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EAGLE SQUADRONS - AMERICANS WITH THE R.A.F. By George Nolta
IntroductionMost of us remember the 1960’s, when many young Americans snuck across the Canadian border to evade the military draft, not wanting to go fight for their country in the Vietnam War. Few of us know or remember that just a generation before in the early 1940’s, a few thousand brave young Americans also snuck across the Canadian border, but with the intent to go fly with the Royal Air Force, so they could fight the Nazis in Europe before the menace reached our shores. What a difference a generation makes! This story is about one of those brave young volunteers of WWII – Vivian Eugene Watkins, of Willows, CA. Vivian was my mother’s first husband. He never made it back.
Vivian graduated from Willows High School in 1927, where he was Football Captain, President of the Ag Club, and active in Dramatics, Letterman Club, and Music. We heard that he sometimes played piano for Valla’s Blue Gum Lodge restaurant. Shortly before joining the RAF, he managed a Union 76 service station in Willows. He had married Edna Belle Annand of Afton in 1931, and they had one son – Eugene V. Watkins – in 1932. The marriage didn’t last long, and they divorced in 1935. Vivian was taught to fly by my uncle – Floyd “Speed” Nolta of Willows, and he accumulated about 410 hours of single-engine flight time, and about 36 hours of two-seater aircraft time. (Piloting a two-seater plane was one of the requirements for entering the RCAF or the RAF.) When Germany invaded Poland and France and then started to threaten England, Vivian came to believe that America could not avoid involvement. He wanted to fly in that war, so he made inquiries to the R.C.A.F., and they in turn put him in touch with the Clayton Knight Committee in Oakland, CA, which was handling recruitment in the northern California area. Vivian wrote a fascinating journal about his enlistment and training, which is included as an appendix to this article, and it tells in his own words how he got from a service station in Willows to the German war zone. (See Appendix A.) The journal abruptly ends around Aug. 1941 – about 9 months before his death in combat. We surmise that he learned about the prohibition of service men writing journals or diaries, so he was forced to stop his journal in mid-stream. Fortunately, the part that he did write gives us a brief but fascinating insight into his experiences. Vivian was 32 when he enlisted – far above the average age of 18-22 of the other volunteers.
Vivian’s mother - Mattie Watkins - experienced a roller coaster of emotions, as evidenced by three poignant stories in the Willows Journal:
Vivian initially was buried in a temporary gravesite, and then later transferred to his final resting place in the Bergen-op-Zoom War Cemetery in Noord-Brabant, Netherlands.
The Neutrality LawsGermany invaded Poland in September of 1939, and England and France declared war on Germany a few days later, while the U.S. was doggedly hanging on to an isolationist policy. The U.S. had passed a series of laws during the 1930’s to keep the country from getting embroiled in the growing turmoil in Europe and Asia. There was a strong belief at the time that America had been deceived into getting involved in WWI, and they wanted to avoid a repeat of that mistake. The Neutrality Acts were structured to keep the U.S. out of a possible European war. This, in effect, made it illegal for recruiters to hire Americans to go to Canada or England for enlistment purposes, or for U.S. citizens to volunteer for military service in England. A weakness of the Neutrality Acts was that they made no distinction between aggressor and victim, treating them both equally as “belligerents”.
The Volunteer EffortFrom the time that England got involved in hostilities with Germany in the late 1930’s until the U.S. officially got involved in the war at the end of 1941, there were various kinds of volunteer efforts where people from the U.S. and around the world volunteered to help Great Britain in any way that they could. One legal method was the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), which was formed in 1939 with the intent of taking over from British service pilots the task of ferrying RAF and RN (Royal Navy) warplanes from factories to maintenance units and front-line squadrons and back again from the squadrons if damaged or due for overhaul, i.e. “the ferry service”. The intent was to use pilots who were not eligible for RAF flying service due to some combat limitation, such as age, gender, medical deficiencies, etc. Men and women from around the world volunteered in this way, using their civilian flying experience to help with the war effort.
