Posted on 04/22/2008 6:41:23 PM PDT by dighton
Wing Commander Paddy Barthropp, who died on April 16 aged 87, was one of the RAF’s most ebullient and colourful characters; he fought in the Battle of Britain, escaped twice from prisoner-of-war camps and later became a test pilot and a winning jockey in Hong Kong.
Aged 19 Barthropp joined No 602 Squadron to fly Spitfires from an airfield on the south coast. His first day of action was September 15 1940, the climax of the Battle, when he was airborne four times. In his excitement he managed to fire off all his ammunition during each engagement and readily acknowledged that he was “absolutely terrified”. On September 27 he achieved his first success when he shot down a Heinkel bomber near Brighton. A few days later he shared in the destruction of a Junkers 88.
In February 1941 Barthropp joined another Spitfire squadron, No 91, at Hawkinge in Kent; its role was to send pairs of aircraft across the Channel to shadow enemy shipping, seek out transport targets and attack aircraft on the ground.
Throughout that summer he was constantly in action, and was credited with destroying two enemy fighters, probably destroying two others and damaging two more. On numerous occasions his Spitfire returned damaged by anti-aircraft fire. In August 1941, after completing 150 operations, he was awarded a DFC and sent to a fighter training unit as an instructor.
Patrick Peter Colum Barthropp (known throughout his life as Paddy) was born during a family visit to Dublin on November 9 1920. His mother died in childbirth and Barthropp was brought up and educated in Shropshire before going to Ampleforth, where he won his colours in four sports. He later admitted: “My academic career was not as brilliant.”
As the son of a distinguished amateur steeplechase rider, Paddy developed a great love of riding and was tutored by the champion jockey Steve Donoghue. On leaving school he took an engineering apprenticeship at the Rover works in Coventry.
Barthropp joined the RAF on November 1 1938 on a short service commission and trained as a pilot. During some training flights he would divert from the air exercise and trail the local hunt in his Tiger Moth.
He was posted to No 613 Squadron, flying Lysanders on Army co-operation duties, and flew on operations in support of the British Expeditionary Force until the end of the evacuation from Dunkirk. In August 1940 he answered a call for volunteers to transfer to Fighter Command to help make up for the heavy losses of pilots sustained during the significant fighting of the summer of 1940.
During his time flying on operations after the Battle of Britain, Barthropp did not neglect his social activities. He managed to acquire a two-litre Lagonda in exchange for 400 gallons of 100-octane aviation fuel. His groundcrew fitted a 25-gallon tank under the car’s back seat, and this, he later said, “gave me an extra supply of juice to keep me ahead of the game when I set off for pastures green”.
One evening he wrote off the car in a collision with a London taxi. On another occasion he and a colleague were fined £1 for assaulting the proprietor of the Red Lion Hotel, Hounslow, after they were refused entry to a dance. When Barthropp called the magistrate a “silly old bastard”, the fine was doubled.
Barthropp’s time as an instructor afforded ample opportunity for low-flying, beat-ups and a hectic social life in Shropshire. Addicted as he was to fast cars and lively ladies, Barthropp saw himself as the sworn enemy of stuffed shirts and unsympathetic authority. Returning from a particularly uproarious party at Oswestry, he drove his latest car into a lake after missing a turn. This proved to be the last straw for his commanding officer, who decided that Barthropp was not setting a good example to the students, and arranged for him to be sent back to an operational squadron. On May 12 1942 he accordingly drove his newly-acquired drophead Rover to Hornchurch to join No 122 Squadron.
Five days later Barthropp was escorting six Bostons bombing a factory near St Omer when Focke Wulf 190s attacked his formation. He shot down one of the enemy, but then the controls on his Spitfire were hit and damaged and he was forced to bale out. He was soon captured, and later that evening met the pilot who had shot him down. Four weeks later Barthropp arrived at Stalag Luft III at Sagan, where he and a colleague attempted to escape by hiding in a drain covered by a manhole cover; they were soon apprehended.
Over a period of 18 months Barthropp spent 100 days in solitary confinement for a serious of misdemeanours before being transferred to a camp in Poland. Here he was involved in digging a tunnel. After six months it was ready, and 32 men escaped. Barthropp was the third to break out, and he headed for Warsaw with a companion. A few days later they were caught by the Gestapo.
On January 28 1945 the prisoners were herded from their camp and marched westwards during the intensely cold winter. They eventually reached Lubeck, where they were liberated in May. Barthropp managed to acquire a Mercedes fire engine and he and a friend drove it to Brussels via Hamburg, where they met two ladies who were happy to spend the night with them in return for a tin of corned beef.
Barthropp remained in the RAF, working in Norway locating the graves of missing airmen - he received the Order of King Haakon to add to an earlier Cross of Lorraine awarded by the French government, and was mentioned in dispatches.To his astonishment, his application in 1946 to attend the Empire Test Pilots’ School was successful and, after completing the course, he tested many fighter aircraft, including the first jets, at Boscombe Down. After a period in Khartoum, responsible for hot weather trials of the Meteor jet fighter, he went to HQ Fighter Command.
He returned to operational flying in 1952, when he was appointed to command the Waterbeach fighter wing, flying Meteors. During the flypast to celebrate the Queen’s Coronation he led a formation of 288 Meteors. As he left London he was forced to fly over an RAF airfield whose controller ordered him to change course to avoid overflying. Barthropp responded with a few expletives and suggested he move his airfield, because there was no way he could turn away the tightly-packed formation in time. At the end of his tour of duty at Waterbeach he was awarded an AFC.
In 1954 Barthropp left for an administrative post at the Air Headquarters in Hong Kong, an appointment for which he had little enthusiasm. Claiming to be inadequately trained, he felt able to delegate most of his responsibilities to a junior officer and a corporal. This allowed him to take up horse racing, and he became a successful jockey, winning a number of races at the Happy Valley racecourse.
After commanding RAF Honiley, the home of two Royal Auxiliary Air Force jet fighter squadrons, he was made the senior administration officer at RAF Coltishall in Norfolk.
Barthropp found administration dreary, and he accepted his release under a “golden bowler” scheme, leaving the RAF in 1957. He used the handsome gratuity and part of an inheritance to buy a Bentley and a Rolls-Royce Phantom VI. Dressed in an expensive chauffeur’s outfit he started to drive the well-heeled around Britain. Over the next few years his luxury car-hire business became very successful and he soon owned a fleet of Rolls-Royces. One of his cars featured in the James Bond film Casino Royale.
Barthropp was a great raconteur and bon vivant who, according to a colleague, “obeyed only those rules he agreed with”. He was a great supporter of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association and for many years fought to get ex-PoWs the back pay they were denied. He greatly enjoyed country life, particularly shooting and fishing. He wrote an amusing autobiography, Paddy (1987), the proceeds of which went to the Douglas Bader Foundation.
Paddy Barthropp married first, in 1948, Barbara Pal. The marriage was dissolved after 10 years, and he is survived by his second wife, Betty, whom he married in 1962.
A BTT for a life well-lived.
What a man! Plus, the Brits really know how to write an obit.
That they do.
A life very well lived!
Wow! That camp was the basis for the true story of the 1963 movie, The Great Escape.
This guy did it all.
Not to denigrate Forrest Gump in any way, but this guy beats him hands-down, and he was real.
During some training flights he would divert from the air exercise and trail the local hunt in his Tiger Moth.
Right O!
What a man.
Marines! Hand Salute! Ooooorah!
Sounds to me that he gave it hell the whole way through life.No shrinking violet there.Good Show.
A late ping to some obit regulars.
Amazing. Thanks! My husband likes to read these too.
A great career and a great retirement.
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