Brown, Eric Melrose (Oral history)

British officer served as pilot with 801 Naval Air Sqdn, Fleet Air Arm in GB and aboard HMS Furious off Norway, 9/1940; served with 802 Naval Air Sqdn, Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Audacity in North Atlantic, 7/1941-12/1941, including sinking west of Cape Finistere, Spain, 21/12/1941; served as test pilot with Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, GB, 1944-1949

REEL 1 Aspects of operations as pilot with 802 Naval Sqdn, Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Audacity in North Atlantic, 7/1941-12/1941: prior recollection of call-up to Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 1939; leadership, organisation and personnel; flying the Grumman Martlet Mk II; history of HMS Audacity; living on and operating from escort carrier. Aspects of operations as pilot with 801 Naval Air Sqdn, Fleet Air Arm in GB and aboard HMS Furious off Norway, 9/1940: raid on oil tanks in Bergen, Norway, 13/9/1940; evasion of German Messerschmitt Bf 109 fighters after raid, 13/9/1940; contrast between flying Blackburn Skua and Grumman Martlet Mk II; attitude to flying dive-bombers including Junkers Ju 87 Stuka. Recollections of operations as pilot with 802 Naval Air Sqdn, Fleet Air Arm aboard HMS Audacity in North Atlantic, 7/1941-12/1941 including sinking west of Cape Finistere, Spain, 21/12/1941: duties; attack on Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor; technique of attacking Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors; attitude to air combat; dealing with submarine threats during Convoys OG 74 and HG 74; attitude towards German submarine crews. REEL 2 Continues: character of Convoys OG 76 and HG 76; bombing of convoy rescue ship MV Walmer Castle, 21/9/1941; loss of commanding officer during attack on Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor; squadron morale; attitude of Fleet Air Arm pilots to air combat; shooting down of squadron member by German submarine U-131 during Convoy HG 76; landing on carrier at dusk, 21/12/1941; torpedoing of carrier by submarine U-571 during Convoy HG 76 in Bay of Biscay, 21/12/1941; surfacing of submarine U-571 and second torpedoing; damage to carrier and loss of aircraft; abandoning carrier and sinking, 21/12/1941; period in sea and rescue by corvette. Recollections of period as chief naval test pilot with Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, GB, 1944-1949: background to becoming test pilot, 1/1944. REEL 3 Continues: discovery of German technical developments in aeronautics; opinion of reasons for German advances in aeronautics; reasons why Britain concentrated on centrifugal flow rather than axial flow jet engines; memories of Frank Whittle and other personalities at Farnborough; memories of Sidney Camm; opinion of outstanding British and German aircraft of Second World War including Messerschmitt Me 262; opinion of Messerschmitt Bf 109 and Focke-Wulf Fw 190; comparison between Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire for naval work; first flight in Gloster Meteor, 1944; opinion of Mitsubishi A6M Zero; opinion of Hawker Typhoon; close friends amongst fellow test pilots. REEL 4 Continues: memories of Joseph 'Mutt' Summers; landing De Havilland DH.98 Mosquito on aircraft carrier deck, 3/1944; landing De Havilland DH.100 Vampire on aircraft carrier, 12/1945; landing De Havilland DH.100 Vampire on rubber decks as part of Flexible Deck Experiment, (FDE), 1947-1949.