In spite of the Neutrality Laws, Britain strongly wanted the U.S. to provide planes and instructors to help with the pilot training effort. Even though the recruiting effort required experienced civilian pilots, they still needed military basic training to qualify the applicants, and to prepare them for RAF advanced flight and combat training. By November 1940, three private flying schools had become operational in the U.S., under the pretense of producing ferry pilots, but they actually focused on training fighter and bomber pilots. One of these civilian schools was the Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, OK.
A less legal way was for Americans to sneak into RAF combat roles by disguising their nationality. Many went first to Canada, and enrolled in the R.C.A.F. or obtained false identification as citizens of the United Kingdom. This was the method that Vivian used. The intent was to leave a sufficiently confused trail, which the U.S. officials would not notice, or would choose to ignore. However, it was risky business. Violators of the U. S. Neutrality Acts could face stiff penalties of up to $20,000 in fines, ten years in prison, and loss of citizenship. Some F.B.I. agents were assigned to track down these evildoers, but it doesn’t appear they had much success.
We also know of another local man who flew with the Eagle Squadrons. Dennis David “Jack” Smith was the son of Mr. & Mrs. D. D. Smith of the lake district of Orland, and he graduated from Orland H.S. in 1937. He enlisted and received training with the R.C.A.F., and then transferred to the RAF. He was flying with the 133 Eagle Squadron when he was shot down and killed over German-occupied France on Sep. 26, 1942 – just a few days before the Eagle Squadrons were merged into the Eighth Air Force. The Orland Register reported on Jan. 21, 1943 that Jack was “Orland’s first air hero to lose his life in actual aerial combat.” Jack was a member of the famous “Morlaix disaster”, to be discussed more later. At the young age of 23, Jack was buried in the Brittany American Cemetery in St. James, France.
The Recruiting ProcessStrong-willed citizens have a way of evading ill-conceived legislation. As early as 1939, motivated young Americans started finding ways to go help the British fight the belligerent Germans, regardless of the laws. In September of 1940, the first all-American Eagle Squadrons were formed in the RAF. The initial recruiting effort was started by several members of the wealthy Charles Sweeney family, but the leadership of the effort was soon transferred to the “Clayton Knight Committee”, a little-known organization formed by Clayton Knight to recruit American aviators into the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan between 1939 and 1942. Clayton Knight was an American writer and illustrator, who had served in the R.A.F. in WWI. He set up recruitment offices in various American cities to quietly recruit American airmen, and the organization was viewed by some as being illegal, but they were not stopped. It has been reported that Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt was in favor of the effort, and this may explain some of the lax enforcement of the Neutrality laws. Vivian found his way to the Oakland, CA office of the Clayton Knight Committee, and this was his avenue for applying to the R.C.A.F.
The recruiting effort took on a clandestine flavor, since the program bordered on the illegal. The Knight Committee quietly posted “information notices” about the need for RAF and RCAF pilots on the bulletin boards of civilian airports, being careful not to overtly ask for volunteers, nor to offer to hire them to go fight for England. At first, the U.S. War Dept. was opposed to the recruiting efforts, fearing that it would drain prospective candidates away from the Army and Navy recruiting efforts. However, Clayton Knight went to Washington to allay these fears. Knight assured the Army and Navy authorities that he would not recruit active duty members, and that he would only seek candidates who did not meet the Army and Navy’s strict standards. At the time, the U.S. military had very strict entry requirements for pilots, including two years of college, so many good candidates couldn’t qualify. Knight, in effect, promised: “We’ll only take your rejects.” The War Dept. withdrew their objections, and Knight’s recruiting proceeded full steam ahead. About one fourth of America’s unemployed pilots lived in California at the time, so major recruiting efforts were set up in the Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego areas.
The Eagle SquadronsA sprinkling of pre-Eagle Americans found their way into RAF fighting units in 1939 and 1940, and were involved in the deadly Battle of Britain. However, in Sept. of 1940, the RAF decided to form the Eagle Squadron – to be composed entirely of American flyers, but with British commanders. The first such group was the 71 Eagle Squadron. The format of the Eagle Squadron was based on the famous Lafayette Escadrille in France during WWI, which was composed of American volunteers. The squadron received Hurricanes in Jan. 1941, and started to fly operational escort patrols in the North Sea.
The American pilots wore RAF uniforms with the wings of the RAF. The one item to distinguish them from British RAF pilots was a special patch, which bore the American Eagle and had the letters “E.S.” embroidered at the top.
