by Nick Thomas
‘The Canadian Spitfire pilot got the German in his sights. He held him there for a split second and then he pushed the button on his guns. The German flew away.
‘Back on the station in England, Buzz Beurling talked to the pilot.
“How much deflection did you give him?” he asked.
“Two and a quarter rings.”
“What was your air speed?”
“About 350.”
“What was the angle off?”
‘The Canadian pilot told Beurling.
“No wonder you missed him,” Buzz snorted. “You should have given him two and three-tenths rings. It’s a piece of cake. You’da killed him.”
The article went on to say that this was:
‘one of the stories Flt.-Sgt. J. E. (Duke) Graybiel of Toronto told about F/O George Beurling, Canada’s top ace, with whom he flew last summer on the Wolf Squadron. Beurling is a hot pilot in all respects, says Graybiel, and a fine fellow to boot. Graybiel would much rather talk about Beurling than about Graybiel.
“A piece of cake; that’s his favourite phrase,” says Graybiel.
“Somebody asked him once what to do when a Jerry bounces you from behind. So Buzz told him: “Just a nice vertical roll to lose air speed and when he overshoots, you’re lying on your back and you fire. It’s a piece of cake.”’
Canadian politicians and the RCAF ruthlessly exploited Beurling for every bit of publicity. Even his family were not spared the unwarranted press attention. One such account was published under the banner:
‘No. 1 Canadian Ace’s Family Meet No. 1 Airforce Chief. ‘The Beurlings Chat With Air Ministry Power, Breadner and Bowhill.
The article read:
‘Perhaps the most interested spectators at the RCAF parade which followed yesterday’s wings presentation ceremony were the family of FO George Beurling DSO, DFC, DFM and Bar, Canada’s top ranking ace in the RAF.
‘They were standing unobtrusively near the reviewing stand when someone acquainted the Air Minister [Mr Power] of their presence. He quickly left the official group, and was soon chatting intimately with Mr and Mrs Beurling, and their two other sons, Richard and David.
‘Following the conversation he then introduced Air Marshal Breadner, of Ottawa, and Air Chief-Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill of the Royal Air Force Ferry Command. They joined Mr Power in congratulating the couple on their famous son’s achievement in shooting down twenty-eight enemy airmen, and declared that his exploits acted as an inspiration to RCAF personnel now in training.
‘They told reporters afterwards that while they were proud of their son, they hoped that he would soon be able to get home if only for a brief visit.’
Another reporter wrote:
‘Flaxen-haired ‘Buzz’ Beurling is the middle child in a family of five children. His two older sisters are married. One, Gladys, is Mrs Hall and lives with her husband in Verdun. The other, Elsie, is Mrs Woodside, and makes her home in Homestead Park, Penn. Both sisters are following their young brother’s flying career with keen interest and – naturally – considerable worry.
‘It was reported that George’s two young brothers, 10-year-old Richard and 5-year-old David, could talk of only two things; George and airplanes. Their mother was quoted as saying: “it looks like we are going to have two more Georges,” qualifying her remark by adding: “Richard goes out to Curtiss-Reid just like his brother did, and David is constantly pestering me for nickels to buy five-cent gliders.”
‘Evidently, Richard Beurling was several steps ahead of his brother at the same age: “I’ve been up in an airplane lots of times. It’s lots of fun.”
It was at this time that Beurling worked closely with writer Leslie Roberts to produce Malta Spitfire. The pair spent a reported seventeen days in each other’s company, Roberts taking copious notes covering, ‘the span of his years from the day when he heard the sound of his first airplane motor to his incarceration in hospital after being shot down into the Mediterranean.’ Robert was able to write, ‘Well, nobody ghosted George Beurling. This is his own story, as he talks it.’ Despite this boast, the work did contain a number of factual errors, largely due to the almost impossible task of perfectly recalling names, dates and the chronology of events.
The introduction to Malta Spitfire was dated Montreal, June 1943, while the Foreword was penned by Canadian World War One fighter ace, Air Marshal William Avery ‘Billy’ Bishop, VC, DSO and Bar, MC, DFC, RCAF36.
