Paddy Finucane

Wing Commander Brendan Eamonn Fergus Finucane, ( fin-OO-kən; 16 October 1920 – 15 July 1942), known as Paddy Finucane among his colleagues, was an Irish Second World War Royal Air Force (RAF) fighter pilot and flying ace—defined as an aviator credited with five or more enemy aircraft destroyed in aerial combat. Born into a Catholic family, Finucane grew up during the period also known as the "early troubles" and the Irish Civil War. In 1936, the family moved to the United Kingdom, where he developed an interest in aviation. Finucane was keen to fly, applied to join the RAF and was accepted for training as a pilot in August 1938. After a shaky training career, in which he crash-landed on one occasion, he received news that he had completed flight training. In June–July 1940, he began conversion training on the Supermarine Spitfire. On 13 July, Finucane was posted to No. 65 Squadron at RAF Hornchurch. Finucane's first victory was scored on 12 August 1940 during the Battle of Britain. During the campaign, he was credited with two enemies destroyed, two probably destroyed and one damaged. Promoted to acting flight lieutenant in April 1941, he joined No. 452 Squadron flying offensive patrols over France—known as the Circus offensive. During this period, Finucane had his most successful period of operations, destroying 20 German aircraft, sharing in the destruction of three, with two damaged and another two probably destroyed from 4 January to 13 October 1941. In January 1942, Finucane was promoted to the rank of squadron leader in No. 602 Squadron. Within six months, he was credited a further six individual victories, bringing his tally to 28. Four more were damaged, four were shared destroyed and two credited as individual probable victories and one shared probable. In June 1942, he became the...