The number of American volunteers increased rapidly, so it was decided to form another Eagle Squadron. In May 1941, the 121 Eagle Squadron was formed at Kirton-in-Lindsey (a base in Linconshire, near the south-east coast of England). They began operational duty around Aug. 1941, mostly flying their older Hurricane IIb’s in sweep or escort duty. They did not see steady combat action until the summer and fall of 1942.
The last of the trio of Eagle Squadrons was formed at Coltishall airbase in Aug. 1941 – the 133 Squadron. (Near Norwich in eastern England.)
The Planes of the Eagle SquadronsThe early American volunteers were sometimes frustrated with their lack of proper fighting equipment. The RAF was short of fighters, and the pilots frequently had to wait for planes to be available for them. When planes did become available, they sometimes were obsolete or hand-me-down models. One of the earliest models that the Americans were given to fly was the Brewster “Buffalo”, an unpopular and strange-looking plane that was developed for the U.S. Navy. This plane was no match for the Luftwaffe fighters, so it was soon replaced with the Hawker “Hurricane”. However, many pilots feel the ultimate fighting machine turned out to be the famous Vickers Supermarine “Spitfire”. Eagle Squadron 71 received its first Spitfires – fourteen Mark IIAs – at North Weald airbase on August 20, 1941, after nine months of flying Hurricanes.
Both the Hurricane and the Spitfire, as well as many British bombers, were powered by the superb Rolls Royce “Merlin” engines, and both fighters were instrumental in England winning the “Battle of Britain”. The pilots who flew these two planes loved them, and bragged about how each plane was better than the other.
The British Reception of American VolunteersThe British people treated the American volunteers as heroes. The Brits greatly appreciated the selfless dedication of these young men who crossed the ocean to risk their lives for England. When the Americans entered a pub, they found all their drinks paid for by the owner or the patrons. Young British ladies found the Americans to be handsome and irresistible, so the pilots never lacked for companionship. Many aristocratic Britons invited Eagle members to their country estates for rest and relaxation, where they were treated royally. All this adulation, plus a sense of possible impending doom, led many of the Americans to become rather boisterous, if not downright rowdy. They liked to party, and they lived for the moment. A few of the British military leaders thought the whole idea of special squadrons for the Americans was just a propaganda tactic to help motivate the U.S. to enter the war, and they were initially skeptical of the real contribution that the Americans could make. However, the American pilots quickly demonstrated their ability to equal or exceed the results of their British cousins in combat.
Once America entered the war and England was flooded with many more American forces, the favorable attitudes were tempered a bit, and we saw the rise of mild resentments embodied by the now-famous expression of criticism: “The Americans have three problems: they’re overpaid, they’re oversexed, and they’re over here.”
The End of the RAF Eagle SquadronsAfter America formally entered the war in Dec. 1941, most of the Eagle Squadron pilots wanted to leave the RAF and join the Army Air Corp. However, it took time to work out the diplomatic and military details, so the Eagle Squadrons continued to operate as RAF units for about another year. Vivian was first assigned to the 121 Eagle Squadron, and later transferred to the 133 Eagle Squadron. He was flying a Spitfire Vb when a German Focke-Wulf 190 shot him down over the English Channel on Apr. 24, 1942. I obtained a casualty record about Vivian from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. It lists his Regiment as “Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve”, and his nationality as “United Kingdom”. (It’s interesting to speculate on how his nationality became “United Kingdom”.)
