From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pilot Officer Adrian Francis Laws 1912 - 1940

Born in East Dereham Norfolk and enlisted in the ranks of the RAF in 1931.

Promoted Flight Sergeant on 1st July 1940.

Piloted Spitfire Mark I's with 64 Squadron.

Combat Record:

12 June 1940 - one half of He 111 destroyed; 29 July 1940 - Bf 109E destroyed; 11 August 1940 - Bf 109E damaged; 13 August 1940 - Do 17 damaged; 15 August 1940 - Bf 109E destroyed; 18 August 1940 - Bf 110 and one half of He 111 destroyed.

Adrian Laws was killed on 30th September 1940 as the result of a collision with another Spitfire while training new arrivals at 64 Squadron ^[1].

"The King has been graciously pleased to approve the under-mentioned award, in recognition of gallantry displayed in flying operations against the enemy:- Awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal - 514143 Flight Sergeant Adrian Francis Laws - This airman has taken part in numerous operational flights since May, 1940. He has destroyed five enemy aircraft and damaged another two. His initiative, courage and tenacity have been outstanding. ^[2]

Overview

Adrian Laws was born in 1912 in East Dereham, Norfolk. Little is known about his childhood for he has no surviving relatives that knew him (his daughter Su was born two weeks after his death).

64 Squadron was also born in Norfolk, being formed in August 1916 at Sedgeford RFC station near Fakenham. In October 1917 they took their DH5's to the larger airfield at Bircham Newton, just ten miles down the road. ^[3]

At the age of nineteen Laws enlisted in the ranks of the RAF. 64 Squadron was reformed at Heliopolis in 1935 during the Abyssinian crisis. Equipped with two-seater Demons they were to return to the UK within 15 months.

By late 1939 Laws was flying Blenheims out of Church Fenton in the Leconfield sector. War had started, yet nothing seemed to be happening on the wider front. By now an extremely accomplished pilot, Laws could not have been unhappy when 64 Squadron converted to the new Spitfire Mark I.

The Battle of Britain was about to begin in earnest.

12th June 1940

Laws was blooded on this day, participating in the hunt and destruction of what appeared to be a lone He 111. The battle was still in its early days and this is reflected by the length and detail of the combat reports. Later on in the battle a more sanguine Laws is to comment "closed into attack and usual dog-fight ensued". But here, both he and Gilbert describe every twist and turn of the engagement ^[4].

The incident also shows the deadly effect of radar and observer tracking. The lone bomber trying to sneak out at zero feet was not allowed to escape. Laws and Gilbert, supposed to fly in section, actually left the ground ten minutes apart. So it was Gilbert who found the raider first and emptied his guns into the enemy aircraft. One engine was damaged and one gunner was killed or injured.

A short time later the He 111 was to become the object of Laws' attention. He hounded the damaged bomber to wave-top height with two passes. While two other Spitfires arrived to take shots at what was now a wallowing enemy, Laws emptied his guns and watched the Heinkel settle on the water. His reluctance to leave his first kill is evident as he describes circling the plane and seeing the crew inflating their dinghy.

29th July 1940

By this time 64 Squadron were being led by Aeneas MacDonell ^[5], a man who would go on to have a distinguished RAF career. He had been heavily involved in the fighting over the convoys on 25th July. He had bagged a Ju 87 Stuka before he himself was badly shot up in combat with a Ju 88 off Dover. MacDonnell however was unhurt and managed to land safely. MacDonell, official head of the Glengarry clan, was to say about his squadron's pilots "it's like holding a team of wild horses when there are Germans near" .

On this day the wild horses of 64 Squadron found their action amongst the German fighters when they engaged a flight of 109's over St. Margaret's Bay at eight o'clock in the morning. Sadly no combat reports survive for this engagement, but we do know that 64 Squadron's Sgt. Binham was shot down, managing to force-land his aircraft safely.

Laws avenged Binham's indignity by shooting down a 109.

