Post by Dave Homewood on Nov 23, 2010 23:06:03 GMT 12
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure to meet and interview Battle of Britain pilot Roy McGowan. He had joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve on their first course at Filton in 1938, and was released from his job to join the RAF full time in 1939 before the war began, so he was an experienced Spitfire pilot by the time of the Battle of Britain. On the 15th of September 1940 he was shot down, he doesn't even know what got him. Suddenly his aircraft was on fire and he had to get out. He had been flying without gloves and without his goggles on, and the flash fire burned his hands and his eyes, to the point where he lost the lids and brows, etc.
He became one of Archibald McIndoe's first Guinea Pigs and had his face reconstructed, and today if you didn't know he'd been burned you'd never guess.
After recovering from the surgery, and some work on various types such as Battles, Spitfires and Tiger Moths, plus something called a Koolhaven it turns out he was shipped off to New Zealand. He arrived here in August 1942 and was here several months. Poor Roy has a bad memory so though some points in his career were vivid he couldn't tell me why he was here and what he did, but his wife reckoned he was sent out to help set up the P-40 Kittyhawk squadrons ready for going to the Pacific. She also reckoned he went up to Tonga to sign for the P-40's being handed to NZ and oversea their transfer, but she says he never flew anything there. His logbook is very poorly filled out, no proper dates listed, no aircraft serials, just the type. But it does show that he did fly to Tonga in a Hudson and the return in the Hudson.
He did a lot of flying in the Whitney, Waco, Beech (I assume Staggerwing), Harvard, Oxford, Rearwin, Porterfield, Dragon and Vega, plus even some Hind time, so I'm assuming he was based at Air HQ and using No. 42 Squadron aircraft. Or was he on 42 himself perhaps? He also logged time in P-40's at Seagrove.
He said he loved NZ so much he asked to transfer to the RNZAF but they told him they didn't take anyone but New Zealanders, so he went home to the UK on the 15th of August 1943.
Does anyone know more about him and what his role in the RNZAF was please?
He became one of Archibald McIndoe's first Guinea Pigs and had his face reconstructed, and today if you didn't know he'd been burned you'd never guess.
After recovering from the surgery, and some work on various types such as Battles, Spitfires and Tiger Moths, plus something called a Koolhaven it turns out he was shipped off to New Zealand. He arrived here in August 1942 and was here several months. Poor Roy has a bad memory so though some points in his career were vivid he couldn't tell me why he was here and what he did, but his wife reckoned he was sent out to help set up the P-40 Kittyhawk squadrons ready for going to the Pacific. She also reckoned he went up to Tonga to sign for the P-40's being handed to NZ and oversea their transfer, but she says he never flew anything there. His logbook is very poorly filled out, no proper dates listed, no aircraft serials, just the type. But it does show that he did fly to Tonga in a Hudson and the return in the Hudson.
He did a lot of flying in the Whitney, Waco, Beech (I assume Staggerwing), Harvard, Oxford, Rearwin, Porterfield, Dragon and Vega, plus even some Hind time, so I'm assuming he was based at Air HQ and using No. 42 Squadron aircraft. Or was he on 42 himself perhaps? He also logged time in P-40's at Seagrove.
He said he loved NZ so much he asked to transfer to the RNZAF but they told him they didn't take anyone but New Zealanders, so he went home to the UK on the 15th of August 1943.
Does anyone know more about him and what his role in the RNZAF was please?
