Paddy Finucane's 70th anniversary

westdub

Today marks the 70th anniversary of the death of the Irish WWII fighter ace and the RAF's youngest ever Wing Commander ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paddy_Finucane

RIP

bluecode

He is also the second highest scoring RAF ace of WW2. The leading scorer survived the war. Remarkable given that Finucane died in 1942 aged 21.

jmayo

There were a lot of brave Irish guys who fought for the Allies in WWII and never got the recognition at home for their sacrifice.

The other interesting thing about him was that he had been in the RAF before war ever broke out.

It seems he had only been average in flight training, but turned into a great combat pilot.

That is a bit like Gabby Gabreski the Polish American who flew with RAF Polish squadron and USAAC.
He has almost washed out of flight training school, but went on to become and ace in WWII and Korea.

Wibbs

jmayo wrote: »

It seems he had only been average in flight training, but turned into a great combat pilot.

That is a bit like Gabby Gabreski the Polish American who flew with RAF Polish squadron and USAAC.
He has almost washed out of flight training school, but went on to become and ace in WWII and Korea.

And Hans Ulrich Rudel the same. Very average in training, last of his class to get a seat in a squadron and ended up the highest decorated pilot in history.

jmayo

Wibbs wrote: »

And Hans Ulrich Rudel the same. Very average in training, last of his class to get a seat in a squadron and ended up the highest decorated pilot in history.

Feckin hell he flew Stukas.

I wonder if he hadn't been an ardent Nazi would he have gotten half the awards ?

Not a very pleasant guy if he was still pro Nazism and pro Hitler even after the war.
It also looks like some of his old mates turned up for his funeral.

Tenger

Col. John Boyd was an unassuming student in the USAF in the 1950's. Went on to revolutionize the thinking of the US military as well as have a very large part in the design of the F-16 and F-15.

Wibbs

jmayo wrote: »

Feckin hell he flew Stukas.

All the more impressive for that. Surviving, never mind thriving in an aircraft that was massively outclassed at that stage. In speed anyway. They were highly maneuverable* at low speeds and could take some serious poundings from enemy flak and direct fire and accidents. On one occasion Rudel gets really bent outa shape in a dense stormcloud going all the way to the ground, loses altitude and while wrestling with the aircraft ends up hitting trees and the damn thing still keeps flying. His rear gunner at one point looks out and calmly informs him there's a six foot lump of pine tree stuck in the wing/aileron. I've seen pics in books with Stukas where only about a third of the rudder is left, wingtips gone, huge gashes in wing surfaces and fuselages and still they kept flying.

I wonder if he hadn't been an ardent Nazi would he have gotten half the awards ?

Oh he was certainly a poster boy for them, but regardless of that his record is hugely impressive as far as missions flown and results even if you halved the official figures, never mind the umpteen times he landed under fire behind Russian lines to rescue downed members of his squadron, ignoring orders from Hitler himself in doing so. On the back of a recent thread on Boards I'm actually currently reading his self penned book about his wartime experiences. Comes across as a right oddball, even to his crewmates. Non drinking(insisted on milk), non smoking, non carousing type, with a real touch of sense of humour bypass in evidence. Very tough and singleminded though.



*flying clean anyway. Under bomb load they were restricted and the cannon version(panzerknacker. Great term::) was apparently like flying a housebrick

bluecode

Another very average pilot was Bob Stanford Tuck. During training he was nearly washed out. But on his last chance flight, he just gave up, relaxed and was actually thinking about what he was going to do after the RAF. He scraped through and went on to have a great career.

Wibbs

Hans Marseille was another "he won't amount to much". He nearly got kicked out of flight school because of his "playboy" behaviour and long hair and fondness for jazz music(which did not go down well). The rest of his class graduated as officers, he didn't. He was in the battle of Britain but didn't amount to much. He was good looking bloke shagging and drinking at night so much he often had to pull a sicky the next morning and at times seemed to be working for the allied side he crashed so many aircraft(his mates took the piss out of him for that ). Spurred on by these early failures he went on to hone his skills to the point where Adolf Galland reckoned after the war that he was the finest fighter pilot in WW2.

Read a book about the chap a few years back. Seemed like a very nice man all in. Was very mindful of the deaths he caused even if it was a war. It never really sat well with him and he mentioned it a lot in his letters. Survived a very sad childhood and the murder of his sister by a jealous lover. Sad end too at only 22. Died bailing out of a ME109 with engine trouble, hit the tailplane on the way out IIRC.

Wibbs

On the age when they died score Finucane was only 21. Very sobering and sad.

the_syco

A documentary about Finucane was shown tonight (Thursday) in Dublin; "Spitfire Paddy"

http://www.rte.ie/playerxl/#v=10679052 from 21:25 to 23:25

Seems they hope to make it into a full length feature film. Some decent info, such as his dad fighting in the Easter Rising.

Mods, relevant story that adds onto topic at hand, so made more sense to bring an old thread up than making a new one.