Obituaries

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Oberstleutnant Wolfgang Schenck "Bombo"died on 05-March-10, aged 97 years old.

Wolfgang "Bombo" Schenck was the first man to command a jet aircraft unit in combat and is considered one of the most diversified pilots to fly for the Luftwaffe during World War II. Born in Windhoek, German Southwest Africa, he was schooled in Germany and later went to Tanganyika to become a coffee planter. In late 1936, he returned to Germany and joined the Luftwaffe. After pilot training, he was assigned to the famous JG (Fighter Wing) 132 Richthofen to fly the Messerschmitt 109 single-engine fighter. The unit was later renamed ZG (Destroyer Wing) 1 and equipped with the twin-engine Me-110 heavy fighter. He then participated in the German blitzkrieg operations against Poland, Norway, and France before suffering combat wounds, which hospitalized him for 3 months.

On 4 September 1940 with his recuperation complete, Schenck joined a combat test unit, EGr (Experimental Wing) 210, which was tasked to develop and perfect fighter-bomber tactics under the direct supervision of General Field Marshal Albrecht Kesselring, Commander of Air Fleet 2. In April 1941, his unit was reorganized as StG (Dive Bomber Wing) 210 and took part in the advance into Russia. In August 1941, as Commander of the 1st Squadron, StG 210, he received the coveted Knight's Cross for the crushing attack on the airfield at Tarnopol, on the South Front. Following a short flight test tour in Germany at Rechlin, Schenck went back into combat in March 1942 as Group Commander of I/ZG 1 (Group I of ZG 1), leading his unit to many successes in Russia. At age 29, he received the Oak Leaves to his Knight's Cross and was selected to command the newly created SG (Fighter-Bomber Wing) 2, flying Focke Wulf 190s in the Mediterranean theater.

Wounded again in 1943, he recovered and later was made Inspector of Fighter-Bomber Pilots. In May 1944, due to his extensive combat experience in many different aircraft, he was tasked to lead Special Command E-51, Kommando Schenck. This unit, sent to France, tested the Me-262-A jet as a fighter-bomber against advancing Allied ground forces. From December 1944 to January 1945, he commanded KG (Bomber Wing) 51, flying the Me- 262-A2 and as the war ended, he served as Inspector of Jet Aircraft. Schenck flew over 400 combat missions in World War II in a variety of aircraft, achieving 18 aerial victories and sinking 40,000 tons of Allied shipping. After the war, he returned to Africa and began a career as a bush pilot--logging over 17,000 flying hours.

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F/ Lt Tom Fletcher :salute:

Flight Lieutenant Tom Fletcher, who died on March 10 aged 95, was the RAF's most decorated air-sea rescue pilot and was once recommended for a Victoria Cross.

On October 2 1942 a Spitfire pilot was forced to bail out over the English Channel, landing in the sea four miles off the French coast on the edge of a minefield. When his leader transmitted an emergency call, the naval authorities at Dover decided it was impossible to get a launch through the minefield, and too dangerous for rescue by a Walrus amphibious aircraft. Despite this, Fletcher immediately volunteered to go, taking off in his Walrus with a Spitfire squadron providing an escort.

He arrived on the scene just as another Spitfire squadron was engaging enemy fighters trying to interfere with the rescue. He located the dinghy, landed 150 yards away and taxied towards the survivor, who failed to grasp the boathook on the first pass as he fell out of his dinghy.

In the strong wind and choppy sea Fletcher tried again, and the pilot was hauled on board. He then taxied clear of the minefield and took off, just clearing a floating mine. Throughout the operation his Walrus had come under heavy fire from shore batteries.

The Air Officer Commanding of No 11 (Fighter) Group strongly recommended Fletcher for a Victoria Cross, writing: "Sergeant Fletcher was fully aware of the risks involved when he volunteered for the task. He carried out the rescue with conspicuous gallantry... he ignored all dangers, and through coolness, considered judgment and skill succeeded in picking up the pilot."

In the event, Fletcher was awarded an immediate DFM, the next highest gallantry award available for a SNCO at that time.

