The Best of Luck, In the Royal Air Force 1935-1946

About the Book

These memoirs do not consist solely of air combat missions but, in addition, include many interesting incidents in Middle East (Western Desert) and the European theatres of World War II, amongst which was attachment to the United States 8th Air Force to criticise and advise on the armament procedures of their flying fortress squadrons.

One chapter describes the author's four-year relationship with, and under the command of, Raymond Collishaw, the famous Canadian ace fighter pilot of World War One. Some little known tales concerning this great airman are included.

About the Author

Dennis Conroy was born in the famous seaport of Plymouth, England from where the Mayflower Pilgrims set out on their epic voyage to America.

Conroy's father was killed in WW I at the age of 21, making him the youngest Sergeant-Major in the British Army.

From an early age he was interested in aviation and as a youngster would spend hours at a time watching the flying-boats and seaplanes taking off from and alighting on Plymouth Sound, based at Royal Air Force Station Mount Batten.

Conroy's aunt encouraged his flying ambition by paying for his flights in light aircraft at Roborough airfield, near Plymouth, including a race in an Avro 504K biplane with Alan Cobham's Flying Circus.

Conroy left school at 16 awarded with Oxford School Certificate (Oxford University) credits in English, French, Mathematics, Geography and Art.

At the age of eighteen he enlisted in the Royal Air Force and trained as an armourer. Rapidly volunteering for overseas service he was sent to Heliopolis, near Cairo in Egypt, joining 208 Squadron equipped with Hawker Audax two-seater biplanes. Here, in addition to his ground duties, he trained as Air Gunner and flew on operations against the enemy in Western Desert and Libya. Subsequently Conroy trained as fighter pilot and flew Hurricane and Typhoon fighter-bombers against enemy shipping and land targets in the European theatre of World War Two.

Conroy was then recommended for pilot training by Group Captain Raymond Collishaw, the famous Canadian fighter ace of World War I. After training in S. Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) he returned to the United Kingdom as a fighter pilot and joined 175 Fighter Bomber Squadron in A Flight. Here, flying Hurricane 2B fighter bombers he attacked enemy airfields and shipping, taking part in the well-known Operation Jubilee, the great air, land and sea raid on Dieppe. On the squadron being re-equipped with the powerful Hawker Typhoon 1B Conroy took part in numerous dive bombing attacks on enemy airfields and the notorious V.1 (Flying Bomb) sites.

After completion of over 100 operational sorties he was recommended to take an advanced training course and qualified as Specialist Armament Officer. Then, ranked as Flight Lieutenant, he was attached for duty with the United States 8th Air Force where he was asked to report on the standard of their armament procedures in their Flying Fortress squadrons, then engages on daylight raids over Europe.

During his flying time Conroy was involved in half a dozen crashes two of which were due to engine failures while airborne. In one of the latter incidents his Hurricane caught fire over the sea on returning from an operation against the enemy. Forgetting the two bombs slung under his wings Conroy crash-landed his burning aircraft just over the coast and managed to get out and run for it (fast!) This was considered part of the game!