The merger of the Eagle Squadrons into the U.S. Eighth Air Force occurred in late Sept. 1942. As the merger was being finalized in September of 1942, the last mission of an Eagle Squadron ended in nearly total disaster. The 133 Squadron had recently been upgraded to Spitfire IXs. In a mission that was more public relations than operational, the unit was assigned to fly escort to some newly arrived USAAF B-17s on a mission to Brest (on the north-west corner of France) on Sept. 7, 1942. The mission had poor planning, and suffered from many sloppy mistakes of execution, including incompetent weather forecasting. Taking off from different bases, the Spitfires were scheduled to meet the B-17s at a pre-determined rendezvous point. Shortly after takeoff, the fighters were over solid overcast. When they reached the rendezvous point, the B-17s were nowhere to be seen. The bombers had unwittingly over flown the cloud-covered Brest peninsula because of an undetected 115 M.P.H. tailwind. When the fighters turned back, nearly out of fuel, they mistook the south shore of Brittany for the south coast of England. They were erroneously led down under the clouds by a new and inexperienced British squadron commander, where they ran into German flak and fighter interceptors, and started running out of fuel. They started crashing all over the peninsula. Only one pilot made it back to a crash landing in England, and the rest of the squadron was officially listed as “lost in adverse weather conditions” – a devious ploy to avoid bad press. On that mission, the Eagle Squadron lost all 12 Spitfires. Four pilots were killed outright, six taken prisoner by the Germans (one of which was later executed), one made it back to a crash landing in England, and one bailed out and evaded capture. One of those shot down and killed was Dennis “Jack” Smith, of Orland.
Robert E. “Bob” Smith was one of the surviving Eagle pilots from the Morlaix raid. Long after the war, Bob made these caustic comments about the aborted raid: “The big hooker was the metro briefing. Some clown masquerading as a weather officer forecast a 35-knot head wind at 28,000 feet, our mission altitude. Instead, we had a 100-knot tail wind – a 135-knot bloody streaking catastrophe. We never found out if it was stupidity or carelessness or whatever – or even who was really responsible. Whoever the thickheaded incompetent son of a bitch was, he can take credit for 12 Spitfires, brand new, destroyed; five good fighter pilots down the tubes; and assorted types of grief for the rest of us. He should have gotten the Iron Cross and a pension from the Third Reich.” All this happened just as the Eagle Squadrons were transitioning into the Army Air Force, so their RAF experience ended on a sour note.
Although thousands of Americans volunteered to
go help the British, only a small percentage of them actually got
into the Eagle Squadrons. Many were rejected for health or
proficiency reasons, many ended up in the Canadian air force, and
many ended up in the ferry service or in scattered squadrons of the
RAF. The 3 Eagle Squadrons existed for about two years in the RAF,
and nearly 40% of the 244 American Eagles were either killed or
captured while serving in the RAF. On Sept. 29, 1942, the three
Eagle Squadrons were officially disbanded by the RAF, and were
reformed as the 334th, 335th, and 336th
Fighter Squadrons of the Fourth Fighter Group, U.S. Eighth Air
Force. With the merger of the squadrons into the USAAF Eighth Air
Force, this marked the end of the famous Eagle Squadron saga. Some
transferred Eagle pilots went on to successful combat roles and full
military careers in the U.S. Air Force, while others became
casualties or prisoners of war in Europe or Asia. Many, like Vivian
Watkins and Jack Smith, remained in their graves in Europe.
APPENDIX AVIVIAN WATKINS JOURNAL HISTORY OF EAGLE 121 SQUADRON
Vivian’s Preface:
“This will be a brief of the history of the 121 American Eagle Squadron and a scrapbook of the writer. There will be a fairly accurate picture of the squadron as well as a history of my own life while being trained for and while I am with the squadron.
I make no attempt at absolute accuracy and I make no attempt to put it in story form. As I am not starting it until this day, you will find the past history fairly well written out, but as I catch up with events, you will notice it turns into more or less a diary form with scraps pasted in that are probably more to my personal history rather than that of the squadron.
The history of the squadron that follows in these pages, the memory of, I dedicate to those whose chairs are empty and whose may be empty, when so willingly gave their lives for a cause they saw ahead of the majority of their countrymen at home, and for their friendship for England they sought through all of this to do their part to again make the world safe for freedom, liberty, and peace loving people. God bless them.
V. E. Watkins
Introduction:Along in June of 1940, I was a firm believer that we would be in this war some time later, which prompted me to inquire as to the possibilities of getting into the R.A.F., or the R.C.A.F.
I inquired at the R.C.A.F. in Ottawa by mail, they in turn handed my name over to the Clayton Knight committee in Oakland, Calif., they in turn sending me an interview form to be filled out by myself.
Having done so, sometime later I received a personal letter from H. S. Stradley asking me to drop in and see him at my earliest convenience, which I did to find that he was the C.K.G. I discovered I had known Stradley for some 8 or 9 years. Stradley approached me with the idea of Eagle Squadron which I agreed was quite an opportunity and accepted.