Thomas Fletcher was born on September 7 1914 at Leigh in Lancashire and educated at Leigh Grammar School. Although his job as a commercial traveller for a medical equipment business was, at the beginning of the war, classified as a reserved occupation, he volunteered to be a pilot in the RAF, joining up in June 1940.

On completing his training, he joined No 43 Squadron to fly Spitfires as a sergeant pilot. An effervescent, outspoken and sometimes rebellious character, Fletcher did not see eye-to-eye with his CO, who had him transferred to another Spitfire squadron flying coastal patrols. This fitted him well for air-sea rescue duties, and he joined a flight at Hawkinge, which soon became No 277 Squadron.

Flying a Lysander spotting aircraft during the summer of 1942, Fletcher found a number of aircrew in the sea and directed RAF high speed launches to rescue them. By the time of his exploit in the minefield in October he had already helped to save nine airmen.

On December 14 1942, six men were spotted adrift on a raft 10 miles east of Dover, and Fletcher touched down in the rough seas even though he knew that it would be impossible to take off again.

In failing light he made three passes, picking up the men one by one – although several of them were swept from the raft. Even as his Walrus started to take in water he succeeded in recovering one of the survivors. By now it was completely dark, and Fletcher reluctantly abandoned the search and started to taxi towards Dover. The aircraft continued to ship water, and it took him almost two hours to make the harbour – where the harbour master reprimanded him for not getting permission to bring the sinking aircraft into port. The survivors for whom Fletcher had gone to such lengths were German sailors.

Fletcher was awarded an immediate Bar to his DFM, one of only 60 awarded in the Second World War.

In the summer of 1943 Fletcher picked up seven more ditched aircrew, including a USAAF fighter pilot and a Belgian Spitfire pilot. Then, on October 3, he went in search of a Typhoon pilot reported in the sea too near the French coast for a launch to attempt a rescue. Fletcher found three dinghies, landed and picked up the occupants – survivors from an RAF bomber. Having taken them back to base, he immediately took off again, finally locating and rescuing the Typhoon pilot.

The sea was too rough for a take-off, and he began the long taxi back to England. A Royal Navy launch was sent to assist, but then the Walrus lost a float. The attempt to tow the aircraft failed, and it started to sink. Fletcher, his crew and their survivor had to abandon the Walrus and transfer to the launch. He was awarded an immediate DFC.

In spring the next year Fletcher took off to rescue a Canadian fighter pilot. The dinghy was so close to the French coast that he had to fly over enemy-held territory to approach it, so that he would be in a position for an immediate take-off. Throughout the rescue he was under heavy anti-aircraft fire and his crewman was wounded. The pilot was snatched from the sea as Fletcher taxied past and brought back to England.

Fletcher later rescued an American bomber crew from the Somme Estuary and, on April 30, a Spitfire pilot – his final rescue. He had by now saved more people than any other pilot.

Remaining in the RAF after the war, in July 1945 Fletcher was attached to the High Speed Flight as the search-and-rescue pilot when Group Captain EM Donaldson broke the world speed record off the Sussex coast flying a Meteor jet. He later served as an instructor at the Search and Rescue Training Unit. In 1948 he was badly burned when his Mosquito crashed during a training sortie at the Central Flying School.

Fletcher trained as a fighter controller, but returned to flying in 1956 before continuing his career at ground control centres in Fighter Command. He retired from the RAF in 1964.

He spent three years with the company RFD, redesigning life-saving equipment and working on the design of rafts carried in larger aircraft, including Concorde. In 1968 he joined MAFF, where for 10 years he was a higher executive officer responsible for EEC subsidy payments to farmers.

Tom Fletcher helped to establish the Shoreham Air Sea Rescue Museum and assisted for many years at the annual air shows at Shoreham and Farnborough. He had a keen interest in motor racing, travelling around the country in a caravan to attend meetings.

He married, in 1941, Mabel Berry. She died in 2003, and he is survived by their son.

