- Robert Stanford Tuck
Infobox Military Person
name= Robert Roland Stanford Tuck
lived= 1916–1987
placeofbirth=Catford , SELondon
placeofdeath=England
caption= Stanford Tuck c. 1940.
nickname= Bob
allegiance= flagicon|UKUnited Kingdom
serviceyears= 1935–1949
rank= Wing Commander
branch=Royal Air Force
commands=No. 65 Squadron RAF (1935-1940)No. 92 Squadron RAF (1940)No. 257 Squadron RAF (1940-1942)
unit=
battles=World War II
*Battle of France
*Battle of Britain
awards=Distinguished Service Order Distinguished Flying Cross & Two Bars [LondonGazette |issue=37610 |linkeddate=1946-06-11 |startpage=3007 |endpage= |supp=y |accessdate=2008-08-08 ] Air Force Cross
laterwork=
Wing Commander Robert Roland Stanford Tuck DSO, DFC & Two Bars, AFC (1 July 1916 –5 May 1987 ) was a Britishfighter pilot andtest pilot .Tuck joined the RAF in 1935. Tuck first engaged in combat during theBattle of France , overDunkirk , claiming his first victories. In September 1940 he was promoted toSquadron Leader and commanded aHawker Hurricane unit.In 1941 - 1942, Tuck participated in fighter sweeps over northernFrance . On28 February 1942 , Tuck was hit by anti-aircraft fire and forced landed in France and was taken prisoner. At the time of his capture Tuck had claimed 27 enemy aircraft destroyed, two shared destroyed, six probably destroyed, six damaged and one shared damaged. [Price 1997, p. 90.]Early years
Tuck was born of Jewish parents at
Catford , SELondon . After a less-than-stellar school career he leftSt 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 atCroydon , as a Flight Commander flying Spitfires.Battle of France
Tuck led his first combat patrol on
23 May 1940 , overDunkirk , claiming three German fighters shot down. The following day he shot down two German bombers and as aerial fighting intensified over the next two weeks his score rapidly mounted. Tuck was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) onJune 11 and received it fromKing George VI atRAF Hornchurch onJune 28 .Battle of Britain
His combat successes continued into July and August as the
Battle of Britain gathered pace, although he himself was forced to bail out on18 August . While attacking a formation ofJunkers 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 on25 August Tuck's Spitfire was badly damaged during combat with aDornier Do 17 bomber, which he destroyed, 15 miles off the coast. His aircraft had a dead engine but he glided it back to dry land to make a forced landing.On
11 September , during the height of the Battle of Britain, Tuck was promoted toSquadron Leader and posted to command theHawker Hurricane -equippedNo. 257 Squadron RAF , based atRAF Coltishall . He led his squadron into combat through September and continued to claim further victories. His last two official victories of the Battle were on28 October , where he claimed two “probable”Bf 109 s. He received a Bar to his DFC on25 October , and theDistinguished Service Order (DSO) in January 1941. In March 1941, he was awarded a second Bar to his DFC, and in June he survived being shot down over the English Channel, being rescued by a Gravesend coal barge. Tuck claimed a total of seven destroyed, four probables and two damaged on the Hawker Hurricane. [Holmes 1998, p. 81.]He had an extraordinary piece of ill-fortune when he intercepted 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. [Forrester 2001]In July, 1941, Tuck was promoted to Wing Commander and appointed Wing Leader at
RAF Duxford where he led fighter sweeps into northernFrance . After a brief trip to America with several otherRAF Fighter Command pilots to raise awareness of Britain's war effort, he returned to a posting atRAF Biggin Hill as Wing Leader. It was while flying from Biggin Hill Tuck’s last aerial combat of the war occurred. On28 January 1942 , while on a low-level fighter sweep "rhubarb" mission over northern France, his Spitfire was hit by enemy ground-basedflak near Boulogne and he was forced to crash land.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 atŻagań (Sagan), before making a number of unsuccessful escape attempts from several other prisoner of war camps acrossGermany andPoland . In company with a Polish pilot, he finally escaped successfully on1 February 1945 as his camp was being evacuated westwards fromRussia n 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 theBritish Embassy inMoscow . He eventually boarded a ship from Russia toSouthampton, England .With the war now over, he received his final decoration, a Distinguished Flying Cross from the
United States Air Force on14 June 1946 , before he finally retired from the RAF and active service on13 May 1949 as a Wing Commander. His final accredited aerial kills numbered 27 and two shared destroyed, one and 1 shared unconfirmed destroyed, six probables and six and one shared damaged.Later life
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.Tuck also worked as a technical adviser to the film "Battle of Britain" (1969) and eventually developed a close friendship with the German fighter pilot
Adolf Galland . [ "Battle for the Battle of Britain: The Making of the Movie", 2004.]Robert Stanford Tuck died on
5 May 1987 at the age of 70.References
Notes
Bibliography
*"Battle for the Battle of Britain: The Making of the Movie" DVD (released in conjunction with "The Battle of Britain" DVD). MGM Entertainment, 2004.
* Bishop, Edward, ed. "The Daily Telegraph Book of Airmen's Obituaries". London: Grub Street, 2002. ISBN 1-902304-99-3.
* Forrester, Larry. "Fly for Your Life: The Story of RR Stanford Tuck, DSO, DFC (Fortunes of War)". London: Cerberus Publishing Ltd., 2001. ISBN 1-84145-025-1.
* Homles, Tony. "Hurricane Aces 1939 - 1940". Osprey Publishing. London. 1998. ISBN 978-1-85532-597-5
* Dr Price, Alfred. "Spitfire Mark V Aces 1941 - 1945". Osprey. London. 1997. ISBN 978-1-85532-635-4
* Shores, Christopher and Williams, Clive. "Aces High". London: Grub Street, 1994. ISBN 1-89869-700-0.External links
* [http://www.stanfordtuck.com Official homepage of Robert Stanford Tuck]
* [http://www.spitfirepilots.com/tuck.html Robert Stanford Tuck article]
* [http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/bobhome.html Battle of Britain History site]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCXCzof3nY8 Very short appearance in Battle of Britain memorial film (around 04:20)]Persondata
NAME= Tuck, Robert Roland Stanford
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=British fighter pilot and test pilot.
DATE OF BIRTH= 1 July 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH=Catford ,London ,England
DATE OF DEATH=– 5 May 1987
PLACE OF DEATH=England
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.