Art Donahue
Arthur Gerald Donahue
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Nickname(s) | Art |
Born | St. Charles, Minnesota, United States |
29 January 1913
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Killed in action over the English Channel |
Allegiance | ![]() |
Service/ |
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Years of service | 1940–1942 |
Rank | Flight Lieutenant |
Service number | 81624 |
Unit | No. 64 Squadron RAF No. 71 Squadron RAF No. 91 Squadron RAF No. 258 Squadron RAF |
Battles/wars | World War II |
Awards | Distinguished Flying Cross |
Other work | Author |
Flight Lieutenant Arthur Gerald "Art" Donahue DFC (29 January 1913 – 11 September 1942) was an American fighter pilot who volunteered to fly for the British Royal Air Force in World War II. He was one of 11 American[1] pilots who flew with RAF Fighter Command between 10 July and 31 October 1940, thereby qualifying for the Battle of Britain clasp to the 1939–45 campaign star. He was killed in action in September 1942.
Contents
Early life
Donahue was born to Frank and Ada Donahue in 1913 and was raised on a dairy farm near St. Charles, Minnesota.[2] He learned to fly as a teenager at the Conrad Flying Service, operated by Max Conrad, an aviator known as the "Flying Grandfather" who had set numerous world records for distance and endurance. Becoming Minnesota's youngest commercially certificated pilot at the age of 19, Donahue helped Conrad helping to run the flight school until he left to enlist in the Royal Air Force.[3] He traveled to Canada, claimed to be Canadian, and was accepted.[4]
Royal Air Force service
After training with No. 7 Operational Training Unit, he was assigned to No. 64 Squadron at RAF Kenley on 3 August 1940. Two days later, he saw combat against Messerschmitt Bf 109s off the French coast, and suffered serious damage to his aircraft, forcing him to land at RAF Hawkinge.[4] Donahue thus became one of ten Americans to fly for the RAF in the Battle of Britain in 1940.[3]
A week later, on 12 August, he was wounded in combat over England's south coast in his Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I. He was forced to bail out of his burning aircraft, and suffered burns and leg injuries.[4]
On 29 September 1940, he was reassigned to No. 71 Squadron, one of three Eagle Squadrons, RAF units composed of American pilots,[4][5] but did not see combat with that unit. Because of the lack of action, he requested to be reassigned to No. 64 Squadron, arriving back there on 23 October.[4]
In February 1941, Donahue served with No. 91 Squadron, although in March he went on leave back to the USA. In October 1941 he was posted to No. 258 Squadron in the Far East, and participated in the Battle of Singapore, also seeing action over Sumatra in February 1942, where he was wounded by ground fire. After returning to England in mid-1942, he rejoined No 91 Squadron as a flight commander. He became the first American in RAF history to lead an all-English squadron.[3][dubious ] He was credited with downing two enemy aircraft, with two more probables and one damaged. He was awarded four medals, including the UK's Distinguished Flying Cross on 27 March 1942.[2][3][4]
Death
Flight Lieutenant Donahue was killed in action on 11 September 1942, while a member of No. 91 Squadron. Attempting to intercept a Ju 88, his plane was hit by return fire and ditched in the English Channel. His body was never found.[2][3] Donahue once wrote in a letter to his parents, "My life may not be long, but it will be wide."[3] He is commemorated on the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede in Surrey, England.[2]
Donahue wrote two books about his RAF service, Tally-Ho! Yankee in a Spitfire and Last Flight from Singapore.[3]
Honors and awards
- 27 March 1942, Distinguished Flying Cross awarded to Flying Officer Arthur Gerald Donahue (81624), Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, No. 258 Squadron.[6]
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This officer has carried out many low level reconnaissance sorties and.- has successfully attacked enemy shipping and ground objectives. On one occasion, whilst carrying out an attack against enemy troops attempting a landing, Flying Officer Donahue silenced the enemy's fire, thus enabling the rest of the formation to press home their attacks with impunity. He has destroyed several enemy aircraft.
— London Gazette
See also
References
- ↑ Battle of Britain – Roll of Honour
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Commonwealth War Graves Commission
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 "First hero: St. Charles man an early WWII hero" Winona Daily News, 11 November 2006
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Battle of Britain pilots biographies
- ↑ Donahue 1942, p. ?.
- ↑ London Gazette 27 March, 1942
Bibliography
- Donahue, Arthur Gerald. (1944). Last Flight from Singapore. London: Macmillan & Company.
- Donahue, Arthur Gerald. (1941). Tally-Ho! Yankee in a Spitfire. New York: McMillan & Company.
- Kershaw, Alex. (2006). The Few. Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press. ISBN 978-0-306-81303-0
External links
- Use dmy dates from April 2012
- All accuracy disputes
- Articles with disputed statements from January 2013
- American World War II flying aces
- Aviators from Minnesota
- Aviators killed by being shot down
- People from Winona County, Minnesota
- Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)
- Royal Air Force officers
- The Few
- 1913 births
- 1942 deaths
- American expatriates in the United Kingdom
- American memoirists
- American military writers