Source: Telegraph
 
Wing Commander Alan 'Red' Owen :salute:

Wing Commander Alan 'Red' Owen, who has died aged 87, was one of the RAF's most successful night fighter pilots of the Second World War, when he was credited with destroying a minimum of 15 enemy aircraft.
Owen and his radar operator, Vic McAllister, joined No 85 Squadron, equipped with Mosquitos, in August 1944. By that time they had already established a reputation as an outstanding team during operations in North Africa and Italy.

In the months after the D-Day landings and the Allied advance into France, No 85's role was to undertake bomber support operations over Germany. The Mosquito night fighter crews mingled with the RAF bomber streams seeking out enemy night fighters attempting to attack the bombers. They also flew "intruder missions" to strike enemy aircraft as they took off and landed at their airfields.
During a brief period in the summer of 1944, the squadron was also employed on patrols over Kent intercepting V-1 flying bombs. On August 5 that year Owen brought down a V-1, before resuming night operations.

On the night of September 17/18, he destroyed two Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighters, and by the end of the year he had accounted for seven more aircraft, including a Focke-Wulf 190 over Hamburg, in addition to destroying aircraft on the ground.

When patrolling south of Frankfurt on December 22, Owen engaged a Junkers Ju 88 and shot it down. Seven minutes later his operator made contact with another night fighter; Owen closed in and destroyed it. Before the patrol was over there was a third contact, and after a 15-minute chase, during which his target took violent evasive action, Owen finally managed to get in a cannon burst; the Bf 110 went into a vertical dive and crashed.

For their work with No 85 Squadron, both Owen and McAllister were awarded DFCs and within two months each had received a Bar. The citation commented on their "exceptional skill" and described them as "fearless and devoted members of aircraft crew".

One of eight children, Alan Joseph Owen was born in Chelsea on July 8 1922 and educated at St Mary's Church of England School, Merton Park, and at Wimbledon Technical College, where he trained as a technical draughtsman before joining an engineering firm at Cheam, in Surrey.

In January 1941 he followed two of his brothers into the RAF and trained as a pilot, his shock of red hair attracting the nickname "Ginger", later adapted to "Red".

At first Owen was selected to fly Beaufighters, and it was then that he teamed up with McAllister. They were to remain together throughout their operational flying appointments to become one of the RAF's most successful night fighter crews.

The two sergeants joined No 600 Squadron, and in November 1942 moved with the squadron to North Africa. On the night of December 21/22 they gained No 600's first success in that theatre when they shot down a Heinkel III bomber near Algiers.

Return fire from the enemy bomber damaged the Beaufighter's undercarriage, and Owen crash-landed at his base. As it slid across the airfield, the Beaufighter collided with a Spitfire, a concrete mixer and a fuel tanker – all of which some wag added to their tally on the squadron score board – before finally smashing into a wall. The aircraft was completely wrecked.

A few weeks later Owen accounted for another Heinkel as well as an Italian four-engine bomber, which he intercepted at 20,000ft north of Bone, in Algeria. Both he and McAllister were awarded DFMs.

Subsequently, operating over Sicily, the crew shot down three more aircraft and damaged two others before returning to England in November 1943 to be instructors.

After his successes over Germany, Owen remained with No 85 until June 1946, initially as a flight commander and later – at the age of only 23 – as the CO. He left the RAF for civilian life but could not settle, and in July 1947 rejoined as a flight lieutenant.

Owen was sent to No 13 Squadron in Egypt, flying Mosquitos on aerial mapping photographic work. In 1950 he returned to England to develop radar interception tactics at the Central Fighter Establishment.

After flying night fighters in Germany, he converted to the Meteor jet fighter and assumed command in Malta of No 39 Squadron, which later moved to Cyprus in case it was required for operations during the Suez crisis; in the event, it did not see action.

After a period at the School of Land/Air Warfare at Old Sarum, working as air liaison officer with the Army's Southern Command, Owen returned to the night fighter role in April 1962, taking command of No 23 Squadron.

This was in the early days of in-flight refuelling, and in October he led three of the squadron's Javelins on a non-stop flight from Britain to Aden, setting a Fighter Command record of eight hours 50 minutes.