11th August 1940

The German's planned "Eagle Day" was cancelled for the second day running due to the cloudy weather that prevailed ^[6]. In place of this operation the Luftwaffe mounted a "free chase" over Sussex. The formation consisted of more than 30 fighters and the German plan was to draw the RAF interceptors away from bombing raids going into Weymouth and Portland. Four squadrons took the bait and 64 Squadron were vectored to intercept the force as it started to make its way home.

The rear section was the first to spot the enemy who had a 5000 feet height advantage. It seems the squadron had found about half the retreating force of Me 109's. There then followed a strange processional attack by the Germans which overshot the 8 Spitfires of 64 Squadron who then pounced to their own attack. This gave them a definite advantage in the minutes that followed: MacDonnell - "...exhausted ammunition in several dead astern bursts..." O'Meara - "...attacked from astern..." Laws - "...three second burst from dead astern..." ^[7] The 109 that Laws attacked was on the tail of Blue 1. Assuming the Messerschmitt had some ammunition left, the pilot of Blue 1 had reason to be thankful. It was Pilot Officer Gilbert, who was destined to survive the war. There is almost an air of disappointment in the description of the enemy tactics in the last paragraph of the Squadron Combat Report. They may have been largely new pilots, drafted in to replace mounting Luftwaffe losses of more experienced fighters. Or maybe they had expended too much ammunition and fuel in previous engagements and were simply running for home. The cloudy conditions meant that none of the aircraft engaged could be confirmed as destroyed.

13th August 1940 - Eagle Day

Bomber attacks were directed towards British airfields on this day but a combination of fighter resistance and thick clouds served to foil them ^[8].

Also it seems that the bomber crews were suffering from frayed nerves. Laws was a member of "Flight B" when they spotted a formation that they identified as Dornier 215's. The enemy, set on a north-easterly course, needed no more persuasion than the sight of Spitfires to turn and run for home. Once on the run the formation opted simply for speed and wasted no energy on evasion. However when Laws latched onto his tail one German pilot decided to fight for his life. He led Laws into a series of steep diving turns that challenged both Laws and his Spitfire to keep up. A lesser pilot would have been thrown off; Laws clung on. The German, with his rear gunner disabled from the initial attack, may have believed he'd done enough to lose his tormentor and straightened up to dive for cloud. He reached the cloud, but on his way collected more Spitfire ordnance in his fuselage ^[9].

15th August 1940 - The coining of "The Few"

This day saw the christening of a legend as Churchill grumbled his way through one of his most famous speeches in the Commons. At last the country had a label, and the label was to stick - The Few.

The results of the engagements that took place on the 15th can be seen as a victory for the escorting German fighters in as much as they held back the intercepting British fighters and the bombers pressed home their attack. It also symbolises the courage of the newly christened Few.

Eighty-eight Dornier 17's approached Deal escorted by more than 130 Me 109's. At least 60 more Me 109's crossed the Kent coast at Dover. Three airborne squadrons were sent to intercept - 36 British fighters against 278 enemy planes, odds of more than 7-1, fighter to fighter odds of 5-1.

It was the 60 Messerschmitts over Dover that were to meet 64 Squadron. The Squadron Combat Report well conveys the swift and dangerous environment of the ensuing battle that raged back across the Channel towards the French coast. MacDonnell waded into four 109's destroying one before being forced to evade the attack of two more. Gilbert knocked an 109 off the tail of a Spitfire with a devastating five second burst before himself being hit.

Laws bagged his second confirmed 109 with a skilful piece of marksmanship amongst the chaos. He struck with a beam attack as the machine slowed slightly at the top of a turn. Two more three second bursts into the tail of the diving enemy turned the 109 into a flaming coffin ^[10].

This 109 was not the only light in the sky that afternoon; a Spitfire seen spinning in flames was Pilot Officer Andreae, who did not survive. Pilot Officer Roberts was also shot down but was taken prisoner on French soil.

