Aged just 20, Douglas Oxby, from Riverside, enlisted
to the RAF in 1940 and quickly earned a reputation as one of Britain's
most fearsome fighters.
In regions including the Mediterranean and Egypt, Douggie, as he
was known, helped bring down 22 aircraft with the aid of his pilots.
During his 30 years of service, the father-of-one was awarded the
Distinguished Service Order (DSO) - the most senior award after the
Victoria Cross - and twice received the Distinguished Flying Medal
(DFM).
Despite his reputation as a courageous serviceman, his relatives
described him as a gentle soul who loved to immerse himself in his
hobbies - reading and classical music. "He really was a gentle
soul," said his son, Richard, from Dinas Powys.
"Despite his glittering career and the attention that it brought
he was quite a private man and often liked to keep his thoughts to
himself."
Unlike his "typical" former Australian pilot Mervyn Shipard
- an extrovert - Richard said his dad preferred to work as a "psychological"
fighter.
Between 1942 and 1945 he played a part in the majority of World War
Two's significant battles. He and Shipard were also sent to protect
Malta in mid-1942, which was battered by a greater tonnage of bombs
than hit London during the war.
It was while he was with 89 Squadron's small detachment of Beaufighter
nightfighters, Douggie received the DFM after he selflessly gave up
his oxygen supply to his pilot after their aircraft came under attack
at 22,000ft. His son said Douggie made "little fuss" about
the award and modestly claimed that he was no hero.
"The truth was he had shown considerable courage in life-threatening
circumstances," said Richard.
Canton High-educated Douggie survived seven crashes..
He eventually retired to Toronto, Canada. He passed away on Good
Friday, aged 89, after a stroke.
He leaves behind a son, two grandchildren, Sasha and Katherine, and
great granddaughter, Britney.
His funeral will be held at RS Kane's Funeral home, Toronto, on Thursday
_________________________
In night fighting, where the rapport between pilot and radar operator
in darkness and poor visibility is fundamental to success, the navigator/
radar operator is a vital component of any sortie, and is regarded
as such in terms of the credit he receives for any “kill”
his pilot may make. It is he who identifies a potential target on
his radar, stalks it and guides his pilot into visual range so that
he can open fire.
During a combat career that lasted, with one rest from operations,
from the autumn of 1941 until the spring of 1945 — an extremely
long one in the relentless conditions of wartime — Douglas
Oxby was responsible for 22 successful interceptions, making him
the RAF’s top-scoring radar operator of the Second World War.
These combat victories were achieved first in Beaufighters with
the Australian pilot Flight Lieutenant Mervyn Shipard, then in Mosquitoes
as “nav/rad” to Wing Commander Peter Green.
In that time his remarkable tally of decorations included two Distinguished
Flying Medals (he had begun flying as a sergeant) a Distinguished
Flying Cross and a Distinguished Service Order. His more than three
years of air fighting took him from North Wales, to the Mediterranean
and North Africa and back again to operations supporting the North
West Europe campaign over the Netherlands and Germany.
Douglas Alfred Oxby was born in Cardiff in 1920 and educated at
Canton High School there. He worked as a barrister’s clerk
before enlisting in the RAF in 1940. After training he was teamed
up, as a non-commissioned officer, with the Australian pilot Flight
Lieutenant Mervyn Shipard, and in August 1941 the pair were posted
to 68 Squadron, operating Beaufighters. They gained their first
combat victory in November of that year when they intercepted a
Heinkel He111 bomber (bound for Liverpool) over Anglesey and shot
it down near Llangefni.
They were next posted to 89 Squadron, operating first out of Egypt
and then, as a detachment of the squadron, sent to join in the desperate
air defence of Malta, where they were in the thick of the action.
From July 1942, a particularly intense month, they often took off
to intercept the enemy with bombs falling on their airfield all
around them. In this month and during the resumption of the enemy’s
air offensive in October that year they accounted for about eight
Axis aircraft, mainly Ju88s and He111s.
