WW2 ace

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ROBERT STANFORD-TUCK began a career with the British Merchant Marine Service in 1935, but after two years at sea he decided - on a whim - to join the Royal Air Force. He completed flight training at Uxbridge and was posted to 65 Squadron at Hornchurch where the first of many incidents that earned him the name "Lucky Tuck" occured. While flying on a formation training flight, another aircraft collided with Tuck's in mid-air. Tuck parachuted to safety, but the other pilot was killed.


He saw his first action of WWII with 92 Squadron over the beaches at Dunkirk, where he shot down five German aircraft in his first two days of combat. He subsequently became one of RAF's top scoring aces and an outstanding leader. Often decorated, Tuck shot down 30 enemy aircraft and rose to the rank of Wing Commander before being shot down in January 1942.

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CUNNINGHAM: Wing Commander Tuck, you joined the RAF in 1935, fought through the Battle of Britain, and went on to become one of the RAF's best-known Aces. How many combat victories do you have?
TUCK: Well, up until four years ago , I was credited with 29 victories, but four years ago the aircraft recovery teams we have that go around England, because there's a lot of them still just below the deck, recovered one 25 feet down and it turned out to be a Messerschmitt 109. And I knew nothing about this, but the Ministry of Defence then got on to me and they said, "It's one that you claimed as a probable", because in my combat report I said it just flicked instantaneously out of the way as I fired at it. I said “I don't think I hit it hard enough, but I could claim it as a probable.” So I had 29, without this one I claimed as a probable. But this one that they dug up established beyond all doubt, due to the position and everything about it. that it was mine. I had nothing to do with it except when they found out, they checked an entry in my log book about this probable, and they said, "Right. You have got 30 now." And his name, the pilot's name, was Leutnant Kneitel. He was 30 years old and he was adjutant of the Richthofen Squadron.


Oh, and the oxygen bottle of the aircraft - they presented it to me, all beautifully polished up and on a mahogany plaque with just a brief inscription as to what it was. Well I didn't like this very much, sitting in my study looking at it. I used to think, poor Leutnant Kneitel, and so I gave it to General Galland (Adolf Galland), and said, "look Dolfo, I think you ought to do something with this. It's hardly mine. I don't want it. it's not like my stag heads that I put around, or anything like that." So he said, "Oh, yes, certainly, I'm sure we'd pleased to receive it." So I gave it to him. A few weeks later I got a letter, a very nice letter from the Richthofen Squadron Commander, the present-day one, saying, "Thank you very much indeed. it now sits in our squadron museum. We'd like to make you an honorary member of the squadron." Which was a happy ending to a rather sad event.

CUNNINGHAM: Your first victory was scored while providing air cover for the evacuation of Dunkirk. What type of aircraft were you flying then?
TUCK: I was flying a Spitfire Mark II.

CUNNINGHAM: What type of aircraft was your first victory over?
TUCK: A Messerschmitt 109E.

CUNNINGHAM: Did you ever do combat with the Me 110?
TUCK: Oh yes, I shot down several one-one-ohs, one-tens.

CUNNINGHAM: Was it as difficult an opponent as the 109 or the ...
TUCK: No. Certainly not. It was not as manoeuvrable and not as fast, but it was a very unpleasant aircraft to encounter because it had very heavy firepower in the nose. It was a twin- engine aircraft and had this very heavy firepower concentrated in the nose and if it was behind you, it was really letting go with a lot of ammunition. The moral was, don't let one get behind you. Always have them up front and shoot them.

CUNNINGHAM: It had a rear-gunner also.
TUCK: Yes, it did. Indeed it did. Yes I always found the German rear-gunners in both bombers and the one-one-ohs were very accurate, very determined, and they would fire until the last minute before you could wipe them out. I had very high respect for the German rear- gunners.

CUNNINGHAM: You flew both Spitfires and Hurricanes ...
TUCK: Yes, I did.

CUNNINGHAM: ... and you scored well with either fighter. Which did you prefer?
TUCK: Oh, I have no doubts about that! I preferred the Spitfire, of course, because it had higher performance. Apart from that, I’d got well over thousand hours flying on them and I'd had a lot of air combat on them. But the reason I converted to Hurricanes was my commander posted me to a squadron that had had very severe casualties of Hurricanes. They’d lost about six or eight aircraft and pilots, and only had about two kills. So he posted me in and gave me some new aircraft and new pilots and gave me a few days squadron into flying trim, as I wanted it. For air combat tactics, you know. The way you attack and all that sort of thing. I trained them, and then led them into action, funnily enough, on the 15th of September, which was the biggest day. I reported them operational to my commander. He said "Right. You'll be brought to stand-by." So I said, “Thank you,” and the next day we were …. We flew very hard, and the very first action I led the squadron into we had five kills with no losses. So from that day onwards, it was just the right thing to bring them all up. They were very low prior to that. It was in the very first action that we achieved that, and from then on the squadron went forward with terrific vigor.