Two months later the squadron extended its range when Owen led 12 Javelins from RAF Coltishall, in Norfolk, to Singapore and back using in-flight refuelling and staging through the RAF's bases in Cyprus, the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. In January 1964 he was awarded an AFC.

From October 1964 until his retirement from the service in July 1969, Owen served in the fighter operations division at the Ministry of Defence before being posted to a Sector Operations appointment near Jever in Germany.

This was during the Cold War, when it was a primary function of the RAF to monitor the incursions and activities of Warsaw Pact aircraft and to maintain the integrity of Nato airspace.

Following his retirement from the RAF, Owen worked for the British Aircraft Co-operation Commission in Saudi Arabia for two years.

In 1974 he was appointed road safety officer for East Sussex county council. After promotion to county road safety officer, he transferred to a similar position with Kent county council before retiring in 1984.

For much of his life Owen enjoyed a vigorous game of squash, later choosing golf as his principal sporting pastime.

"Red" Owen died on February 13. He married, in 1945, Rita Drew, who survives him with their two sons and four daughters.
 
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Wing Commander Lucian Ercolani :salute:
Wing Commander Lucian Ercolani, who has died aged 92, was a wartime bomber pilot decorated three times for gallantry in operations over Europe and in the Far East; he was later chairman of the family furniture company Ercol.
On the night of November 7/8 1941, Ercolani took off in his Wellington of No 214 Squadron to attack Berlin. The target was obscured by cloud, and Ercolani dropped his high-explosive bombs but decided not to release the incendiaries as, if dropped in the wrong place, they might cause confusion for the following aircraft.

Over Munster on the return journey, his aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire, and the incendiary containers caught fire. The crew's attempt to jettison them failed and the fire spread over the whole of the bomber's floor, filling the aircraft with smoke.
The flames eventually subsided, but were never completely extinguished, leaving the midsection of the aircraft almost burned away with most of the fuselage fabric destroyed. The aircraft's wings and engines had also been damaged, and it steadily lost height and speed.

Despite the appalling state of his aircraft and his limited ability to control it, Ercolani decided to try to make it to England. The journey took three hours: he crossed the enemy coast at 1,000ft and eventually had to ditch in the Thames Estuary.

When the aircraft hit the water Ercolani was injured, and he went down with the sinking bomber – but the cockpit section floated to the surface, allowing him to join his crew in the dinghy, which then floated into the North Sea and eventually along the English Channel. The searching ships and aircraft failed to locate it, and the crew's attempts to paddle ashore were ineffective. Finally, after three days drifting in the bad November weather, Ercolani and his men were washed up on the southernmost tip of the Isle of Wight.

Flying Officer Ercolani was awarded an immediate DSO – a very rare accolade for so junior an officer – for "outstanding courage, initiative and devotion to duty".

The son of an Italian furniture designer and manufacturer who had come to England in 1910, Lucian Brett Ercolani was born at High Wycombe on August 9 1917 and educated at Oundle, where he excelled at sport. He left school in 1934 to work at his father's company, Ercol.

When war broke out he joined the RAF and trained as a pilot in Canada, returning in May 1941 to join No 214 Squadron. In October the next year Ercolani left for India, joining No 99 Squadron near Calcutta.

The squadron was one of two Wellington long-range bomber units used to attack enemy airfields and river, road and rail supply routes. Ercolani led many of these missions over the ensuing months before the squadron switched to night bombing. Inadequate maps, appalling weather and poor aircraft serviceability due to lack of spares added to the hazards of flying during the "Forgotten War".

With the expansion of the strategic bomber force and the introduction of the long-range Liberator, in September 1943 Ercolani went to the newly-formed No 355 Squadron. He flew many sorties deep into enemy territory, some involving a round trip of 2,000 miles, to destroy the supply networks used to reinforce and support the Burma battlefield. An important and frequent target was the Siam-Burma railway built by Allied PoWs.