Much was written about Beurling’s natural abilities, both as a flier and as a marksman. The press wanted quotes and Beurling gave them plenty, but his gung-ho attitude was open to misinterpretation; some labelled him a cold-blooded killer.
One writer, L.R. Clayton Knight, acknowledged that Beurling was overly preoccupied, ‘with the precise technique of flying and severely critical of sloppy flying,’ mitigating that he was only a ‘killer’ in the same way any other fighter pilot could be called the same, only Beurling perfected his combat techniques, holding fire, ‘for the necessary fraction of a second, the fraction of a second that makes the difference between perfection and the waste of ammunition, brought on by sloppiness or panic.’
Amid the hype, Beurling continued on his nationwide tour and took a flight from Calgary to Vancouver Airport on 2 March. Here he was greeted by Wing Commander W.E. Bennet, Sea Island’s Commanding Officer, and by his uncle, Arvid Beurling, whom he hadn’t seen for ten years. The reunion was, of course, staged and the press got their patriotic spin as they were able to report that Arvid, who lived at Cultus Lake, had recently enlisted into the Navy.
In an interview conducted in his rooms in the Hotel Vancouver that night, Beurling spoke to a number of local journalists including Gordon Root of The Vancouver Daily Province and Don Mason, also being interviewed by Gene McNicholl. Beurling, who chewed on gum throughout, began by reminiscing how in 1939 he spent two months working for Len Foggins around the hangars at the airport. He was quoted as saying: ‘I think Vancouver is the greatest little city in Canada,’ declaring emphatically, ‘and if I ever settle down, it’s going to be right here.’
Meanwhile, despite the close attentions of Squadron Leader T.C. McCall, Chief Public Relations Officer, RCAF, Ottawa, Beurling revealed that he didn’t like his current role, but he had to do something while the gunshot wound in his foot was healing.
The following day’s edition of The Vancouver Daily Providence carried Gordon Root’s article:
‘Canada’s Leading War Flyer, “Buzz” Beurling, Arrives in City
‘“Buzz” Beurling loves airplanes and flying, and anything connected with them. That is what he lives for, and he admits it.
‘It is easy to believe that in the air he is a part of the machine he operates rather than a human being.
‘His eyes shine when he talks of dives and barrel-rolls, and turns and deflection shooting. And if anyone doubted his keenness for aerial combat, it was dispelled by his emphatic assertion that when this war is over, he intends to start looking for another one.’
Meanwhile, Gene McNicholl’s account read:
‘BEURLING ITCHES FOR ACTION
‘It was obvious his major interest right now is to get back into a Spitfire and, in his own words, “Blow the brains out” of enemy pilots.
‘The blond, 21-year-old hero; who has twenty-eight and a third planes to his credit, chatted amiably, but nervously.
‘TIRED BUT UNRELAXED
‘Dog-tired from his strenuous Canada – wide tour, which followed hospitalisation in England for a foot wound received in the battle of Malta.
‘A lot has been written about the young flying officer’s eyes, but they have to be seen to be believed. They’re cold, and quick – and he owes his life to them.’
‘But he doesn’t take any particular care of those eyes, “I keep away from unnecessary reading, practice focusing, and look for detail a heck of a long distance that’s all,” he explained in his dry voice.
‘This flier has a lot of nervous habits. He j
ust can’t keep still. He talks with his hands. His eyebrows arching up to wrinkle his forehead and exclamation points to his words.
‘Beurling’s face is animated when he talks about planes. When the subject came up, he ran his hands through his hair, hunched forward.
‘RELIVES DOGFIGHT
‘“Spits” are THE plane,’ Beurling explained how he liked to, “sit his plane up in the sun where they can’t see me.”
‘Using his hands to illustrate, he explained his fighter tactics, how he’d bank, and then turn and dive until he had the enemy plane just where he wanted it …’
Beurling’s nervous energy was something that a number of reporters picked up on and was no doubt a sign of combat fatigue, as was the continued desire to get back into the action while clearly still unfit.
