Obituaries

Joy Lofthouse – ATA Pilot

Female Spitfire pilot who flew the planes from factories to the front lines and was celebrated as 'a lovely lady and a trail-blazer for all women' has died aged 94. Joy Lofthouse, who also flew Hurricanes, was one of only 164 women who were allowed into the Air Transport Auxiliary. The small group of female pilots dubbed the 'Attagirls' were based at White Waltham in Berkshire and were trained to fly 38 types of aircraft between factories and military airfields across the country.
The ATA was formed in 1940 when, despite some male opposition, women were allowed to fly military trainer and communications aircraft. Mrs Lofthouse, from South Cerney in Gloucestershire, learned to fly before she learned to drive.
Mrs Lofthouse joined the ATA in 1943 after spotting a notice in a magazine calling for women to learn to fly. The Royal International Air Tattoo said she was an "amazing character with even more amazing stories".
In an interview last year, she said: "I saw this caption in the Aeroplane magazine that said the ATA had run out of qualified pilots and were training. So I applied and I was in." Trained at Thame in Oxfordshire, she learnt to fly all types of single-seater aircraft but without a driving licence, she said she found "taxiing much more difficult than flying". "We had nine days of technical training - it wasn't very technical - no navigation, just map reading," she said. "After about 10 hours [of flying], they sent you off solo. My first solo flight I think you're only afraid if you're going to find the airfield again." The auxiliary suffered 156 casualties, mostly due to bad weather, but Mrs Lofthouse said when you are young "you don't think about the danger". "It was just part of the war effort. I felt very lucky that I was allowed to do something so rewarding," she said. In 2015, she returned to the skies, taking control of a Spitfire 70 years after last flying in one. Last summer, she was guest of honour in the Royal Box at Wimbledon, where she received an ovation from the centre court crowd.
And last November, she and fellow ATA pilot Mary Ellis were honoured in front of members of the Royal Family at the annual Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. In all, she flew 18 different types of aeroplane across her career but the "wonderful" Spitfire remained her favourite. "It's the nearest thing to having wings of your own and flying," she said.

Nick Bunting, Secretary General of the RAF Association said: "The RAF Association is saddened to hear of the passing of Joy, who was a pilot from the very beginning. She delivered all types of aircraft – including Spitfires, Hurricanes, Mosquitos and Lancasters – all over the country during WWII and was an honorary life member of the RAF Association. We have lost an inspirational member and send our condolences to her friends and family."

S/L Franciszek Kornicki

Squadron Leader Franciszek Kornicki, who has died aged 100, was the last surviving Polish fighter pilot to command a squadron during the Second World War. He was born in the village of Wreszyn in what is now south-east Poland on December 18 1916 and educated at a boarding school at nearby Hrubieszow. He attended the Polish Air Force Academy and graduated in March 1939, passing out third of an entry of 173. Kornicki was flying outdated Polish fighters when Germany invaded his country on September 1 1939. Despite a brave fight, the Polish squadrons were hopelessly outclassed. With the arrival of Soviet forces on the eastern border on September 17, the surviving pilots were told to escape to Romania. Kornicki travelled overland and reached the Black Sea port of Balchik where he boarded a ship sailing for Marseille. He was completing his flying training in France when the French government capitulated and he and his many Polish colleagues headed for the Spanish border and caught a boat to Liverpool. He joined the Polish Air Force in Britain before joining No 303 Squadron, which was resting in the North of England, before transferring to No 315 Squadron in January 1941 to fly the Hurricane. The squadron soon re-equipped with the Spitfire, and later in the year Kornicki started flying sweeps over France. He remained with the squadron for almost two years before being given command of No 308 Squadron at Northolt in February 1943. At the age of 26 he was the youngest squadron commander in the Polish Air Force. When the squadron moved north two months later, Kornicki transferred to command No 317 Squadron. Over the next eight months he flew and led many sweeps, bomber escorts and attack sorties over the occupied countries. In January 1944 he was rested after three years of flying on operations and joined the Polish Air Force staff before completing the Staff College course. He then joined the air staff of the Rear HQ of No 84 Group, part of the Second Tactical Air Force, which he joined in Belgium before the group and its squadrons advanced into the Netherlands and Germany. After the war he decided to remain in England following the Soviet occupation of his homeland. He married and managed a hotel but rejoined the RAF in the summer of 1951 when he resumed his flying career. Two years later he transferred to the catering branch and over the next 20 years served at various RAF stations at home and overseas, including tours in Malta, Cyprus and Aden. He retired as a squadron leader in 1972. For his long and outstanding wartime service he received Poland's highest honour for courage, the Virtuti Militari. He also received the Cross of Valour with two Bars. In June 2011 he was made a Commander of the Order of Polonia Restituta, which was presented to him by the President of Poland a year later. During the 70th Anniversary celebrations of the Battle of Britain in 2010, Kornicki was reunited with one of the Spitfires he flew when commanding No 317 Squadron. The Spitfire flew into Northolt and Kornicki was able to sit in the cockpit. In his final years Kornicki, a humble, modest man, became a national celebrity when he was voted "the People's Spitfire Pilot" in a poll launched by the RAF Museum. His story will be featured at the museum at Hendon in an exhibition to celebrate the RAF's centenary. Earlier this year he visited the RAF College Cranwell and signed the Wall of Gallantry, before meeting RAF officer cadets. Franciszek Kornicki is survived by his wife Pat and by their two sons. Franciszek Kornicki, born December 18 1916, died November 16 2017.