18th August 1940 - The Hardest Day

On this day a low level flight of Dorniers from the Luftwaffe's 9th Staffel and another force of Junkers 88's, combined with a higher level bombing group of more Dorniers to completely fox the defences and deal out severe damage to Kenley airfield. Such was the surprise achieved that the controller at Kenley shouted "Bandits overhead!", causing the leader of 64 Squadron (20,000 feet above the airfield) to search the sky above him for the enemy aircraft. His attention was then attracted to the bomb-bursts on the airfield and 64 dived to the attack.

Events that followed have fuelled the debate over kills and claims made by the RAF and are dealt with in detail in the book "The Hardest Day" by Alfred Price. According to Price the Dornier that Squadron Leader MacDonnell claimed as a kill was actually a Messerschmitt 110. Furthermore the pilot had simply played dead and let his aircraft drop crazily through the sky as MacDonnell pressed home the attack. His desperate measure worked and after spinning down for 6000 feet he was able to pull out and head for home. But in this case the damage sustained from MacDonnell's attack forced the pilot to crash land before crossing the English coast.

But the star of the day's drama for Price was surely a Junkers 88 that was shot out of formation by Pilot Officer Wlasnowolski of 32 Squadron. On its way down (according to Price) it attracted the attentions of a further five British fighters. Wlasnowolski claimed a Dornier as did Peter Brothers, who had recovered from a spin in time to have a pop at the Junkers. Sanders of 615 Squadron reported a Ju 88 destroyed with assistance from another Hurricane.

Pilot Officer O'Meara of 64 Squadron apparently had a broader vision of the scene and admitted joining four other planes in an attack on a Ju 88 which crashed at Biggin Hill. Adrian Laws and Flight Sergeant Gilbert seem to have administered the coup de grace to the unfortunate bomber and added insult to the injury by claiming an He 111. It has been reckoned by Price that this single German loss was counted at least four and a half times in the British total for the day. Whatever the truth behind this incident, the bomber's crew were unable to enjoy their notoriety as they had become a part of the landscape that they had travelled so far to bomb.

(Despite his sometimes stern "auditing" of the figures, Price's is an excellent book. It contains a startling series of pictures taken by a correspondent riding in one of the planes involved in the low level attack and, as a whole, is unmatched as a study of a single day of the battle.)

Adrian Laws went on from the engagement with the mysterious Heinkel to save an unknown Hurricane pilot by removing a Me 110 from his tail and despatching it earthwards. It was the last time that Laws would kill. He himself had just six weeks left to live.

The very next day 64 Squadron move back to Leconfield and Ringway to become part of No.13 Group in the Church Fenton sector.

The death of Adrian Laws

We are lucky to have a first hand account of the death of Adrian Laws written by one of his fellow pilots. Arthur Gerald Donahue, Pilot Officer and American farm boy. Quite an unusual mix for Britain in 1940, in fact Donahue has the unique and largely unrecognised position as the first American citizen to take up arms against the Nazi menace. His diaries would published as a book before the Battle's end, "Tally-Ho! - A Yankee in a Spitfire".

Donahue joined 64 squadron on 4th August 1940. He was shot down by an Me 109 on 12th August, managing to bail out wounded. He was to spend slightly less than seven weeks recovering from his wounds. Throughout his book Donahue uses pseudonyms when referring to his fellow pilots, possibly a requirement of wartime security.

When he writes of his return to the squadron in late September we meet a character called "Andy". From the known facts it is easy to positively identify Andy as Adrian Laws.

Donahue writes "I rejoined my squadron several days before my leave expired...I learned that the heroism of some of the boys hadn't gone unrecognised. Three DFC's and one DFM had gone to the squadron...Andy, who had four confirmed, received the DFM because he was a flight sergeant and not a commissioned officer at the time...He had worked up from the ranks to become an exceptional fighter pilot. He had just been awarded a commission as pilot officer but wasn't living in the officers' mess yet because he hadn't yet purchased his uniform."

Moving on to 29th September, Donahue writes:

"That night Andy appeared in the officers' mess for the first time, wearing his new uniform as an officer, with the pretty, striped purple and white silk ribbon of his DFM looking very neat under his wings on the left side of his chest. If anyone deserved a commission and the right to wear the King's uniform, he did. He had been a mainstay of the squadron all through from the time of Dunkirk, acting as leader of the squadron's rear-guard section most of the time, often with pilots of higher rank following him in his section; and he had certainly served his King and Country well.

