Roy Brown (pilot)

Captain Arthur Roy Brown (DFC and bar) (23 December, 1893–9 March, 1944) was a Canadian World War I flying ace who is officially credited with shooting down Manfred von Richthofen, the Red Baron. Less well known, but perhaps much more surprising, Brown never lost a pilot in his squardron in combat, due largely to his demands for a "breaking in" period in which new pilots flew over the fights just to see how they worked.

Brown was born to upper-middle class parents in Carleton Place, outside of Ottawa, one of five children. His father had started business as a miller, but branched out into electrical generation when the first power grids were being set up around the turn of the century. Brown started in business school in order to eventually take over the business, but followed this with a a course at the Victoria High School in Edmonton from 1913-15 to get his high-school diploma. There he befriended Wop May who also went to the same school.

Brown decided to join the war effort as soon as he graduated, and enlisted in 1915 as an Officer Cadet at the Army Officers' Training Corps. However he was already thinking about joining the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), but his father was alarmed by the staggering death rates in combat. In the end they reached a compromise, his father would allow him to join the Royal Naval Air Service instead of the RFC, as they spent most of their time on anti-submarine patrols.

Brown was surprised to find that in order to join the RNAS they would first need their pilot's certificates. He found that the only school in Canada, in Toronto, was already full, so his father paid for his training at the Wright Brothers' school in Dayton, Ohio. He received his license, Number 361, on November 15th 1915, and returned to Ottawa to enlist along with three friends.

Appointed a Temporary Probationary Flight Sub-Lieutenant, Brown set sail for England on November 22nd, 1915 and upon his arrival underwent further training at Chingford. On 2 May 1916 Brown crashed his AVRO 504 aircraft, emerging apparently unscathed. The next morning he experienced severe back pain; an investigation showed that he had broken one of his vertebrae. He spent two months recouperating in hospital, and in September 1916 he was posted to Eastchurch Gunnery School and was sent for advanced training at Cranwell four months later.

In March 1917 Brown was given a posting to No. 9 Naval Squadron flying coastal patrols off the Belgian coast in Sopwith Pups. In April part of the Squadron - B Flight, which included Brown - was reassigned to the RFC to assist during the Battle of Arras. Brown had become ill at this point, and thus missed the massacre that ensued when the latest German Albatros D.III fighters appeared for the first time and butchered the Allied air forces.

After recovering in June Brown was posted to No. 11 Naval Squadron, primarily a training squadron. In July he was briefly posted to No. 4 Naval Squadron before he was moved back to No. 11 Naval Squadron later the same month. On 17 July he achieved his first "kill", one of the deadly D.III's, while flying his Pup. He was promoted to Flight Lieutenant, and gathered another three unconfirmed kills.

No. 11 was disbanded in mid-August 1917, and Brown returned once again to No. 9, now equipped with the famous Sopwith Camel. On 6 October 1917 Brown was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) in recognition of his aerial success and in particular for coming to the aid of a lone Allied pilot under fire from four German Albatrosses. Even though his own aircraft's guns had jammed he raced to the pilot's aid, forcing the German aircraft to scatter as he flew directly through them.

Ten days later he was promoted to Acting Flight Commander. It was in this role that Brown was clearly one-of-a-kind, as he built up a crew of pilots who understood the "better part of valor" was to always get the plane home. Famous for charging into swarms of German aircraft, Brown always managed to disengauge his planes before the opposition could get organized.

The 9th was posted to the Somme area in early 1918, where they had to retreat no less than six times as the German spring offensive made its rapid gains between March 20 and 29th. The tempo of operations was maddening, the entire squadron typically flying two missions a day. Raymond Collishaw noted on an early April visit that Brown looked exhausted: he had lost 25 pounds, his hair was prematurely turning grey, and his eyes were bloodshot and sunken. Not only was the food bad, but Brown had eaten contaminated rabbit that made him severely sick. Against Collishaw's suggestions, Brown refused to quit flying. Even with these conditions, Brown shot down another two aircraft on the 11th and 12th of April.

On 21 April 1918 the RFC and RNAS were merged into the Royal Air Force. RNAS squadrons had 200 added to their names, and Brown's became No. 209. Another side effect was the change in rankings, making Brown a Captain.

On the morning of 21 April, No. 209 was involved in a combat patrol when they were set upon by planes of Jasta 11, the infamous "flying circus" led by Manfred von Richthofen. A newcomer to No. 209, Brown's high-school friend, Wop May, was instructed to stay out of the fight and watch. After a few minutes May noticed another pilot doing the same thing, Manfred's cousin, Wolfram von Richthofen, who it turns out was given the same instructions as May.

Disregarding orders, May attacked Wolfram and soon found himself in the midst of the main fight, spraying bullets everywhere until his guns overheated and jamed. May then dove out of combat, but not before Manfred saw what was happening and gave chase. Brown saw May in trouble and dove to help out, and soon the three planes were snaking back and forth at treetop height.

The final outcome of the battle remains controversial to this day, but at some point Richthofen broke off combat and started to fly home. It appears he was lost at this point, because his route took him at low levels right over some of the most heavily defended points of the Somme. Some have suggested he became lost as the winds that day were blowing the "wrong way", towards the west, and the fight had slowly drifted over to the allied side. Others have suggested that Richthofen had not recoved from a major head injury, as he had never chased an aircraft before, he always tried to remain above the fight.

Whatever did occur, both Brown and Austrailian gunners on the ground sent long bursts at Richthofen, who eventually crashed only a few hundred yards from the front lines near the Australian trenches. Brown was officially credited with the kill, and given a Bar for his DFC. Upon viewing Richthofen's body on the following day Brown wrote that there was a lump in my throat. If he had been my dearest friend, I could not have felt greater sorrow.

He left the RAF in 1919 and returned to Canada where he took up work as an accountant. He also founded a small airline and worked for a while as editor of Canadian Aviation. When World War II started he attempted to enlist in the newly-formed Royal Canadian Air Force, but was refused. He instead entered politics, losing an election for the Ontario legislature in 1943.

Brown died on 9 March 1944 in Stouffville, Ontario shortly after posing for a photograph with a current ace George Beurling.