Terry Spencer (RAF officer)

Terence Spencer
Nickname	Terry
Born	18 March 1918 Bedford, England
Died	8 February 2009 (aged 90) Odiham, Hampshire
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service/branch	Royal Warwickshire Regiment Royal Engineers Royal Air Force
Years of service	1939 – 1946
Rank	Squadron Leader
Battles/wars	World War II
Awards	Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) Croix de Guerre (Belgium) Territorial Efficiency Medal (TEM)
Other work	Aerial Photography, War photographer

Squadron Leader Terence "Terry" Spencer DFC (18 March 1918 – 8 February 2009) was a World War II Royal Air Force fighter pilot, and later a war photographer for Life magazine.

Biography

Terence Spencer was born in 1918 during a Zeppelin raid in Bedford, England, the son of an engineering company owner. Educated at Cheltenham College, Spencer took an engineering degree at the University of Birmingham.

Military career

On graduation, he joined the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, and then transferred to the Royal Engineers, commissioned from Acting Lance Corporal to Second Lieutenant on 20 December 1939.

In February 1941, due to the losses of pilots during the Battle of Britain, an Army Council Instruction (ACI) was issued which stated that British Army personnel could apply to transfer to the RAF, which 18,000 officers took up.

RAF service

Spencer transferred to the RAFVR and was commissioned on 10 October 1941 (RAF No. 47269). He completed his entire flying training in the United Kingdom, and was already a Flying Officer by the time of his posting to his first operational unit, 26 Squadron at Gatwick, in November 1942.

In June 1943, Spencer was promoted to Flight Commander of the unit, and four months later to Flight Lieutenant (WS). Having spent 15 months with 26 Squadron, he was posted to 165 (Ceylon) Squadron at Culmhead as a Flight Commander at the beginning of February 1944, flying Spitfire IXs.

Spencer was posted to No. 41 Squadron RAF as OC, A Flight, on 28 May 1944, where he flew Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XII's. Between 23 June and 28 August 1945, he claimed no less than seven V-1 flying bombs destroyed, but an eighth is also recorded in his logbook that did not make it to the official records. One of these he succeeded in destroying by tipping it up with the wing of his aircraft, an event sketched into his logbook by fellow pilot and amateur artist, Flt. Lt. Tom Slack, who titled the drawing “Tip ‘em Up Terry”.

In early September 1944, Spencer led a section of four pilots on an armed reconnaissance over Belgium where they encountered two of the Luftwaffe’s highest-scoring Aces, Hpt. Emil ‘Bully’ Lang, the Commanding Officer of II/JG26 (173 victories) and Lt. Alfred Gross (52 victories), in FW190s over Tirlemont. Although one of his section was killed, the two Aces were shot down, Lang killed and Gross so seriously wounded that he did not return to service before the end of the War.

In November, Spencer led 41 Squadron’s advance party to Diest, arriving in Belgium almost a month ahead of the rest of the unit. He then returned to RAF Lympne to brief the Squadron on conditions at their first Continental base of the War.

Promoted to Squadron Leader, Spencer was posted to No. 350 (Belgian) Squadron on 4 January 1945. On 26 February 1945, he was hit by flak in the Rheine-Lingen area of Germany and captured. Just over a month later, when the camp's main gate was left open, he escaped by bicycle, and subsequently motorcycle, with another ex-41 Squadron pilot, Sqn. Ldr. K. F. ‘Jimmy’ Thiele, in a Steve-McQueen-style getaway, in which the pair made it back to Allied lines.

Rejoining No. 350, he once again took over command between 2 and 19 April 1945. On this latter date, he was shot down once again, this time by rocket fire while strafing a trawler in Wismar Bay. He succeeded in baling out and deploying his parachute at a height of just 30 feet (9.1 m), which he miraculously survived, only to be captured again. The successful jump has since been credited by the Guinness Book of Records as having been the lowest authenticated survived bail-out on record.

Spencer was injured and hospitalised, but liberated by advancing Allied armies approximately two weeks later. Spencer was awarded an immediate DFC for his exploits and, in 1947, was also awarded the Territorial Efficiency Medal and the Belgian Croix de Guerre with Palm.

The citation for his DFC on 22 June 1945 read,

“

This officer's keenness for air operations has won great praise. He has completed a very large number of sorties and has invariably attacked his targets with great courage and determination thereby achieving much success. On one occasion in February 1945, Squadron Leader Spencer was forced to come down in enemy territory. He was captured, but subsequently rejoined his unit. He has been responsible for the destruction of one enemy, aircraft and a good number of mechanical vehicles.

”

Photographic career

In February 1946 after being demobilised, Spencer was asked by the Percival Aircraft Company to ferry solo a Percival Proctor, a small single-engine plane, without radio, dinghy or emergency supplies, on an 8,000 miles (13,000 km) flight to South Africa.

Having married, based outside Johannesburg Spencer and his wife started a successful aerial photography business based around a Piper Cub. In 1952, he started shooting for LIFE magazine, covering war stories in African continent, including Sharpville and the Congo Crisis. Commissioned by LIFE to shot in other war torn locations, he covered the Vietnam war, crises in the Middle East, Indonesia, and Cuba after the Bay of Pigs Invasion.

In 1963 he returned to England to photograph "Swinging London". While there, at the request of his daughter Cara, Spencer followed the (at the time largely unknown) band The Beatles, and documented them for several months and shooting more than 5,000 pictures. It resulted in a definitive pictorial book on the band It Was 30 Years Ago Today. This resulted in him shooting celebrity stories for People magazine, the originals and classification of which are now stored in the libraries of Rockarchive.

Personal life

Spencer married the actress Lesley Brook. The couple had two daughters, while their only son died in infancy. The couple wrote a book about their lives, called Living Dangerously.

Spencer died in hospital in Odiham, Hampshire of cancer, aged 90, less than 24 hours after the death of his wife.

Combat Record

Date	Service	Flying	Kills	Probables	Notes
23 June 1944	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * V-1		No.41 Sqdrn, Over Hastings
25 June 1944	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * V-1		Over Hastings
9 August 1944	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * V-1		Over Hastings
19 August 1944	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * V-1		Over Appledore
23 August 1944	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * V-1		Over Folkestone
23 August 1944	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * V-1		Over Harrietsham
27 August 1944	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * V-1		Over Rye
3 September 1944	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * FW-190		No.41 Sqdrn from Tienen
19 April 1945	Royal Air Force	Spitfire	1 * Ju88		Destroyed on the ground at Lauenburg
TOTALS			2 kill, 8 V-1's	0 probable

External links

• Bio at the 350 (Belgian) Squadron
• Times Online obituary