In Memory Flt/Lt Doug Gregory DFC, Pilot, 141 Squadron - 13 January 1923 – 12 April 2015
Ivan Douglas Gregory was born in Southampton on 13 January 1923 and educated at Freemantle School. Aged fourteen, he went to work in a Solicitor’s office, joining the RAF as soon as he was eighteen. He was trained as a Pilot in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and after completing his initial Pilot training, he returned to Britain to join up with Steve Stephens to train as a night fighter crew.
With Steve as his Navigator, he joined 141 Squadron in January 1943. They were to remain together as a crew for the rest of the war. Initially, the Squadron was equipped with the Beaufighter and they flew patrols over the Bay of Biscay on anti-U-Boat operations, attacking targets in Brittany. However, by the middle of 1943, German night fighters had developed a tactic of infiltrating the stream of RAF bombers and using their air intercept radar to stalk one before destroying it. The RAF created No. 100 (Bomber Support) Group within Bomber Command to meet this increasing threat. No. 141 became the first Squadron to be transferred to RAF 100 Group.
British scientists at the Telecommunications Research Establishment had built a special receiving device to enable RAF night fighter crews to detect radar transmissions of enemy aircraft and home in on it before shooting it down. 141 Squadron became the first to use this new homer device, code-named ‘Serrate’. Operations began over enemy territory in June that year, and shortly after, the Squadron was re-equipped with Mosquito night fighters.
Using the new equipment during the Allied build-up in Normandy in July 1944, Gregory and Stephens shot down a Junkers 88 night fighter over northern France and a few days later claimed a second. They were both awarded the DFC and, after eighteen months of continuous operations, posted to be Instructors. They completed 69 operational sorties in total.
Following their tour as Instructors, Gregory and Stephens left for Gibraltar where they flew a Mosquito to carry out various types of dummy bombing and strafing attacks against new Royal Navy ships preparing to join the British Pacific Fleet in the fight against Japan. Finally, in July 1945, Gregory and Stephens were parted when Gregory went to India to join an aircraft maintenance unit as a test Pilot.
He flew numerous aircraft types, including the Mosquito. Built of wood, the twin-engine fighter was experiencing numerous problems in high temperatures and humidity of the region and Gregory was tasked to test-fly the aircraft in an attempt to resolve the issues, which were eventually rectified.
In September 1946, he returned to the UK when he ferried a small American transport aircraft to a U.S. Base in Germany. A few months later, he was released from the RAF as a Flight Lieutenant.
After studying at a Teacher Training College, Gregory embarked on a career in teaching, culminating in his appointment as Head of the Faculty of Creative Arts at Noadswood School, Dibden Purlieu, Hampshire.
After retiring aged sixty, he built a replica of the First World War SE5, a bi-plane fighter, which took four years in the making. He was a founder member of the Great War Display Team and for the next thirty years flew his fighter at various Air Shows. In his eighties, he became the oldest stunt pilot in Britain. In his final flight on his 90th birthday, he remarked: ‘Building an aeroplane is fun in itself, but it is only a means to an end. Flying it is the greatest pleasure’.
He was also passionate about cars and for many years maintained and drove his 1926 Alvis Tourer. For his honeymoon in 1950, he drove an Austin 7, with no roof or windscreen. He and his bride had to wear flying helmets and goggles! He also wrote poetry, and in 2014 published his autobiography: ‘Aeroaddict’, sub-titled: ‘The story of one man’s love affair with aeroplanes’.
Sadly, Doug Gregory died at the age of ninety-two, two weeks after being knocked down by a car while walking to collect his newspaper. He married Liz in 1950, and she survives him with their son and daughter.
This article is from the Summer 2015 issue of Confound and Destroy
