Raymond Collishaw

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Collishaw in the cockpit of his Sopwith Camel

Raymond "Ray" Collishaw (born November 22, 1893 in Nanaimo , † September 28, 1976 ) was a fighter pilot with the highest number of kills in the British Royal Naval Air Service and the fifth highest number of aerial victories of all pilots during the First World War . During the Second World War he commanded the British Air Force units in North Africa until July 1942. He achieved the rank of Air Marshal .

Early years

Raymond Collishaw was born in Nanaimo, British Columbia , Canada on November 22, 1893. With 15 Collishaw left school and joined the Canadian Fisheries Protection (Canadian Fisheries Protection Services) as a cabin boy. He was on board the Alcedo, which was sailing to the Arctic Circle in search of Vilhjálmur Stefánsson expedition. Unfortunately the ship was late and Stefan's ship, the Karluk, was surrounded by ice and some men had already died. By 1915, Collishaw had worked his way up to first officer of a ship.

First World War

When the First World War broke out, Collishaw tried to join the Royal Canadian Navy , but after some time had not received a response, he applied to the Royal Naval Air Service. Collishaw was accepted on condition that he attend a flight course at his own expense.

But the Royal Navy made a different decision and embarked Collishaw after he had completed his basic training to England, so that he should finish his flight training there. On board the ship that brought Collishaw overseas was Lloyd Samuel Breadner , who was promoted to Air Marshal of the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II .

After receiving his license to fly , Collishaw was transferred to the 3rd Marine Squadron (No. 3 (Bombing) Wing), a bomber unit that Sopwith 1½ Strutters flew. In January 1917, Collishaw was attacked by 6 German fighters while flying. After his eye was injured and his instruments were destroyed, Collishaw shot down one of the German planes and eventually escaped. Without his navigation instruments, he accidentally landed on a German airfield and was pursued again by German fighters on his escape. Nevertheless, he managed to escape to a French aerodrome .

During the next few months, Collishaw shot down another plane before he was transferred to the 10th Naval Squadron (No. 10 (Naval) Squ.) In late April 1917. There he became leader of the B-Flight ( Black Flight ) he founded. In black-painted Sopwith Triplanes , which they nicknamed (Collishaw called his aircraft Black Maria ), the pilots, all Canadians, became the horror of the German aviators within the next weeks and months. Within 3 months, the members of the Black Flight shot down 87 German aircraft with only 2 losses of their own. He was shot down on July 15th. He received the DSC on July 20 after reaching 38 kills before he was subsequently ordered back to Canada. The DSO followed two weeks later.

After returning to France on November 24, 1917, he took command of the 3rd Naval Squadron (No. 13 (Naval) Squadron). 3 (Naval) Squadron, which he commanded until he was posted to England in October 1918. After the merger of the RNAS and the Royal Flying Corps on April 1, 1918 to form the Royal Air Force , the unit was given the designation No. 203 Squadron (RAF).

Highly decorated and meanwhile a major , he was withdrawn from the front in early October 1918 in order to create plans for a Canadian air force with several other Canadian so-called flying aces. Collishaw ended the war with 60 confirmed aerial victories, noting that three of these were obtained as group kills.

Although Collishaw was nominated twice during the war for Britain's highest honor for valor, the Victoria Cross , he was never bestowed that award.

Russian civil war

At the end of the war, Raymond Collishaw remained in the Royal Air Force and became a career officer. He fought in Russia in 1919 as part of the Allied intervention on the side of the Belarusians in the Russian Civil War . He scored one more kill in this cruel conflict, sinking an enemy gunboat with a bomb dropped by his Sopwith Camel and destroying two railroad trains.

Between the world wars

In August 1920, Collishaw was sent to Persia, where he stayed until 1923 and, with the RAF, asserted British interests in this area by force of arms.

After the campaign in the Middle East , Collishaw took command of a squadron before going to the RAF Staff College in Andover , where he already noted that the RAF was not preparing for the development of the air war.

In the following years he served as a squadron commander, u. a. on an aircraft carrier and in staff positions before being transferred to North Africa , where he was still stationed when the Second World War began.

Second World War

When the war broke out, Collishaw was promoted to Air Commodore and he was given command of No. 204 Group in North Africa, which later became the Desert Air Force . Despite being outnumbered and outdated aircraft, the No. 204 Group stood up to the enemy, thanks in part to Collishaw. So he deceived z. B. the enemy by constantly flying the only available modern fighter, a Hawker Hurricane , from base to base in order to pretend that several squadrons of this type are stationed in the region.

In July 1942, Collishaw was withdrawn from North Africa and replaced by Air Vice Marshal Arthur Coningham . He himself was transferred to the British naval base Scapa Flow , where he was in command of No. 12 Group (Fighter Command) received - a quiet post after serving at the front. A year later, Raymond Collishaw, now Air Vice Marshal, was involuntarily retired from the Royal Air Force.

Civil life

For the remainder of World War II, Collishaw was involved in a civilian air raid protection organization.

After the war, Collishaw returned to British Columbia, where he became a partner in a mine near Barkerville and lived a quiet and peaceful life. Raymond Collishaw died on September 28, 1976 in West Vancouver , British Columbia, at the age of 82.

His autobiography was titled Air Command, A fighting pilot's Story and was published in 1973.

Military awards

literature

  • Ken Aitken: The Aces - Ray Collishaw . In: Airplane Monthly July 1996, ISSN  0143-7240 , p. 50.
  • Arch Whitehouse: Flieger-Ase 1914-1918 . Motorbuch-Verlag, Stuttgart 1970, pp. 241–246.

Web links

Commons : Raymond Collishaw  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jürgen Huber: When the plane learned to shoot. In: Flieger Revue Extra No. 36. PPV Medien, Bergkirchen, 2012, ISSN  2194-2641 . P. 42.
personal data
SURNAME Collishaw, Raymond
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Collishaw, Ray (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British military pilot and commander
DATE OF BIRTH November 22, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH Nanaimo
DATE OF DEATH September 28, 1976