a Bar to
    his DFC….In the space of three months fighting over Tunisia Duke destroyed
    12 enemy fighters and two bombers, and in March he was awarded an
    immediate DSO…he was impatient to return to operations, which
    in February 1944 he did: he was posted to command No 145 Squadron
    based in Italy and flying the powerful Spitfire VIII. Over the next few weeks Duke claimed five further victories and
    was awarded a second Bar to his DFC for "displaying the highest
    standard of skill, gallantry and determination"…
On June 7, during a low-level strafing operation, the engine of
    his Spitfire was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He attempted to bale out
    but his harness became snagged on the open cockpit. He kicked
    violently to free his parachute before pulling the ripcord, and he
    landed in the middle of a lake seconds later where he again nearly
    lost his life as his parachute dragged him through the water.
    Italian partisans rescued him and gave him shelter until the arrival
    of US troops…He returned to his squadron and achieved his final success on
    September 7 when he shot down two Messerschmitt Bf 109s near Rimini.
    The AOC instructed that Duke was to finish his third tour after
    completing 486 operational sorties. He had destroyed 27 enemy
    aircraft, and probably three more, making him the RAF’s
    outstanding and highest-scoring fighter pilot in the Mediterranean
    theatre.

DFC and two Bars, DSO, 27 confirmed kills: what happened next?

He was 22 years old and at the end of October he returned
    to England after an absence of three years.

And what happened at the end, in his 85 th year?

On April 7 Duke and his wife Gwen, whom he had married in 1947,
    were flying their aircraft when he suddenly felt unwell. He managed
    to land safely at Popham Airfield, but then collapsed as he left the
    aircraft and died later that evening.

Vale.

One response

  1. That story leaves a later life untold. But a life lived young.
    Sláinte

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