Captain Val Bailey

Published: 6:17PM GMT twenty-one February 2010

Bailey, sitting centre, with 886 Naval Air Squadron and the dog Piglet prior to D-Day

In the open of 1942 Admiral Chuichi Nagumo"s conduit set upon swift was venturing serve westwards in to the Indian Ocean and British vessels were entrance underneath augmenting attack. On Apr 9, Bailey, trustworthy to No 273 Squadron RAF in China Bay, Ceylon, was scrambled when, prior to long after dawn, a bleeding Hurricane commander landed to surprise "large numbers of Japs around".

Despite being a really youth lieutenant, Bailey was the majority experienced commander in No 273, and, in expectation of assembly higher Japanese fighters, had nude all nonessential rigging from his cockpit: parachutes were not available, that saved still some-more weight.

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"I took off and headed out to sea rock climbing all the time as I was sure I would need all the tallness advantage," he wrote afterwards. "I saw a boat subsequent with steam and fume entrance out and some-more aeroplanes logging about than I had ever seen. The boat was Hermes, that was sinking, and I dived down to her as fast as the [Fairey] Fulmar would go, startling a small Japanese Navy 96s with a Zero or dual about. As I came at the back of the initial Navy 96 I squeezed the trigger and broken it. Thereafter hold up became chaotic. I kept the stifle entirely open whilst weaving about, by right away really low and some-more concerned to equivocate a incident than find a target. However it wasn"t probable to miss a Navy 96 that appeared in front of me that I knocked pieces off."

Admiral Nagumo succeeded in falling Hermes and her escorts, whilst British aircraft waste were 48 in the air and majority some-more on the belligerent in Ceylon. But the dynamic quarrel by Bailey and his comrades opposite some-more than 70 shoot bombers and their warrior escorts had shown Nagumo the risks of venturing serve in to the Indian Ocean. The raid noted the boundary of Japanese enlargement westwards.

Percival Ervine Irvine Bailey, regularly well known as Val, was innate on Oct twenty-seven 1919. His father served in the Indian armed forces and after worked for Sir Arnie Lunn, the distinguished skier and mountaineer. Val was prepared at Hilltop Court, Seaford, Sussex and entered Dartmouth in May 1933, where he won colours for rugby and once danced on the quarterdeck with the on vacation Prince of Wales.

After the precision cruiser Frobisher, Bailey served in the battleship Resolution during the Spanish Civil War, where, as a midshipman, he was since authority of a boat to rescue British civilians from Bilbao and Santander. In the cruiser Neptune he enjoyed happy days on the South Africa hire prior to returning to the debutante deteriorate in London, that interrupted his underling lieutenant"s courses.

This lifestyle one after another even after the conflict of war, with his appointment to the destroyer Active at Gibraltar underneath the authority of Lieutenant Commander Errol "Flash Alf" Turner. "He [Turner] taught me much," Bailey recalled, "some of it boat you do and a lot in seaside going activities." Nevertheless Turner felt constrained to write to Bailey"s mother, asking her to surprise her son that "life doesn"t begin and finish with a small patrician woman in a nightclub".

Bailey witnessed the barrage of the French swift at Mers-el-Kebir, and took piece in East Coast convoys, prior to guidance to fly in Tiger Moths at RAF Eldon, Birmingham. He survived a justice armed forces for siphoning petrol, and flew a accumulation of aircraft together with the Hurricane ("one of the majority appropriate aircraft I ever flew") prior to fasten Ark Royal.

There Bailey was personification backgammon when, at about 15h30 on Nov thirteen 1941, he felt a substantial blast and Ark rebound up and down prior to receiving on a starboard list: she had been torpedoed by Friedrich Guggenberger"s U-81.

It was an halcyon day, the object resplendent and the sea prosaic calm, but Ark lost all energy and was incompetent to make use of her pumps. Her captain systematic an depletion and majority of Ark"s people boarded destroyers. Bailey insisted on staying, though there was small he could do to assistance solely admire the aplomb of the comparison operative as he and his group attempted to opposite the flooding.

Accompanied by the unsettling receptive to advice of H2O gurgling by the drains, Bailey climbed though the darkened boat along the tilted decks to acquit a couple of quadruped amenities from the wardroom. He and his small celebration reached the forecastle, but Ark listed some-more and some-more until they had to move onto the ship"s side.

The gunner, who was in Bailey"s party, insisted that Ark would not upset until inventory by 36 degrees. Pointing out that she was already on her side, Bailey dragged and pushed his celebration down towards the sea, gave the man in front of him a force and afterwards flopped in to the sea himself, thereby apropos the last man to leave the important ship.

From the H2O he saw "the boat spin right over and go down crawl first, effectively you do a hurl off the top, that seemed really befitting for an aircraft carrier."

While on survivor"s leave Bailey claimed to have invented the B&B [brandy and Benedictine] in the club of Hatchetts to the song of jazz violinist Stphane Grappelli.

By 1944 Bailey was in authority of 886 Naval Air Squadron of Seafires, that was precision to yield descent sweeps and barrage spotting on D-Day. On Jun 6 he flew 3 sorties, but the subsequent day he was shot down by his own side, landed in a minefield, and was quickly taken serf as a German prior to being evacuated.

In his drifting career Bailey flew 49 sorts of aircraft and done 273 rug landings, and claimed 2 Japanese and 2 Germans kills.

By his own comment he had led the hold up of Riley until one Sunday in the early 1950s, when he had a prophesy of thunderbolts raining down as he review the Bible in church. From afterwards on Bailey offering his interjection to God for the blessings He had conferred on His common servant. Even so, Bailey remained a great host and raconteur. His after career enclosed being naval insert in Buenos Aires and Commodore at HMS Drake, the fort in Plymouth.

Val Bailey, who died on Jan 13, was tied together quickly during the war. In 1954 he tied together Jun Crosthwaite, who survives him with their dual daughters.