source: The Telegraph

Squadron Leader Geoffrey Rothwell

Squadron Leader Geoffrey Rothwell, who has died in New Zealand aged 97, completed 71 operations as a bomber pilot, awarded DFC and Bar, Chevalier of Order of Leopold II and Palme, Croix de Guerre and Palme flew with the Royal Air Force's Bomber Command and the subject of a biography, The Man With Nine Lives, not only survived seventy-one operations in a war in which the average pilot's chances of surviving were one in three, but also a near-fatal crash in which several of his crew were killed, and through which he subsequently became a prisoner-of-war.
At the time of D-Day Geoff was a Flight Commander in Special Duties 138 Squadron which was equipped with Stirling aircraft and which was attached to the renowned Special Operations Executive (S.O.E.). This squadron dropped secret agents and supplies to the Resistance Movements in enemy-oiccupied countries. However, on the eve of D-Day the squadron of Stirlings took part in a special mission to hoodwink the Germans into thinking the invasion was taking place in the Pas de Calais area many hundreds of miles from Normandy where the assault on the beaches would take place some hours later.
The Stirling dropped a phantom army of dummy parachutists knowns as "gingerbread men" with packages simulating gunfire. These dummy parachutists were made of hessian stuffed with straw. "They were about two feet six inches in height and looked like pigmy scarecrows," says Geoff.
After several hundred of the dummies had been dispatched Geoff's Stirling flew on through the night, eventually dropping containers of arms and ammunition to a Reistance reception in the Loire Valley. Geoff flashed a "V for Victory" sign and received a similar signal in return. He set course for base and as he did so he saw gun flashes and lights from vehicles speeding along the field. It must be the Germans. His first instinct was to fire at the lights but then he remembered that the Resistance often used transport to carry away the containers. He had to identify the vehicles and as he dived figures in the vehicles now distinct as German transport stood up and fired at the Stirling. "O.K. Wally, let 'em have it!" Geoff told his rear gunner who opened fire as the aircraft passed over the vehicles. "We beat it for home like bats out of hell," said Geoff.
At debriefing a mission was received to say the Gestapo had been tipped off that a drop would take place and they were on their way to the field when they were sighted by the crew of the Stirling.
The "gingerbread men" mission was successful and so, while nineteen German divisions of Hitler's best troops and Panzer forces sat motionless in the Pas de Calsis area, the battle for the beaches of Normandy was won by the Allies. It was the beginning of the end of the Thousand Year Nazi Reich...

more info: Squadron Leader Geoff Rothwell DFC & Bar

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5191163/Dambusters-radio-operator-dies-aged-97.html

Maureen Stevens, radio operator on the dambusters raid and wife of a bomber pilot passed away, a nice story.

A truly great woman. May she rest in peace.

Cpt. PHIL BRENTNALL, who has died aged 99, led a small force of RAF bombers that created a "ghost invasion" on the night of D-Day in June 1944; he went on to have a distinguished career as a training captain and fleet training manager with British Overseas Airways Corporation and British Airways.