The third journalist, Don Mason, fixated with Beurling’s demeanour and, obviously unaware of the symptoms of combat stress, wrote:
‘Beurling Smiles But Eyes Are Cold
‘Flying Officer George Beurling – Canadian hero of Malta – smiles with his generous mouth, but the smile dies long before it gets to his cold, grey-blue eyes.
‘He’s a [killing] machine at twenty-one, with one ambition, to climb into the cockpit of his Spitfire and kill more Germans, blow their brains out.
“It’s good sport,” the blond, restless flier said in his Hotel Vancouver room, [on] Tuesday night. “I like killing Germans.”
‘He meant it, too. His eyes flashed with unholy fire as he announced he would return to combat duty within four weeks, either at Malta or on [the] Tunisian Front.
‘“There’s no action anywhere else,” he said.
He explained some of his technique to reporters.
‘“I like to hang up high, in the sun,” he said. “Usually I wait until two or more German aircraft are in the right spot under me, then dive.”’
The article gave away details of Beurling’s busy itinerary:
‘Today he visits Sea Island Station and Jericho Beach, and later will travel to other RCAF bases on the coast (Western Air Command along with a number of other RCAF stations in the Lower Mainland district said Mason).’
On 3 March at Jericho Beach, during another of his many news conferences, Beurling’s eye was caught by the West-coast debutante, Diana Gardner (nee Whittall). Diana was a war widow, her husband Flight Lieutenant Edwin Gardner having been killed when he crashed at Swaffham, Norfolk, in October 1940, while returning from a mission with Bomber Command’s No. 61 Squadron.
Beurling invited Diana to dinner that evening and serenaded her with a more than convincing rendition of Moonlight Becomes You as they left the restaurant. It was enough to earn Beurling a second date, which they spent at the movies. Despite getting on famously, the pair were soon separated by circumstances and neither appeared to have made any particular effort to maintain a relationship. If press photos and reports were anything to go by, Beurling was fated by single women throughout his tour, enjoying his celebrity status. He was, however, deeply religious, and there is no suggestion of impropriety on his part.
With his wounds now healed and the benefit of a ration-free diet, Beurling was now deemed fit enough to return to the UK and the European theatre of the war.
Setting sail on the Queen Elizabeth on 5 May 1943, Beurling arrived back in Glasgow a few days later, before taking a train to London. His purpose for travelling there was to attend his unique investiture at Buckingham Palace, where he was to receive the DSO, DFC, DFM and Bar from the hands of His Majesty the King.
Arriving in the small hours of the morning of the ceremony, Beurling carried his kitbag from one hotel to another but was unable to find a room. As a result, he was forced to spend the rest of the night on a park bench within sight of the palace. He later recalled being roused from a broken night’s sleep by a park attendant, a reflection of his humility which so enthralled the press.
Beurling attended the ceremony in the company of Jean Johnson of the American Red Cross. A description of the event was published on 25 May:
‘Beurling Gets 4 Medals From King At One Time
‘The first fighting man to be given four decorations at once at a royal investiture, Flying Officer George Beurling received the DSO, DFC, and DFM and Bar from the King at a recent ceremony in Buckingham Palace.
‘And Beurling, Canada’s leading fighter pilot who is credited with twenty-nine enemy planes, drew such a crowd when he left the palace grounds that traffic was blocked in and out of the palace gate.
The young Verdun, Que., ace told newspapermen waiting for him outside the palace that the King chatted with him about his record shooting on Malta, his recent six months in Canada, and asked him, as hundreds have before:
“Would you like to get back on operations?”
‘Beurling came out of the palace with two good-looking American service women but they couldn’t even stick close to him when the photographers, autograph hunters, miscellaneous admirers, and newsmen and women took over.’
With his leave over, on 27 May 1943, Beurling was posted to the Central Gunnery School at RAF Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire, attending a gunnery instructor’s course. At the time of his arrival, the Fighter Wing’s Chief Flying Instructor was Malta veteran, Squadron Leader ‘Tommy’ Balmforth, DFC. He had served on the island during the dark days of 1940, when Malta was defended by a handful of Gladiators and Hurricanes. Coincidentally, Balmforth later handed over command to another Malta veteran, Squadron Leader Robert Chippindall Dafforn, DFC. Dafforn had served as a sergeant-pilot with No. 501 Squadron during the Battle of France and Battle of Britain, destroying six enemy aircraft, before being posted to the besieged island.