Through changes in the program as I was originally with four other fellows, to go straight to England, it was not until Nov. 30, 1940 that we were finally given instructions. They were that I, with four others, were to proceed by air on the evening of Dec. 2nd, to Spartan School of Aeronautics.
After having been seen off by many of my friends at Oakland, we arrived the following morning at Tulsa, Oklahoma to start the task of getting all we could out of a brush up course that would put us in shape to fly Hurricanes and Spitfires.
During the course of this training, because the USA was still neutral, we were not allowed to tell our true destination, and such stories were told by all of us to the effect that we were going to ferry aircraft in England. It was a grand scheme and we got an awful lot out of it. We were treated grand and well entertained.
Tommy Tucker, Sel Edner, Al Pine and myself being the first four on this particular program, the fifth one never made the airline connections at Oakland, we were in rather what we called “on the spot”, as we were watched very closely and our progress scrutinized at every turn of the game. The pressure on us slackened very slightly as more fellows began to flow in as the weeks went by. Still the pressure was so great that we exhorted ourselves in an effort to do well to the utmost, setting records that as far as I know still stand untouched in every part of our course.
The course included such subjects as navigation, motors, theory of flight, meteorology, as well as a general build up course in flying, comparing favorably to what our army air corps gets at Randolph in many ways. Having spent a bad winter there, I mean snow and bad weather we finally finished up and left for Ottawa, Canada, on March 15, 1941, the day the lease lend bill was passed by Congress.
Having been given a colossal party as a reward for our good job, by Capt. Balfour of Spartan, whom we all admired to no end, we spent most of the trip sleeping at least until we got to Chicago when we had a seven hour layover. During that time we suffered terribly from a cold wave that had just hit Chicago. We very nearly got frost bitten when we attempted to walk to a show to kill part of the layover.
We were naturally glad to get going again, and to be in the seclusion of a nice warm railroad car and a very comfortable sleeper. We arrived in Ottawa on the 17th of March, where we were met by a Mr. Read of Air Ministry and who so kindly saw to it that we spent most all of our subsistence money during the week we were there, which I might say we enjoyed very much. We were put in a hotel with six boys from California school, and on the 24th we were off for Halifax, arriving in Halifax the ten of us were put in the Jean Ja Dot - a Belgium freighter, where we spent the next six days lying in the harbor before departing for England in convoy.
Here we had our first taste of blackout, and I might say that the blackout in England was easy after what we had on the boat. We were at first quite put out that we could not smoke on deck after dark but soon became accustomed to it, and were perhaps more careful than the crew, as often you could hear one of our boys calling one of the crew for being careless.
Our convoy was made up of 30 freighters and tankers, one battle ship, one submarine, the largest in the world the French one called the ??rpoff (sp?), and we had some eight corvettes the first two days out. When they were with us and for two days after they left us, we had air protection as well.
The day we pulled out of Halifax, we had a beautiful view of the battleship Hood, later sunk by Bismarck (ill-fated). Having been all over the ocean including the North Pole, for four days before reaching England or Scotland we were again covered by air until we reached Port Liverpool on April the 18th, 1941.
The six of us had a few hours to spend before embarking by train for London and which we spent having a good look at our first glimpse of real war, or rather the unscrupulous damage of modern war. And this also gave us a chance to recuperate from the shock of having been driven to Air Ministry in Liverpool the whole way on the wrong side of the street. Since, we have become somewhat more used to it, but it still bothers me terribly when I want to cross a street.
We departed from Liverpool that night for London, arriving there the following morning rather tired and bewildered at not being met. I managed to corner a Canadian S/Ld and he arranged transport for us to Air Ministry where we met Mr. Harvey and Charles Sweeney. Charles Sweeney took us out to lunch and then put us up at the Over-Seas League for the night. While at lunch, we discovered through conversation, that there had been a heavy blitz on London and Liverpool the night before, no doubt the reason why we weren’t met at the train.
