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CAPT ERIC BROWN 21 January 1919-21 February 2016

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CAPT ERIC BROWN 21 January 1919-21 February 2016 ERIC ‘WINKLE’ BROWN CAPT ERIC BROWN 21 January 1919-21 February 2016 WORDS: NICHOLASJONES 28 www.aeroplanemonthly.comAEROPLANE APRIL2016 n17September 1939, the the 487 different types of aircraft flown. Most surprisingly of all, when we captain of HMS Courageous Butitwas during themany relaxed discussed hismeeting with Himmler, orderedthat his boat be mealswesharedin-between the filming Eric went into some detail as to what turnedinto windsoits days thatIbegan to learn moreabout followed, oncehis question about aircraftO could take off.Unknowingly, the man behind the records. These the arrest of Wernher vonBraun had he puthimself across thebow of U29, lunches quickly established apattern. unmasked the SS monster.Did Eric lurking nearbyunder the Irish Sea. The Thevenue was usually theRAF Club’s thereforeknowwhere Himmlerwas U-boat captainseizedthe moment. Running Horse Tavern, the best-value buried?“Yes!”, he replied —but this Twenty minutes later, Courageous pub in London. Eric habitually ordered wasone detail he would not divulge. hadsunk, leaving the Fleet Air Arm aSpanish omelette while Ihad the Onemight getpeopleknocking on the desperately shortofpilots. scampi, having wondered beforehand door,askingfor directions to thegrave Afew days latera20-year-old RAF which further astonishing stories he —and Eric always kept his address and officer saw anotice inviting pilotsto woulddivulge. telephone number in his‘Who’s Who’ transfertothe FAAtomake up its And he neverfailedtodivulge, forhis entry. shortfall.Champing at thebit for some memory was alwaysoutstanding. Once, That was so typically Eric. Therewas action during the tedium of the ‘phoney while lamenting the terrible news from atimewhen many famouspeople still war’,hevolunteered. Thus began the Syria that played on the bar’s television had theirnumbers in the telephone naval flying career of Capt Eric Melrose that day,hesuddenlytold me howhe book. To speak to Eric was to return to BrownCBE DSC AFC RN. got to knowErich Raeder when he was adifferent era, where‘celebrities’ didn’t Like so many,Iamstunned to in West Germany to integrate itsnaval hide behind awall.Indeed, filming Eric learnofhis death, for Eric seemed air arm into NATO.Itastounded me to revisited an era whereBritain was still indestructible. My job as a film-maker find myself just onedegree of separation agreat power, with numerouscarriers enabledmyintroduction to him but away from the former commander and ocean-specific fleets —and an Irealise nowthere was something of afeared navy. YetEric —whose aviation industry confident in itsworld different about this great man. At the modern languagesdegree, specialising leadership. Hence what most satisfied risk of sounding immodest, Ihave in German, at the Universityof him when he flewofffrom RAF Ford filmed quiteafew distinguished people, Edinburgh heldhim in good steadfor on 3December1945tolandaturbojet, but Eric was the only one de Havilland Vampire whoseemed towant to LZ551, on acarrierfor the stay in touch afterthe first time(see Aeroplane filmingwas over.Ifheliked January2016) was the you, he tookyou into his satisfaction of knowing confidence,and the fact he would “beatthe that he accorded me this Americans.” privilege makes me feel very Of course,Eric saw humble. sooner thanmostthat, Themany obituaries have post-war,wenolonger did stressed hisfeats, yetthey beat the Americans.His reveal little in the way of life is naturallypresented background. I’dliketotry as aseries of triumphs, and put thatright. buttherewas also adegree I filmed Eric three of sadnessand life-long times, thelast beingfor regret. As acombat and the 2014 feature-length test pilot, he experienced documentary‘Eric Brown thedeathofcolleagues —APilot’s Story’.We regularly. The first time spent awhole dayinhis he andhis 802Squadron company, securing the comradeswent into material to make a film combat with Grumman that will,Ihope, serve as Martlets to protect the his audiovisual biography. crucialLiverpool-Gibraltar YetIfirst metEric in 1996, convoys, their CO was when he read apoem shot down and killed. at thememorial service Inever saw him show forSir Frank Whittle in anyemotion butcould Westminster Abbey.We feel it was there, not least were shootingthe occasion when he described the for aBBC2‘Horizon’ traumatic sinking of his programme, perched carrierHMS Audacity,just perilously on apillar.Adecade later, both the testing of capturedGerman beforeChristmas 1941. In the freezing I filmed Eric himself at theScience aircraftand the interrogation of senior Atlantic, he andhis flight leader used ABOVE LEFT: Museum, for my documentary‘Whittle Nazi prisoners —saidthathehad the lifebelt cords to rope together With his