Australian WWII fighter pilot and Grand Prix racer Tony Gaze died yesterday at the age of 93.
A member of the famed Tangmere Wing during the Battle of Britain, Gaze flew alongside legends Douglas Bader at 610 Sqn and later Johnnie Johnson at 616 Sqn, managing to bag 11 kills and earn three DFCs along the way.
Gaze was already in the UK at Cambridge University when the war broke out, and he immediately joined the RAF to train on fighters. His father had been a fighter pilot in WWI, so it seemed a natural path to follow.
After graduating, Gaze was posted to 610 Sqn RAF at Westhampnett, where he won his first DFC for shooting down two BF109s flying a Spitfire IIB. He was later posted to 616 at Northamptonshire on Spit VIs and eventually took command of 64 Sqn.
For a brief time, he was with 453 Sqn RAAF, but was soon moved on to 66 Sqn at Kenley flying Spitfire Vs.
It was when he was with 66 Sqn that Gaze was shot down. An encounter with BF109s whilst escorting Bostons into Amiens on September 4, 1943 ended with Gaze belly-landing his Spit near Le Treport in occupied France.
Wounded and alone, Gaze was fortunate enough to be collected by the French resistance, and was helped on a long and dangerous journey over the Pyrenees into Spain, where he fetched up at the British consulate in Barcelona.
By the time he was back in Britain, via Gibraltar, Gaze had been away for almost eight weeks. He was sent back to 610 Squadron, and on June 10 1944, returned to Europe with a landing at St Croix-Sur-Mer, France after the D-Day landings. He was the first allied airman to land back on European soil.
But the exploit for which he is perhaps most well-known is his victory over an Me262 twin jet fighter whilst flying a Spit XIV. Tony's combat report for the incident reveals that he was chasing Arado 234s near Nijmegen in The Netherlands in February 1945, when he took time out to de-ice his plane.
"I did an orbit at 13,000 ft. to clear off the ice on the windscreen and sighted 3 M.E. 262′s in Vic formation passing below me at cloud top level. I dived down behind them and closed in, crossing behind the formation and attacked the port aircraft which was lagging slightly.
"I could not see my sight properly as we were flying straight into the sun, but fired from dead astern, at a range of 350 yards, hitting it in the starboard jet with the second burst; at which the other 2 aircraft immediately dived into cloud. It pulled up slowly and turned to starboard and I fired obtaining more strikes on fuselage and jet which caught fire.
"The enemy rolled over on to its back and dived through cloud. I turned 180 and dived after it, calling on the R/T to warn my no.2; on breaking cloud I saw an aircraft hit the ground and explode about a mile ahead of me, at E.9859. I claim this M.E.262 destroyed."
It was not his only jet victory, in April 1945 he claimed an Arado 234 when he was with 44 Sqn.
Later, after having been posted back to 616 Sqn, Gaze became the first Australian to fly Gloster Meteors. In what could only be described as risky move, he later landed his Meteor on a stretch of autobahn in Germany where Me262s were parked. He met with the German pilots and they showed each other over their aircraft. This was just BEFORE Germany surrendered.
Once hostilities ceased, Gaze turned his hand to a career in motor racing. Whilst at Westhampnett, Gaze and his mates enjoyed racing cars around the perimeter track, and he suggest to the Duke, Freddie March, that Westhampnett could fill the void as a race track after the closure of Brooklands. That track is today known as Goodwood.
Gaze competed in three Grands Prix in 1952, driving for the privateer HWM team. The car was powered by a two-litre Alta engine, and although he lined up on the same grid as legends like Ascari, Fangio, Farina and Moss, his car was not in the same league as the Ferraris, Alfas and Maseratis.
He was the first Australian to compete in the World Driver's Championship, but failed to score any points. He was not classified in the Belgian Grand Prix, and failed to finish in the British and German races.
Gaze later returned to Australia, and after the death of his wife, Kay, married Diana, the widow of Australian racing legend Lex Davison. He was later awarded an OAM for services to motor racing.
Squadron Leader Tony Gaze died early on the morning of Monday, July 29, 2013, at his home in Geelong.