With Rommel’s forces advancing towards the Egyptian frontier
they took part in the defence of Tobruk, and then, in January 1943,
after Montgomery’s victory at El Alamein, they took severe
toll of the Luftwaffe’s aircraft as the German forces retreated
westwards towards Tunisia. In June 1943 they were brought back home
and “rested” in Britain where Oxby, by now commissioned,
was posted to a training unit. A disappointed Shipard was posted
home to Australia to a training unit and did not see further combat,
so he obtained his discharge and made a career for himself as a
civil airline pilot.
In August 1944 Oxby was posted to 219 Squadron (Mosquitoes) commanded
by Peter Green, fresh himself from a busy summer intercepting V1
“buzz bombs”. Green and Oxby now embarked on a period
of remarkable success as the RAF’s night fighters grappled
with the enemy’s tactical bombers and fighters over the battlefields
of northwest Europe.
Their most spectacular achievement was the destruction of three
Ju87s in a single sortie over Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and they
continued to take a toll both of this type and the Ju88. Once feared
as the “Stuka” by the Polish, French and British armies
to which its presence had been the bane in the early battles of
the war, the Ju87 had by this time been exposed as a lumbering anachronism.
Indeed, as Oxby later recalled, Green’s main problem, as his
navigator vectored him into a position to open fire on the Stuka,
was to prevent the Mosquito from stalling as he opened up from astern
with four 20mm cannon at an airspeed as low as 100 knots. At that
speed the pilot had to deploy maximum flap and lower his landing
gear simply to create the drag to maintain such a slow speed.
The pair continued on operations as the Allied armies approached
the German frontier and their last two combat victories, over a
Ju88 and Ju87, were in February 1945 in the vicinity of the Rhineland
town of Mönchengladbach. Green, alas, did not survive to see
the end of the war. He was killed when a Mosquito in which he was
making a test flight, to try to establish the cause of the problem
other pilots had experienced in flying it, crashed near Amiens in
March.
After the war Oxby was granted a permanent commission and rose
to the rank of wing commander. After appointments that included
directing staff of the Joint Services Staff College and assistant
air adviser, British High Commission, Ottawa, he retired from the
RAF in 1969. Thereafter he made his home in Canada where he was
a civil servant in the Ministry of Health in Ontario until 1984.
His second wife, Margaret, died in 2007. He is survived by the
son of his first marriage, in 1943, to Jean Little, which was dissolved.
Wing Commander Douglas Oxby, DSO, DFC, DFM and Bar, wartime night
fighter navigator, was born on July 10, 1920. He died on April 10,
2009, aged 88
_________________________
Wing Commander Douggie Oxby
Wing Commander Douggie Oxby, who has died aged 88, was involved
in the destruction of 22 enemy aircraft, making him the highest-scoring
Allied night fighter navigator of the Second World War, an achievement
that earned him four gallantry awards.
Oxby had already gained major successes over Malta and North Africa
when, in the spring of 1944, he joined No 219 Squadron, which was
equipped with the night fighter version of the Mosquito. In September
he teamed up with the CO, Wing Commander Paddy Green, and over the
next few months they were to become the RAF's most successful night
fighter crew operating over north-west Europe.
Based at an airfield near London, they opened their account on
the night of September 23, when they were on an intruder sortie
near Cologne and shot down a Messerschmitt Bf 110 night fighter.
Ten days later they had the unusual distinction of shooting down three
enemy bombers in the space of a few minutes. Using his airborne intercept
radar, Oxby picked up a small force of aircraft and "homed"
Green on to the target.
Three Junkers 87 dive-bombers were preparing to attack the bridge
at Nijmegan. Guided by Oxby, Green closed in and shot one down.
Debris from the enemy aircraft hit the Mosquito, but the crew moved
in and shot down the other two aircraft before heading for an airfield
near Brussels, where they landed on one engine.
After moving to the former Luftwaffe airfield at Amiens, Green
and Oxby soon had another success when they destroyed a Junkers
88 bomber.
Two months later they brought down a second – this attack
was so precise that they fired only 71 rounds from their cannons
before the enemy bomber caught fire and the crew were seen to bail
out.
On the night of February 24 they achieved their ninth and final
success when they shot down a Junkers 87. For their achievements,
Green was awarded a DSO and Oxby a DFC.
