Robert Stanford Tuck
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Robert Roland Stanford Tuck DSO DFC and Bar (July 1, 1916 – May 5, 1987) was a British fighter pilot and test pilot.
Tuck was born of Jewish parents at Catford, SE London. After a less-than-stellar school career he left St. Dunstan’s College, Catford in 1932 to join the Merchant Navy as a sea cadet before joining the RAF on a short service commission in 1935. Following flying training, Tuck joined 65 Squadron in September 1935 and remained with them until May 1940 when he was posted to 92 Squadron, based at Croydon, as a Flight Commander flying Spitfires.
[edit] Battle of Britain
Tuck led his first combat patrol on May 23, 1940, over Dunkirk, claiming three German fighters shot down. The following day he shot down two further German bombers and as aerial fighting intensified over the next two weeks his score rapidly mounted. Tuck was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) on June 11 and received it from King George VI at RAF Hornchurch on June 28.
His combat successes continued into July and August as the Battle of Britain gathered pace, although he himself was forced to bail out on August 18. Whilst attacking a formation of Junkers Ju-88’s over Kent he shot one down and damaged another. However, during the exchange his Spitfire was hit by return fire and he bailed out near Tunbridge Wells. In another incident on August 25 Tuck's Spitfire was badly damaged during combat with a Dornier Do 17 bomber, which he destroyed, fifteen miles off the coast. His aircraft had a dead engine but he glided it back to dry land to make a forced landing.
On September 11, during the height of the Battle of Britain, Tuck was promoted to Squadron Leader and posted to command the Hawker Hurricane-equipped 257 Squadron and based at RAF Debden. He led his squadron into combat through September and continued to claim further victories. His last two official victories of the Battle were on October 28, where he claimed two “probable” damaged Bf 109’s. He received a Bar to his DFC on October 25, and the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in January 1941. He was shot down into the English Channel in June 1941, being rescued by a Gravesend coal barge.
He had an extaordinary piece of ill-fortune when he fired at extreme range at a German bomber heading towards Cardiff. He fired at extreme range in poor light, causing it to jettison its bombs in open countryside instead of on the city. The last of its stick of bombs caught one corner of an army training camp and killed one soldier. The soldier was the husband of Tuck's sister. (Source "Fly for Your Life" cited below)--Spitfire1 14:47, 3 April 2007 (UTC)
In July, 1941, Tuck was promoted to Wing Commander and appointed Wing Leader at RAF Duxford where he led fighter sweeps into northern France. After a brief trip to America with several other RAF Fighter Command pilots to raise awareness of Britain's war effort, he returned to a posting at RAF Biggin Hill as Wing Leader. It was whilst flying from Biggin Hill Tuck’s last aerial combat of the war occurred. On January 28, 1942, while on a low-level fighter sweep "rhubarb" mission over northern France, his Spitfire was hit by enemy ground-based flak near Boulogne and he was forced to crash land.
[edit] Prisoner of War
Captured by the very German troops he had been firing upon as his aircraft was hit, Tuck then spent the next couple of years in Stalag Luft III at Żagań (Sagan), before making a number of unsuccessful escape attempts from several other prisoner of war camps across Germany and Poland. In company with a Polish pilot, he finally escaped successfully on February 1, 1945 as his camp was being evacuated westwards from Russian forces advancing into Germany. Tuck's Russian, learned from his childhood nanny, was now crucial as he spent some time fighting alongside the Russian troops until he managed eventually to find his way to the British Embassy in Moscow. He eventually boarded a ship from Russia to Southampton, England.
With the war now over, he received his final decoration, a DFC (US Air Force) on June 14, 1946, before he finally retired from the RAF and active service on May 13, 1949 as a Wing Commander. His final accredited aerial kills numbered 27 and 2 shared destroyed, 1 and 1 shared unconfirmed destroyed, 6 probables and 6 and 1 shared damaged.
Following retirement Tuck continued flying as a test pilot, including working on the RAF's long-serving English Electric Canberra, before he found peace and contentment on his mushroom farm in Kent, choosing to shun the publicity enjoyed by some of his better known Battle of Britain comrades.
Robert Stanford Tuck died on May 5, 1987 at the age of seventy.
[edit] Sources
- Fly for Your Life, Larry Forrester
- Battle of Britain.com