In September 1944 Ercolani returned as CO to No 99 Squadron, where he won the respect and affection of his airmen ("erks", in RAF slang), who affectionately dubbed him "THE Erk". He led many of the most difficult raids himself, often taking his heavy four-engine bomber as low as 100ft to drop his delay-fused bombs as his gunners strafed buildings or rolling stock.

He attacked supply dumps and Japanese headquarters, and throughout the early months of 1945 regularly led forces of up to 24 Liberators against targets in Siam, southern Burma and on the Kra Isthmus, often in the face of heavy anti-aircraft fire. He was the master bomber for an attack against the railway system at Bangkok and was mentioned in despatches.

By the end of March 1945 the decisive battle for central Burma was won, and a few weeks later the "erks" of No 99 bade a sad farewell to their popular CO. For his outstanding leadership and courage he was awarded a Bar to his DSO.

Ercolani was then put in command of No 159 Squadron, part of the Pathfinder Force, attacking targets in Malaya and flying a number of mining operations to distant ports, including Singapore – sorties of more than 20 hours duration.

On June 15 he led a force of Liberators to attack a 10,000-ton tanker, the Tohu Maru, which had been located in the South China Sea. The mission involved a round trip of 2,500 miles. Flying in appalling weather, some of the Liberators were unable to find the target, while some were damaged by enemy fire. Ercolani attacked at low level and made three separate bombing runs, registering successful hits on the tanker, which caught fire. Subsequent reconnaissance reports confirmed that it had sunk, a devastating blow to the Japanese troops depending on its vital cargo of fuel. Ercolani was awarded an immediate DFC.

He flew his last operation on August 5 when he attacked a target in Siam. Almost immediately, his squadron then turned its attention to dropping food and medical supplies to the many PoW camps spread across Siam and the East Indies.

Ercolani left the RAF in March 1946 and rejoined his father at Ercol. Owing to the scarcity of raw materials, new furniture had been rationed since 1942, and the particular achievement of the Ercolanis was to mass-produce the Windsor chair while conforming to the stringent requirements of cost and material laid down by the Board of Trade. At its peak of production, Ercol made around 3,000 Windsor chairs a week.

For many years Ercolani served as chairman and joint managing director with his brother. He formally retired in the mid-1990s but remained closely involved with the company until his death on February 13.

In 1980 he became Master of the Furniture Makers' Guild, of which his father had been a founder member.

Ercolani took a great interest in young people and in their education, whether they were Ercol's apprentices or those training in design. For some years he served as a governor at High Wycombe College.

In 1992 he was awarded an honorary doctorate in design by the Council of National Academic Awards. He was a devoted supporter of the British Legion, and had a passion for classic cars and for sailing – his many forays to sea took him from the Hamble to France and to the Azores.

Lucian Ercolani married, in 1941, Cynthia Douglas. She died in 2004, and he is survived by their daughter; a son predeceased him.
 
Ryszard Kaczorowski :salute:
Ryszard Kaczorowski, who has died aged 90, was the last president of the Polish government-in-exile, which for two generations defied political gravity by continuing to exist after the Soviet takeover of eastern Europe.
Uniquely among the exiled governments of the Second World War, the Polish version had a constitutional mechanism for a legitimate administration to be formed on foreign soil. When the existing government was interned in Romania after Poland was invaded by the Germans and the Russians in 1939, a substitute was formed in Paris. It soon moved to London, where it was a valued ally until the Attlee government stopped recognising it in favour of Soviet-dominated Warsaw.

As some 300,000 Poles made new lives in Britain, rather than return to their occupied homeland after the war, their administration survived for 45 years, growing old and quarrelling bitterly. For many observers it seemed an unreal survival from an ancient comedy.
The age of its cabinet members — unpaid volunteers who had retired from the jobs they had found in Britain — ranged from 60 to 81.

There was a minister for military matters without an army, a ministry of justice with no law courts and a minister for foreign affairs who enjoyed no official recognition anywhere.

Yet they looked after the interests of the Polish diaspora and exasperated the authorities in what they often referred to as "the inhuman land", who declared that those who worked against the "People's" Poland were no longer welcome.

