I fond from TimD. "Dravers who gave their lives in wartime"

On this Remembrance Sunday, my thoughts turned to the racing drivers who went to war, many of whom never returned from service.

Their stories are many and varied, and one thing strikes me - the sheer number of them who joined the air forces of their various nations. How easy was it for a fast car driver to turn his skills and mechanical sympathy to a fighting aircraft?

In a very few minutes, I found Hon Peter Aitken, Ulrich Bigalke, Ernst Burggaller, AFP Fane, Luis Fontes, Rudolf Hasse, Percy MacLure, Richard Shuttleworth, Hans Simons, Chris Staniland, Johnny Wakefield.

I'm sure there are many more, and I would be fascinated to hear about them.

Many and varied were their fates. AFP Fane (real name Alfred Agabeg) was a crew member in a Lancaster bomber on the raid which attempted to sink the battleship Tirpitz. Rudolf Hasse, the Auto Union works driver, was one of those countless thousands who lost their lives at the Russian front.

Bigalke and Burggaller were both Luftwaffe pilots, and were lost during the Battle of Britain. Chris Staniland, Brooklands driver of note, was a skilled test pilot, whose Fairey Firefly naval fighter broke up in mid air.

Most poignant of all, I think, are the fates of Robert Benoist, Jean Tremoulet and William Grover-Williams. They were all actively involved in the French Resistance, but were arrested and executed for their efforts.

Who else have I missed?

And what about all of those great personalities of motor racing who saw out their military service and returned to the track? Immediately, the names Eddie Rickenbacker, Sir Henry "Tim" Birkin, and Captain Malcolm Campbell spring to mind

Thanks for noticing this post on another forum, Boniver. I am a frequent reader of these pages, even if my contributions tally is somewhat small.

Since posting this message, I note that some of my reference sources are contradictory, and I wonder if anyone can help pin down the truth.

I listed AFP Fane as bomber crew, but I am now turning up references to him being a Spitfire reconaissance pilot tasked with obtaining photographic evidence of the Tirpitz. Same raid - different task.

I've got no listings of Photo Reconnaissance Unit losses during 1939-45, and as the records I have of bomber crews run to 55,000 entries, listed aircraft by aircraft, you can see the logistical problem I face.

Many thanks,

Criceto ("TimD" in another place...)

Tremoulet, was not executed, but dead on a motorcycle accident while on a mission for the Frence resistance

Ulli Bigalke died 12 August 1940 in an air battle above England. He did not return to his airfield from a mission at the great battle at Portsmouth and was eventually declared missing in action. According to the obituary in MOTOR und SPORT, No. 46 of 17 November 1940, Bigalke’s body was pushed by the waves towards the German occupied coast, was washed ashore and buried by the German Coast Guard in the dunes on 1 September 1940.

Ernst Günther Burggaller, died much earlier, on 2 February 1940, before the Battle of Britain began. According to the obituary in MOTOR und SPORT, No. 7 of 18 February 1940, Burggaller, Major of the Luftwaffe, died a pilots death. But it does not tell ANYTHING more. So, we do not in fact know how he died. All authors below use the 1940 obituary as a base for their story. By the way, Burggaller was burried at the Waldfriedhof in Berlin-Dahlem next to Bernd Rosemeyer and Ernst von Delius.
Known abstracts about Burggaller
[*]1940: Rosemann, Ernst, obituary in MOTOR und SPORT, No. 7, page 4, Põssneck
[*]1967: Frankenberg, Richard von, Die grossen Fahrer von einst, pg. 124, 127, Stuttgart
[*]1970: Tragatsch, Erwin, Das große Rennfahrerbuch, Bern
[*]1979: Cancellieri/DeAgostini/Schrõder, AUTO UNION, Die großen Rennen 1934-39, Hannover,
[*]1986: Tragatsch, Erwin, Das große Bugatti Buch, Bern

So, who was the culprit and wrote that Burggaller died in the Battle of Britain?

Who was the culprit?

Without the primary source in front of me, I recall that it was gleaned from an unnamed writer in a 1970s Brooklands Society Gazette.

Thanks for the details, Hans. I've got a few more clues now. It also explains why I've been poring through the loss and claim lists for July-November 1940 with no success.

There are enough loss-list sites for German aircrew for me to try to approach the archive from an aviation historian's viewpoint.

If I find anything, I shall let you know.

Cricero,

As we know Burggaller was commander of a Jagdgruppe you can concentrate on Jaktgeschwaders if your lists are in that order.

And I think it's worth mentionig (at least not by name- the numbers would be too big) who participated, fought that is, for their, not neccessarily, countries like Schell and Willmille.
Presently I don't have my book that could help us with those two drivers, but I'll look it up. If they're aces at least I'll be able to tell you no. of their victories.