While Beurling found his new role incredibly tedious, many of the pilots who studied his theories on deflection shooting later gave testimony to his positive influence.
Once such account was published on 22 December 1943, under the heading ‘Credits Fine Shooting To Beurling’s Tuition.’ The article read:
‘Flying Officer Andy MacKenzie of Montreal was originally credited with two kills and one probable success in last Monday’s operations by Canadian fighters against the Germans over the Continent.
‘But today, on the evidence of his flying companions, the probable became a positive kill and MacKenzie was officially credited with the destruction of three planes.
‘MacKenzie is one of the finest marksmen in the Red Indian Squadron and has been Squadron gunnery officer almost from the time he joined the outfit. He credits F/L George Beurling of Verdun, Que., Canada’s leading ace of the war with thirty planes destroyed, for his marksmanship. “George made out one of his special tables for me, a combination of speeds and angle degrees,” Mackenzie said. “I studied it religiously, and still do as a matter of fact, because a guy hasn’t much time to figure out those things up there.”’
While at the gunnery school, Beurling at least had the opportunity to fly a Spitfire. He used to dogfight with his fellow pupils, something which he hoped would help him to keep his eye in. One of the mock-combats, however, nearly cost Beurling his life.
On 8 June, Beurling was accidentally shot down during a mock dogfight with Flight Lieutenant Robert Buckham, DFC, and forced to bail out of his Spitfire IIa (P7913). Beurling later (but only after Buckham’s death in combat) related: ‘The first thing I knew there were bullets going through my ship.’ A moment later glycol began spurting over the hot engine and ignited. Beurling rolled the Spitfire onto its back in a steep dive and, ‘hit the silk.’ But he pulled the ripcord too early and his parachute was caught in the slipstream of his aircraft and consequently damaged. This meant that it didn’t deploy properly:
‘I guess the ‘chute must have opened when I was only about 600 or 700ft off the desktop.’
Fearing that further injury might set back his return to combat, Beurling had the presence of mind to hold his wounded heel a little higher, so as to save it from the full impact of the landing.
In order to protect Buckham and th
e armourer, who had between them messed-up, Beurling filed a report stating that his fuel tank had developed a leak, as a result of which the Spitfire caught fire, forcing him to abandon it. Evidently there was no investigation and the matter was laid to rest. Beurling and Buckham never discussed it further between them,
The following article appeared on 10 June and referred to the incident under the lengthy banner:
‘Beurling Bails Out of Flaming Fighter Plane
Canadian Ace Has Close Call When His Parachute Rips
But Fliers Lands Uninjured in English Field
‘George Beurling has had as close a call as he has ever had – during a practice flight at a flying training station.
‘It happened when he jumped 1,400ft from a flaming Spitfire with a parachute that tore on the way down and refused to open until the air ace was about 600 or 700ft above a corn field. It was in this cornfield that he finally landed near the wreckage of his machine.
‘When the flier walked up to the farm house he was greeted by a lad who exclaimed: “Gee whiz, Screwball Beurling.”
The youngster is a cadet in the Air Training Corps and knows all of the war aces. He has a picture of Beurling prominently displayed in his bedroom.
‘Beurling landed a few yards from his aircraft. As soon as he had looked at it, he went to the farm house where he and the farmer, a member of the RFC in the last war, spent a long time talking shop.’
As Beurling’s time at Sutton Bridge passed, he became more anxious for a combat posting. When not flying, Beurling could be found keeping his skills sharp by practicing his deflection firing. He used a 0.22 rifle, picking off any fast-flying birds that passed through his field of vision. In one of many apocryphal stories it was claimed that his celebrity status led to an invite from one of the local squires to shoot on his land, and that he left the estate pretty much devoid of wildlife.