During the build-up to the invasion of France the Allied command had devised a complex deception plan to convince the German defences that a large army had been formed in the South East of England and was being prepared for an amphibious assault across the narrowest part of the English Channel. The culmination of this intricate operation during the night of June 5/6 was to create the impression that a large fleet was approaching the Pas-de-Calais at the same time as the true invasion fleet was heading for Normandy.
To deceive the German radars, the scientists devised a plan for bomber aircraft to drop "window" – thin metallic strips which confused enemy radar – in a precise manner to create a "ghost fleet". This required extremely accurate flying, navigation, timing and co-ordination with a small fleet of boats towing radar-reflecting balloons and using electronic jammers and fake broadcasts. For almost a month the two squadrons tasked with the operation conducted trials and flew practice missions against radar sites in Yorkshire to perfect the techniques.
Brentnall was a flight commander on No 218 Squadron and one of its most experienced pilots. Late in the evening of June 5, he took off with seven other Stirling bombers (two were reserves) on this unique and vitally important operation. A similar force of Lancasters of No 617 Squadron had the same task approaching Cap d'Antifer.
Brentnall's crew was reinforced with a second pilot, two navigators and four airmen to act as "window" dispatchers. After take off they started to fly the complicated series of orbits while dispensing window as they crept to within 10 miles of the French coast. The operation, the most elaborate piece of "spoofing" in the electronic jamming war, was successful and drew high praise from the senior Allied commanders.
Shortly after this event, Brentnall was awarded the DFC, the citation commenting that his involvement resulted in "an outstanding success". He was assessed as an exceptional pilot, his squadron commander writing: "His contribution to the success of the squadron was unequalled."
Philip Brentnall was born in Manchester on December 15 1918. He joined the RAF in 1940 and trained as a pilot in the USA under the US/UK bi-lateral Arnold Scheme. After a period as a flying instructor he converted to bombers and joined No 218 Squadron in October 1943.
By the autumn of 1943 the four-engined Stirling was coming to the end of its time as a strategic bomber following heavy losses. The aircraft was being used increasingly to lay sea mines in the Baltic and close to the U-boat bases in the French ports along the Bay of Biscay. It was an operation not without its dangers, particularly when flying at low level.
Brentnall flew his first mining operation on October 17, and over the next few weeks he visited the Frisian Islands, Jutland, Kiel and numerous French ports. In the build-up to the D-Day landings he reverted to the bombing role and attacked railways and marshalling yards in northern France and the flying-bomb sites in the Pas-de-Calais region.
After his sortie on D-Day, the squadron replaced its Stirlings with the Lancaster and Brentnall bombed targets in Germany. After flying 30 operations he was rested and became an instructor on the Lancaster. Towards the end of 1945 he trained pilots to fly the new Avro York transport aircraft and early in 1946 he was seconded to BOAC.
Brentnall's early experiences of flying as a first officer to more elderly Imperial Airways captains, and their reluctance to accept advice convinced him of the need to formalise the roles of the monitoring pilot, now known as part of Crew Resource Management or CRM. Over the next three decades, Brentnall was to concentrate on training and the development of the company's first officers to become effective pilot monitors and future captains.

Brentnall flew the company's early piston-engined airliners and became a training captain on the Argonaut and then the new Comet 1, the world's first jet airliner. Following the Comet's withdrawal in 1954 he moved to the Douglas DC 7C fleet.
He was one of the company's first pilots to operate the Boeing 707 and in 1959 became the Fleet Training Manager when he developed the operating procedures for the aircraft, which were subsequently used throughout the airline. In addition to being an outstanding pilot and training manager, Brentnall was also an innovator. He ensured that first officers were able to operate with a complete role reversal when flying a sector and they were trained on instrument and procedural flying to the same standards as captains. In January 1961 he was awarded a Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service in the Air. In 1969 he and a fellow captain delivered BOAC's first Boeing 747 to Heathrow and he became responsible for the introduction of the airliner into BOAC service. Following the merger with British European Airways (BEA) in 1977, he became the General Manager Flight Training for all of British Airways until his retirement. In 1979 the Guild of Air Pilots and Navigators (GAPAN) awarded him the Cumberbatch Trophy for his "outstanding contribution to aviation safety". A senior BA captain and colleague described him as "the architect of the fine safety and performance record achieved by BOAC and BA".
A kind, modest and understanding man, Brentnall was greatly admired in the airline industry. A keen theatre and operagoer, he made a formidable bridge pair with his wife, and after her death he continued playing doubles; he and his bridge partner topped their club and came 21st out of 640 pairs across the UK.
He spent much of the summer months each year picking fruit, bottling it and making jam. The pantry was full on his death.

Phil Brentnall married his wife Hannah in 1958 and she died in 2012. A son and daughter survive him.