CUNNINGHAM: Your presence had quite an effect.
TUCK: Well, I don't think it was my presence. They just wanted a bit of luck, I think, and we were lucky that the 15th of September was the biggest day, the heaviest combat if you remember, of the Battle of Britain. It was the peak, really, and all my chaps performed correctly and we had a successful day. From that day onward, they were right up on top forced forward the whole time.

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CUNNINGHAM: Was that the day the Germans called "Adler Tag," or "Eagle Day?"
TUCK: I think it might have been, yes. I'm not quite certain, but I think it was. It was our biggest day, the day of the heaviest combat all day long.

CUNNINGHAM: I see. Was that sort of the high-water mark of the Battle of Britain?
TUCK: It was the peak. After that, it trailed off. But that was the peak day. And then it trailed off a little bit, and then suddenly it stopped. And they converted to night bombing, as you remember.

CUNNINGHAM: Is there any one combat that stands out in your memory?
TUCK: Yes. I have one which is quite extraordinary. It's something I wish I could undo, really, like many things that happened in the war. I was up one drizzly evening over South Wales, and I was stalking a German bomber, a Ju.88, that I had spotted. He had probably seen me also because he was dodging in and out of the clouds. Then suddenly he popped out into the moonlight and I had just time to get in one burst - from a distance - before I lost him again. But I did hit him and saw him jettison his bombs and turn tail for home. My fuel was getting low, so I gave it up as a bad job and returned to base, reported it, then dismissed the whole affair from mind. Well, next morning early I got a telephone call from my father. I could tell immediately from his tone it was something bad, and he told me then that my sister's young husband had been killed during the night. Now, of course, this was quite a shock and particularly so because we hadn't thought of him as being in any real danger. He was a private in the Queen's Westministers at St. Donat's in South Wales. He was awaiting transfer to an officer training unit. There were no details then, and I thought perhaps it was some freak training accident. I went on off on patrol, still trying to absorb the fact of John's death. His name was John Spark, and they'd only been married about a year. Then I began to think about the bomber I'd hit that evening - over South Wales - and suddenly I had a dreadful premonition . . .

CUNNINGHAM: That it was your bomber?
TUCK: Exactly And it was. When I got down I immediately called intelligence to inquire about all enemy activity over South Wales the previous day. And the awful word came back that there had been none at all -except for one stick of four bombs that fell at Porthcrawl. 'Probably from the Ju.88 you reported,' they said. I asked if there were any casualties and they told me there was only one - a private at the army camp at St. Donat's Castle. So there it was. I had caused the death of my sister's husband. And as you can imagine, I kept this to myself for a long time.

CUNNINGHAM: But she knows now.
TUCK: Yes. But it was an awful thing to have happen.

CUNNINGHAM: Let's switch subjects here. At one time during the Battle of Britain you were very short of fighter aircraft, weren't you?
TUCK: Oh yes. We were. But even more important than that was we were running very short of pilots, cause our casualties were very heavy. But of course, the Germans were, too. But they had more of them than we did. We were running short of both aircraft and pilots, but the aircraft shortage was overcome by Lord Beaverbrook, who was minister of aircraft production, known as the "Beaver." The Beaver got in and sorted out the production program very quickly. He was a wonderful fella. So our shortage-of-aircraft problem in the Battle of Britain was settled sooner than the shortage of pilots because you can't train them that fast.

But, good maintainability and a high readiness rate are also very important factors in the struggle for air superiority. Our ground crews were absolutely wonderful throughout that battle. They worked day and night repairing damage and servicing and changing the way they have to in intense conditions like that because we were using the aircraft extremely hard the whole time - from ground level up to 25- and 30-thousand feet and back down - and they were being very heavily used. And the maintenance problem was very acute. Some wonderful riggers and mechanics had to work double shifts, but they all came up to it.