father — TheJet Pioneer’. Standing by the been bemusedtolearn that Grand themselves and24sailors in abid to Robert and mother Gloster E28/39heonce flew,herecalled Admirals Raederand Dönitz squabbled survive. Hypothermiaslowly tookall 24 Euphemia.The eloquently afriend whose invention in Spandau jailoverwho hadseniority and they drowned. When the corvettes latter died while Eric wasstill at shrank the world. behind bars. found Eric they also tried to rescue its school. It was almost surreal. As Eric Anothertimehesaid thathehad captain, Douglas McKendrick,from describedthe day he quizzed amorose flownboth the HandleyPage Victor the sea, but his rope snapped and he German prisoner in the quest to and the Boeing 707,although he wasn’t was never seenagain. Iedited into‘Eric OPPOSITE: Capt Eric Brownpictured unmaskhim as Heinrich Himmler, much taken withthe latter —“the Brown—APilot’s Story’ apictureof with NavalAviation afamily of OrthodoxJewslooked at ‘Connie’was farmoreenjoyable”. I McKendrick and askedEric if he had Ltd’s SeaFury T20 anexhibit just below us. They were said,“Neither aeroplane is on the listof seenhis skipper’simage sincethen. at Yeovilton in the speaking German. If youput thatina typesyou flew”. We came to asurprise “Not since he briefed the pilots on the summer of 2014. drama, would anyone believeit? conclusion: Eric actually flew morethan morning of theday we were sunk”, NEIL GODWIN-STUBBERT We all knowthe recordsand statistics the487 types with which he is officially he said. Eric created —the 2,407 deck landings, credited. It wasapoignant moment. ð AEROPLANEAPRIL 2016 www.aeroplanemonthly.com 29 ERIC ‘WINKLE’ BROWN ABOVE: As a Themain regret in Eric’s life was concludedthat our main wartime show that the USA wasnow global top newly-fledged thefacthenever became the first pilot allywas mostlikely theproblem. Eric dog? Hisproblemwas, of course,the Flying Officer on Edinburgh to break thesoundbarrier.Hewas, of believed thatGen ‘Hap’Arnold needed Britishlead.Eric felt thatWashington University Air course, selected to flythe Miles M52, aPRcoup to announce thelaunchof probably forced abrokenBritain to quit Squadron. for which Whittle built the W2/700 the US Air Force. What betterthanto the race and hand over its data to the engine.When we discussedthis,Eric havehis service flysupersonic first, to Americans, in return for afew dollars. ABOVE RIGHT: Flying training on Miles Magister P6458 at Sydenham near Belfast in 1940. He met his firstwifeLynnon 7April that year, just afortnight before the end of the course. They were married for 56 years, until her death in 1996. RIGHT: As an RAE test pilot,Eric gained quite alot of experienceonthe Arado Ar 234B-2 jet,ferrying several examples from mainland Europe to Farnborough, and subsequently evaluating them. AEROPLANE 30 www.aeroplanemonthly.comAEROPLANE APRIL2016 LEFT: Another of the captured German types Eric flew with the RAE wasHeinkel He 177A-5/R6 TS439, formerly Werknummer 550062. AEROPLANE SECOND FROM TOPLEFT: On tour in Germanywith hisMGN-type Magnette sports car during 1939. He wasanexchange student at the Schule Schloss AB Salem in Baden- CRE Württemberg and wasthere when BE warwas declared, CRE leading to afew days’incarceration by theSSbefore being allowedto leavefor home. THIRD FROM TOPLEFT: Eric and his father in the German town of Freiburg im Breisgau. They first visited Germany together in 1936 for the Berlin Olympics, meeting several membersofthe fledglingLuftwaffe including Ernst Udet. MIDDLE LEFT: Serving with 802 Squadron on the Grumman Martlet, YetEric lovedthe USA —although listen?“Of course”, Miller replied. A up.With Eric’s death, we losethe last alwaysafavourite latterly,hetold me, the tedious airport marvellous experiencefollowed. What witness to and participantinthe first aircraft. security there made it toomuch trouble was Miller like? “A hardtaskmaster.He flight of the Gloster E28/39. ABOVE LEFT: Flying to flyover. Ahigh point was the time didn’tsuffer fools gladly.When he left MaybeEricwas born to fly. Photosof past HMS Ocean he wasadmitted to theSociety of the room, the mood relaxed”. Once his father Robertmuch interest me.Eric in VampireLZ551 Experimental Test Pilots. GenJimmy he did, Eric wassoon singing ‘AtLast’, recalls the oil painting of him in RFC on the dayofthe Doolittle did the honours because accompanied by the band. uniform thatdominatedthe lounge at world’s firstjet of Eric’s role in dive tests withthe Threeyears earlier,storms over home.“My father indoctrinated me carrier landing Merlin-poweredMustang,whichhelped Lincoln hadforcedEric to aborthis into flying”, he said —hetook Eric, and take-off, convince theEighth AirForce thatit flight in aMartlet from Scotland to aged eight, up in aGloster Gamecock. 3December 1945. was the best fightertoescortits hitherto Croydon andlandatCranwell.Onthe By
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