After having a good night’s rest and a fair breakfast including coffee so strong you had to bat it back into the cup before drinking it, we were dashed off to Moss Bros. where we were outfitted, afterward back to Air Ministry. We signed all our papers, and were put on a train for Sutton Bridge. None of us knowing who nor how to salute, which we soon learned at Sutton Bridge.
On Tuesday morning we started to work. We were given lots of cockpit check and were also checked out in a Harvard which some of us flew for some hour or so. Then we were turned loose in the world famous Hurricane. Boy what a day that was. Having completed O.T.U. (Operational Training Unit) at Sutton Bridge, I, along with “Pat” Patterson were posted to 121 E.S. at Kirton Lindsey Lincs, having some sixty-five hours in Hurricane hours to report to the C.O. with.
Then I reported to “A” Flight and started in earnest along with the other five pilots who had arrived, to form a squadron, which I might say we did and one the whole country was proud of.
We worked hard and developed a battle formation that was later to be adopted by all of fighter command. We became operational along in July of 1941, and had our taste of a lot of convoy work. Then in August we had the day we were all waiting for – our first sweep into enemy territory.”
(Vivian’s journal ends here – around Aug. 1941. He was shot down over the English Channel on Apr. 24, 1942, so he had about 9 months of combat after he stopped the journal. He probably ran into the wartime prohibition against writing diaries or journals in the military.)
APPENDIX B
TIMELINE OF EVENTS
1908 – Aug. Born in Ft. Pierce, Florida (Father: Paul Eugene Watkins – Aug. 1879 – Mar. 1961) (Mother: Mattie Wilhemeria Saxon – Jul. 1883 – Oct. 1962) 1927 – June Graduated from Willows High School 1931 – Mar. Married to Edna Belle Annand 1932 – May Only child born – Eugene V. Watkins 1934 – Sept. Soloed at Willows Flying Service - Instructor was Floyd Nolta 1935 – Aug. Divorce papers filed 1937 – July Granted private pilot certificate 1938 – Aug. Granted commercial pilot certificate 1940 – June Started thinking about joining the RAF 1940 – Nov. Declared fit for RAF flying by physical in Berkeley, CA 1940 – Nov. Got instructions to go to Spartan School of Aeronautics in Tulsa, OK 1941 – Mar. Completed Spartan school; left for Ottawa, then on to Halifax 1941 – Mar. Appointed to rank of Pilot Officer in the RAF Volunteer Reserve 1941 – Apr. Landed at Liverpool; then to London; then to Sutton Bridge 1941 – Jun. Arrived at the 121 Eagle Squadron 1941 – July His 121 Squadron became operational 1941 – Aug. Vivian’s first sweep into enemy territory 1941 – Dec. Vivian flew on low-level ship-strafing mission near Blankenberge, Belgium with Pat Patterson. (Patterson failed to return from this mission.) 1941 – Dec. Japanese attack Pearl Harbor. U.S. now in the war. 1942 – Mar. Vivian promoted to Flight Lieutenant, corresponding to Capt. in U.S. He was busy training new pilots. 1942 – Apr. 24 Vivian was shot down over the English Channel by a German Focke-Wulf 190. He was flying a Spitfire Vb. He was 33. 1942 Buried in Bergen-op-Zoom War Cemetery at Noord-Brabant, Netherlands 1942 – Sep. Dennis “Jack” Smith killed in “Morlaix Disaster” flight over France. 1942 – Sep. Formal transfer of Eagle
Squadrons to U.S.A.A.F.
SOURCES AND CREDITS:
1997, Brassey’s Press.
Ziff-Davis Flying Books, New York, 1979.
“Jack” Smith and Vivian Watkins.
of the Willows High School “Tattler” yearbooks. 8. Personnel Management Agency, Royal Air Force, Gloucester, England – Photocopy of Vivian’s service record 9. Commonwealth War Graves Commission – Casualty results record for Vivian
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: George Nolta was born in Willows and attended elementary school there, but moved to the Chico area early in life, where he attended High School. He is a graduate of U.C. Berkeley, an Air Force veteran, and he spent most of his career in computer systems development with Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical Corp. During his retirement years, he has been active in genealogy and family history. His mother, Edna Belle Annand, married Vivian Watkins in 1931, and divorced in 1935. George’s half-brother is Eugene Vivian Watkins, of La Grande, OR.
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