CUNNINGHAM: You mentioned the Spitfire had higher performance than the Hurricane. What, in your opinion, are the characteristics of a good fighter aircraft ?
TUCK: Well, naturally you want it reasonably small. A big, heavy, cumbersome fighter I've never thought was much good. It's a big target for any opposition you could meet. It's a large target and I don't like it being that size. I don't think it's necessary. If you can make a small, strong, powerful aircraft . . . but it must be very strong, highly manoeuvrable, good rate of climb, all these types of things. I never liked these great big ... I've flown Spitfires for, I suppose, a thousand hours, and just before Pearl Harbour was bombed we seemed to know lease-lend was coming in for fighters that we wanted. And so my commander sent me over to the United States to fly by arrangement with the manufacturers, all of the new aircraft. Which I did. I flew them all. But one small point I'd got over a thousand hours on the Spitfire and it was very small, very dainty, very manoeuvrable. Your cockpit fitted you like a glove and your instruments and everything were right at hand immediately. But it was small, fast, and strong. And good armament, we thought.

But I went to Farmingdale, Long Island, and met Alexander P. DeSeversky out there - fine chap he was, too - was a great friend of mine then - he arranged it with the chief test pilot. He took me through everything and I sat in the cockpit of the P-47. That's the Thunderbolt that did such marvellous work throughout the war. Thousands and thousands of them produced. A very rugged aircraft it was. But it was very large in comparison with my dainty little Spitfire. First time I sat in the cockpit and the chief test pilot was showing me all the taps and things I said, "Good gosh! Look at the size of this cockpit!" He said, "Yeah, it's good to have plenty of space," and I said, "Yes, it's all right. I suppose it is. What happens, well, I'll break my blooming' neck if I fall off the seat." But it was a big - I have always liked them small, fast, strong, and manoeuvrable. And good armament.

CUNNINGHAM: Did you ever fly a twin-engined fighter such as the 'Whirlwind?
TUCK: Yes, I flew the Whirlwind. And of course I flew De Havilland Mosquitoes also, but not in combat. I never used them in combat, but I flew them for the hell of it, because I liked them.

CUNNINGHAM: For combat, which would you prefer - the single or twin-engined fighters?
TUCK: Single.

CUNNINGHAM: You were shot down while strafing ground targets in France ...
TUCK: Yes, finally, in 1942. I commanded the Biggin Hill Wing office Spitfire squadrons in '41 and '42. And then early in '42 I was doing a low-level attack with one other fighter, just using cannon on an alcohol distillery and a flak battery just inland from Boulogne. The light flak got me right through the sump and everything like that, and I crash-landed and was taken prisoner. It probably served me right that they got me - for shooting up a distillery, you know!

CUNNINGHAM: War brings out the worst in people.
TUCK: Yes, but that was the end of it for awhile.

CUNNINGHAM: You put some shots into the flak battery that shot you down didn't you? How were you treated when they captured you?
TUCK: Yes. I knew that the Spit had bought it and I was going down. I made (me last pass at the flak truck - because they were still shooting at me - and I hit it good just before going in. It was a pretty rough landing and I got out with a nasty bump on the head and a bleeding nose. And the Germans came up and grabbed me and pushed and shoved me back to the wreck of the flak truck. I thought they were going to show me what I'd done to their comrades and then string me up or something of that sort. But when we got there - the thing was still smoking and bodies laying around - they began to laugh and point to the guns, and they were telling me "Good shot, Englander!" You see, by some fluke one of my shells had gone directly down the barrel of one of their guns and exploded. And they thought that was funny. And a good thing it was that they did!

CUNNINGHAM: And after that you met General Adolf Galland...
TUCK: Before I was taken off to prison in Germany, Galland and his pilots of the Luftwaffe fighter squadrons based at St. Omer gave a dinner for me. He was, and is, quite a grand gentleman. He was an Oberstleutnant [Lieutenant Colonel] at that time, but later commanded the entire German fighter corps. We had a very nice evening, and I was amazed at the feeling of comradeship we seemed to have. But then, of course, they had to send me off to prison.......

Note:
Before sending Tuck off to prison, Galland told him, “ I'm glad you're not badly injured, and that now you will not have to risk your life any more.” After the war they met again and have since become very close friends. Tuck's luck seemed to desert him for awhile, and he remained a prisoner until January of 1945. Then he and a Polish pilot escaped and walked to the Russian lines, and finally to Odessa where Tuck and his comrade smuggled themselves and the wife of another Polish pilot (who was fighting in Britain) aboard a British merchantman bound for Southampton. After an absence of more than three years, 'Lucky Tuck'. made his way back home again!