The squadron had a "rogue" Mosquito, which all the pilots
found very difficult to fly. On March 1 Green decided to air test
this aircraft in an effort to identify the problem, electing to
leave Oxby on the ground and fly alone. Shortly after take-off the
aircraft crashed, and Green was killed.
Oxby was taken off operations and sent to be an instructor at a
fighter training unit. Two weeks later it was announced that he
had also been awarded a DSO.
Douglas Alfred Oxby was born on June 10 1920 in Cardiff and attended
the city's Canton High School before going to the Technical College.
He worked as a barrister's clerk before joining the RAF in June
1940 as a ground radar operator.
Bored with watching for enemy bombers off the coast of Wales, he
volunteered for the new aircrew duty of radio operator (air) in
June 1941. He trained on Blenheim night fighters at Prestwick, where
he joined up with an Australian pilot, Mervyn Shipard. They were
to fly together for the next two years and become one of the RAF's
outstanding night fighter crews.
After joining No 68 Squadron, equipped with the Beaufighter, they
shot down a Heinkel bomber that was raiding Liverpool on November
1 1941, but the next six months were quiet. Threatened with an instructional
tour, they volunteered to go to the Middle East to see some action.
They took a Beaufighter to Egypt, via Gibraltar and Malta, arriving
in a sandstorm. Assigned to No 89 Squadron near the Suez Canal,
they found little enemy activity, and in June 1942 they transferred
to a night fighter detachment in Malta, where they remained for
four months. In July they scored three quick victories against German
bombers.
During the Axis air forces' final blitz against the island, Shipard
and Oxby destroyed three Heinkel bombers (and probably a fourth)
in rapid succession. On the night of October 14/15 Oxby carried
out a successful interception at 22,000ft – he declined to
use oxygen in order that his pilot could obtain the benefit of what
little was left. They also flew five intruder sorties against enemy
airfields in Sicily, as well as attacks on E-boats and convoys.
Oxby was awarded a DFM for his "exceptional ability and determination".
Returning to Egypt, they joined a detachment in the desert to provide
support for the Tobruk offensive. On the night of December 12 they
patrolled north of Tobruk, shooting down two Junkers 88 bombers
in the space of only a few minutes. On January 8 1943 they accounted
for two more bombers, and then another two a week later in the Gambut
area.
In the Middle East, Oxby used his radar to intercept 21 enemy contacts,
resulting in the shooting down of 13 aircraft and probably two others.
He received a Bar to his DFM and a field commission. Shipard, meanwhile,
had become the RAAF's highest scoring night fighter pilot of the
war.
In June 1943 the two men returned to Britain, where Oxby became
an instructor at a training unit for radar operators. He remained
in the RAF after the war, serving as an instructor at an air navigation
school and at the Central Fighter Establishment and at Headquarters
Fighter Command. In June 1962 he was appointed assistant air adviser
to the British high commissioner in Ottawa. When he retired from
the RAF in March 1969 in the rank of wing commander, he emigrated
to Canada, where he worked as a civil servant until 1984.
Oxby was a quiet, private man who enjoyed reading and classical
music. He was always conscious of the human losses for which he
had been responsible. With the help of his son, he was putting the
finishing touches to his wartime memoirs, which he was dedicating
to the memory of the aircrew of the RAF and the Luftwaffe who failed
to return.
Douggie Oxby died in Toronto on April 10. His second wife died
in 2007, and he is survived by a son from his first marriage.
_____________
In night fighting, where the rapport between pilot and radar operator
in darkness and poor visibility is fundamental to success, the navigator/
radar operator is a vital component of any sortie, and is regarded
as such in terms of the credit he receives for any “kill”
his pilot may make. It is he who identifies a potential target on
his radar, stalks it and guides his pilot into visual range so that
he can open fire.
During a combat career that lasted, with one rest from operations,
from the autumn of 1941 until the spring of 1945 — an extremely
long one in the relentless conditions of wartime — Douglas
Oxby was responsible for 22 successful interceptions, making him
the RAF’s top-scoring radar operator of the Second World War.
