THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
"An American citizen who died that England may live" is the inscription on a Memorial in St Paul's Cathedral to a young American who traveled to another continent and fought for a country that had no right to demand his courage and loyalty. It is a remarkable World War II story.
William 'Billy' Meade Lindsley Fiske III (1911-40) was one of the first Americans to die during this conflict for the Allied cause. He was one of eight American pilots who defied the United States' strict neutrality laws, risking loss of US citizenship and even imprisonment, in order to fight against the Nazi Luftwaffe in the Battle of Britain.
Fiske, the first of those Americans, was a man whose moral values, determination and bravery must be recognised, celebrated and recorded. He was the socialite son of an international banker, born in Brooklyn, New York. Educated at private schools in Europe, he went on to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he developed a great affiliation with the British people. At sixteen he was a Gold medalist in the five-man US bobsleigh team at the St Moritz Winter Olympics, 1928. This was followed by further success as captain and flag-bearer of the 1932 four-man US team at Lake Placid in his home State. Fiske would have, in all probability, achieved a third Gold medal at the Nazi-organised Winter Olympics of 1936, if he had not boycotted the event.
On the outbreak of the Second World War, Fiske was determined to fight a Nazi Germany bent on occupying all of Europe. Using forged Canadian papers and contacts he had in 601 Squadron RAF, he became a fighter pilot based in the South of England flying Hawker Hurricanes. His first flight with the squadron took place on July 14th, 1940; over the next month he flew 42 operations during the 'Battle of Britain' often flying several sorties each day. His luck ran out on 16th August 1940 when his fuel tank was hit by a bullet; instead of bailing out and losing a valuable aircraft Fiske landed the plane, suffering burns to his hands and legs; he died of shock the following day. Fiske was, according to his commanding officer, Sir Archibald Hope, "...the best pilot I've ever seen".
Billy Fiske was buried with full military honors, his coffin draped in the flags of the UK and US, in the churchyard of St Mary and St Blaise in Boxgrove, Sussex, where there is a stained glass window in his memory. On the 4th July 1941 a plaque (together with his RAF wings) was unveiled in the crypt at St Paul's Cathedral, London to honor Fiske. Prime Minister Winston Churchill sanctioned the memorial to raise the story's profile as the US had not, at this stage, entered into the conflict. During the ceremony Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air, stated that "... under no kind of compulsion he came to fight for Britain. He came and he fought and he died".
Gary Powell is a retired London detective; he is the author of Square London, a social history of the London square, and conducts several walks around the darker side of London.