Their dogged opposition to the Soviet Union exasperated the Foreign Office by their refusal to countenance the western powers' attempts to find an accommodation with the Soviet government .

Kaczorowski had been serving as minister of home affairs for three years when, on July 19 1989, he was called out of a performance of An Ideal Husband at a West End theatre to be told that President Kazimierz Sabbat had died, having nominated him as his successor.

A retired accounts clerk with a dignified carriage and a genial disposition, Kaczorowski had the power to appoint the cabinet but did not preside at its meetings. For the 18 months of his presidency he was the public representative of Free Poland as the Communist regime fell apart.

When the international press called at "The Castle", his government's headquarters in Eaton Place, Belgravia, he would explain in a thick guttural accent that he represented the legitimate authority in the Poland he had not seen for almost 50 years.

Being sworn in as president was the greatest honour, he would say, then add: "Yet not so. The greatest days will be when I cease to be president." As he spoke, he would point to the insignia of the Polish state laid out on the table before him — the handwritten copy of the 1935 constitution and the presidential seal .

Kaczorowski shunned official approaches from Communists in Poland, and remained uneasy about the attitude of Poles in their homeland until three weeks before the first free general election under Communist rule to the presidency and lower parliamentary house.

Lech Walesa, Solidarity's presidential candidate, sent an envoy to London, saying that he did not want to receive power from the discredited General Jaruzelski but from the hands of President Kaczorowski.

On the day of Walesa's inauguration Kaczorowski, with some 30 ministers and supporters, assembled at Ealing Broadway tube station at 7am to travel to Heathrow, where they took a plane to Warsaw . However, their flight was late, so they failed to make their planned entrance into Polish airspace at the moment General Jaruzelski surrendered power.

The son of a railwayman, Ryszard Kaczorowski was born on November 26 1919 at Bialystok, eastern Poland, where he went to a commercial school. Although a teetotaller, he found work with a wine merchant. He also became a scoutmaster, rising to commandant of the Szare Szeregi (The Grey Ranks).

After the outbreak of war he was responsible for running messages for the emerging underground movement. In 1940 he was arrested by the invading Russians and accused of being a British spy; his captors reminded him that Baden Powell, founder of the scout movement, had been a British spy in South Africa.

After being taken to the headquarters of the NKVD security force, Kaczorowski was sent on to Minsk. He was sentenced to death and spent 100 days with three other prisoners in an underground cell . They were asked to sign a petition seeking mercy, which they refused to do. Eventually the sentence was reduced to 10 years in a labour camp, and Kaczorowski was sent to the gold mines of Kolyma in the north-east Arctic.

There he shifted earth from 4am to 9pm daily, which left him unable to close his hands. But after the German invasion of Russia, he was sent to a transit camp at Magadan, then allowed to join the Polish Army.

As a signalman with the 3rd Carpathian Division, 2nd Polish Corps, he took part in the battle for Monte Cassino .

Kaczorowski arrived in Britain without speaking a word of English and settled in London, where he married Karolina Mariampolska, with whom he had two daughters. In the course of the next four decades he worked as an accounts clerk for four firms while becoming chief commissioner of the Polish scouts and chairman of the Polish Scouts Council.

When he retired at 65 he was asked by Count Raczynski, the government-in-exile's president, to join the Polish National Council, and he was appointed minister of home affairs. His responsibilities could be somewhat surreal; he was once required to draw up railway timetables for when Russia returned Poland's former eastern provinces. But he demonstrated a steadiness which prompted President Sabbat to name him as his successor.

After returning to his homeland to hand over his insignia of office to President Walesa at the Royal Castle in Warsaw, Kaczorowski went back to London to preside over the dissolution of the upper house (the Senate) and the sale of the Eaton Place headquarters.

Although he continued to live in London, he became a regular visitor to Poland, where he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the local university at the former NKVD headquarters, where he had been interrogated in 1940.

He died on Saturday in the air crash, near Smolensk in western Russia, which killed Poland's President Lech Kaczynski and more than 90 others.
 
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