These combat victories were achieved first in Beaufighters with
the Australian pilot Flight Lieutenant Mervyn Shipard, then in Mosquitoes
as “nav/rad” to Wing Commander Peter Green.
In that time his remarkable tally of decorations included two Distinguished
Flying Medals (he had begun flying as a sergeant) a Distinguished
Flying Cross and a Distinguished Service Order. His more than three
years of air fighting took him from North Wales, to the Mediterranean
and North Africa and back again to operations supporting the North
West Europe campaign over the Netherlands and Germany.
Douglas Alfred Oxby was born in Cardiff in 1920 and educated at
Canton High School there. He worked as a barrister’s clerk
before enlisting in the RAF in 1940. After training he was teamed
up, as a non-commissioned officer, with the Australian pilot Flight
Lieutenant Mervyn Shipard, and in August 1941 the pair were posted
to 68 Squadron, operating Beaufighters. They gained their first
combat victory in November of that year when they intercepted a
Heinkel He111 bomber (bound for Liverpool) over Anglesey and shot
it down near Llangefni.
They were next posted to 89 Squadron, operating first out of Egypt
and then, as a detachment of the squadron, sent to join in the desperate
air defence of Malta, where they were in the thick of the action.
From July 1942, a particularly intense month, they often took off
to intercept the enemy with bombs falling on their airfield all
around them. In this month and during the resumption of the enemy’s
air offensive in October that year they accounted for about eight
Axis aircraft, mainly Ju88s and He111s.
With Rommel’s forces advancing towards the Egyptian frontier
they took part in the defence of Tobruk, and then, in January 1943,
after Montgomery’s victory at El Alamein, they took severe
toll of the Luftwaffe’s aircraft as the German forces retreated
westwards towards Tunisia. In June 1943 they were brought back home
and “rested” in Britain where Oxby, by now commissioned,
was posted to a training unit. A disappointed Shipard was posted
home to Australia to a training unit and did not see further combat,
so he obtained his discharge and made a career for himself as a
civil airline pilot.
In August 1944 Oxby was posted to 219 Squadron (Mosquitoes) commanded
by Peter Green, fresh himself from a busy summer intercepting V1
“buzz bombs”. Green and Oxby now embarked on a period
of remarkable success as the RAF’s night fighters grappled
with the enemy’s tactical bombers and fighters over the battlefields
of northwest Europe.
Their most spectacular achievement was the destruction of three
Ju87s in a single sortie over Nijmegen in the Netherlands, and they
continued to take a toll both of this type and the Ju88. Once feared
as the “Stuka” by the Polish, French and British armies
to which its presence had been the bane in the early battles of
the war, the Ju87 had by this time been exposed as a lumbering anachronism.
Indeed, as Oxby later recalled, Green’s main problem, as his
navigator vectored him into a position to open fire on the Stuka,
was to prevent the Mosquito from stalling as he opened up from astern
with four 20mm cannon at an airspeed as low as 100 knots. At that
speed the pilot had to deploy maximum flap and lower his landing
gear simply to create the drag to maintain such a slow speed.
The pair continued on operations as the Allied armies approached
the German frontier and their last two combat victories, over a
Ju88 and Ju87, were in February 1945 in the vicinity of the Rhineland
town of Mönchengladbach. Green, alas, did not survive to see
the end of the war. He was killed when a Mosquito in which he was
making a test flight, to try to establish the cause of the problem
other pilots had experienced in flying it, crashed near Amiens in
March.
After the war Oxby was granted a permanent commission and rose
to the rank of wing commander. After appointments that included
directing staff of the Joint Services Staff College and assistant
air adviser, British High Commission, Ottawa, he retired from the
RAF in 1969. Thereafter he made his home in Canada where he was
a civil servant in the Ministry of Health in Ontario until 1984.
His second wife, Margaret, died in 2007. He is survived by the
son of his first marriage, in 1943, to Jean Little, which was dissolved.
Wing Commander Douglas Oxby, DSO, DFC, DFM and Bar, wartime night
fighter navigator, was born on July 10, 1920. He died on April 10,
2009, aged 88
1945