Ulli Bigalke died 12 August 1940 in an air battle above England. He did not return to his airfield from a mission at the great battle at Portsmouth and was eventually declared missing in action. According to the obituary in MOTOR und SPORT, No. 46 of 17 November 1940, Bigalke’s body was pushed by the waves towards the German occupied coast, was washed ashore and buried by the German Coast Guard in the dunes on 1 September 1940.

----------

I'm trying to trace Bigalke's grave as it would seem reasonable that his body was eventually moved to a war grave cemetery. www.volksbund.de is a German website devoted to their war graves but there is no trace of Ulli Bigalke on there, my German friend tells me. I wonder if his grave is still in the dunes and that it's marked? Any ideas? And any ideas where else I could search?
Paul

Fane was indeed a photo reconnaissance Spitfire pilot, not at all Lancaster heavy bomber aircrew.

DCN

.... and we eventually solved the Burggaller mystery too:

http://forums.autosport.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=67896



Wasn't there a story that Bigalke was making a propaganda film when he was killed? Or am I confusing him with someone else?

Good related article on page 7 of the October, 2007 MotorSport...

Vince H.

Danish dirt-track racer and sometime car racer (Swedish Summer GP 33) Henning "Morian" Hansen volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was an aerial gunner in the No 99 Squadron at Newmarket in 1940. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and later the George Medal. Hansen was the first Danish volunteer to return to the liberated Denmark. In the forties he made a come-back to the race-tracks as a car driver and he was Danish champion in 1949.

Norwegian Carl J Stousland was also a RAF volunteer and flew Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. After the war he continued his road racing motorcycle career and later he too turned to cars and raced a Ford-engined Nordic Special in Scandinavia in the early fifties.

Perhaps it is appropriate to remember also the highly skilled Chris Staniland, the chief test pilot of Fairey Aviation, IIRC, and the formidable driver of the Multi Union variants and all that they represented, who perished testing aeroplanes in WW2.

Roger Lund.

Don’t forget St. John Horsfall, before the hostilities he raced Aston Martin’s, his mother knew MI 5 boss Sir Eric Holt Wilson and he recruited St. John (better known as ‘Jock‘) as a driver. It was Jock that drove the body of a fictitious Major William Martin to Scotland where it was taken by submarine to the Spanish coast and carefully placed in the sea. A briefcase chained to the body carried papers which made the Germans think we were going to invade Sardinia and Greece. MI 5 guessed that the Spanish authorities would let the Germans see the body before handing it to our Consulate. This plan worked and changed the course of the war.

This story was turned into both a book and a film entitled ‘The Man Who Never Was’ unfortunately Jock was not named in either. Sadly Jock Horsfall was killed in an E.R.A. at Silverstone in the 1949 Daily Express international Trophy race.

E Gordon Brettell who raced an Austin Seven at Brooklands (and survived going over the banking) was among those murdered by the SS after the Great Escape.

Count Franco Mazotti, one of the founders of the Mille Miglia, was Comandant of a special Air Force Combat Group in the Regia Aeronautica, disappeared on a flight from Tunisia to Sicily in January 1942.

I believe that Harry Schell volunteered for service on the Finnish side during the Winter War vs. The Soviet Union. I have no record as to his service record, but clearly he survived it!

I have another book coming out soon, basically on the life and times of Australian John Snow, the young man who immediately pre and post war imported some of Australia's most notable racing cars, and who raced in both Europe and Australia.

One chapter of that book deals with the Australian motor racing fraternity going to war. One in six Australians, man woman and child, was on active service, and the motor racing fraternity appear over represented. There appears to be a cast of thousands, and the loss rate was considerable. I cant quote from the book because my stuff is elsewhere, but included are Hugo Armstrong who was shot down into the English Channel, Ray Curlewis died on a night bombing raid, Bill Thompson in a Catalina crash, Russell Bowes shot down over Burma,and many more. There were happily lots who survived, perhaps the most remarkable being AV"Jock" McDonough who had raced Ford V8 and Mactenberg in South Australia prewar, was a Walrus pilot( catapulted off a warship aided by its pusher propellor to do reconnaissance, after which it was craned up off the sea) blown into the sea off the sinking "Perth" in the Battle of the Sunda Strait(second battle in 24 hours), rowed ashore in Java, captured, marched much, somehow survived the Burma-Siam Railway, and returned to South Australia to race an MG TC, a speedboat, ec dying quite recently aged 92

Any chance of that being obtainable north of the Equator, John?

V2
Dont know. The publisher tells me he will have it out by Christmas, and it is all in his hands.Remind me then, and I'll advise details then
Regards
JM