"We were all glad afterward that he got to spend that evening in the mess, and I'm glad that I spent a pleasant hour with him in his room before we went to bed, chatting with him about America, in which he was very interested, and lending him some American magazines. We arranged that the next morning Percy, a new pilot, and I would fly with him in a section of three machines to a target range where we would do some aerial target practise.

"Next morning Andy had to give a group of new pilots some practise flying before we went to the target range; so as I was badly in need of some practise too I went for a little cross-country jaunt in my machine, familiarising myself with our present sector of operations. While I was up I could hear distant voices over the R/T which I knew were those of Andy and the pilots he was flying with. When I heard them plainly I could tell it was usually Andy giving one of the others some order, or coaching them on their flying. I didn't pay much attention to what was being said, but I noticed that when I was returning to the airdrome Control seemed to be calling "Yellow One" and having difficulty in getting a reply.

"The leader of Yellow section was Andy, and he wasn't having trouble with his R/T. Percy ran out to meet me as I taxied in, and with agonised face told me, "Andy and Nels have collided and Andy's gone in, and it looks like there isn't much hope!"

"There wasn't. After half an hour's dumb sad waiting around the telephone in our pilots' hut we heard the story. His tail had been sheared off and his machine had gone all the way down, tumbling over and over, and for some reason he hadn't bailed out. Nels had managed to land safely at another airdrome, as his machine wasn't badly damaged.

"Just another little sacrifice among the many thousands to curb one man's savage desire for power, of course; but I think for most of us in the squadron the loss of Andy was one of the most painful we'd had to bear.

The Accident

The character described as "Nels" in Donahue's account was in fact Sgt. Frederick Fenton Vinyard. This 24 year old from Birmingham had joined 64 Squadron on 15th September. Laws was flying Spitfire P9564 and Vinyard piloted K9805. Both were acting as a target formation for a section of Spitfires who were carrying out practise fighter attacks. Who the other pilots were is not recorded, but it is known that Sgt. Hopgood, Sgt. Limpenny and Pilot Officer Stanley were new arrivals at 64 Squadron at the end of September. They may well have made up the "attacking section".

Laws and Vinyard were flying at an altitude of 3000 feet when the accident occurred at 10.45. The following is from an Air Ministry letter written to the author ^[11]. The sources quoted by the Ministry were the RAF Casualty index and the P file held in archive at Hayes:

"Sgt. Vinyard reported that the two aircraft were flying semi-line abreast, semi-echelon starboard and six spans apart. The pilot of K9805 (Vinyard) closed in on P9564 (Laws). Shortly after, the under surface of the starboard mainplane of K9805 struck the top of the rear portion of the fuselage of P9564 and severed it. Immediately after the collision had occurred the entire rear portion of Laws' aircraft broke away and the aircraft went into a fast somersaulting dive and struck the ground, bursting into flames on impact. The aircraft crashed at Cranswick, 4 miles north of Leconfield, killing Laws instantly. Spitfire K9805 (Vinyard) went into a dive, but the pilot managed to gain control and land safely at Driffield airfield.

Exactly how the accident happened is forever lost to us. The following is from another Air Ministry letter written to the author ^[12].

"On 6 October 1940 Sgt. Frederick Fenton Vinyard was on an operational section patrol with two other Spitfires of 64 Squadron in the vicinity of Flamborough Head. The aircraft entered cloud in poor visibility (10/10ths) and the three aircraft then became separated. This was the last time that Sgt. Vinyard was seen by the other two pilots who both returned safely to base. However, at 15.10 hours a report was received from the Observer Corps that a Spitfire was seen to crash into the sea off Flamborough Head at 14.30 hours. Sgt. Vinyard is still reported as missing.

Vinyard's other two section members on that day were Flying Officer A. J. A. Laing and Pilot Officer Arthur Gerald Donahue.

[edit] References