The Airmen's Stories - F/O D A Coke

David Arthur Coke, entitled to the title The Honourable as he was the son of the Fourth Earl of Leicester, was born on 4th December 1915 in London. The family seat was Holkham Hall, Norfolk.

His father was Thomas William Coke (1880-1949) and his mother Marion Gertrude Coke (nee Trefusis 1882-1955). The Earl served in the Scots Guards in the Boer War and WW1.

DA Coke was educated at Eton and Trinity College, Cambridge where he read Mechanical Studies. He learned to fly with the University Air Squadron and was commissioned in the RAFVR in June 1939.

Called up on 1st September 1939, he completed his training and arrived at 5 OTU Aston Down on 20th April 1940. After converting to Hurricanes he was posted to 257 Squadron which was then reforming at Hendon. He arrived on 14th May. On 12th August his Hurricane, P3776, was severely damaged in combat over Portsmouth. He was able to crash-land and was admitted to the naval hospital at Haslar where a finger was amputated.

He was detached to Debden on 12th September but returned to 257 Squadron on the 27th. He destroyed a Me109 over the Channel on 27th October. On 29th December 1940 he was posted to 46 Squadron. His next postings are currently unclear but he was probably serving with 33 Squadron in early 1941 in the Greek campaign and by late 1941 was serving with 80 Squadron in the Western desert.

He was killed aged 26 on 9th December 1941 when his Hurricane was shot down by fighters during a squadron sweep in the El Adem area. He is buried in Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya.

He was posthumously awarded the DFC (gazetted 26th December 1941) for an attack on enemy transport on the El Adem - Acroma road in November 1941.

The citation read:

This officer participated in an attack on enemy transport on the El-Adem-Acroma road one day in November, 1941 in which a large number of vehicles, tanks and mechanised transport were bombed and machine-gunned. The damage inflicted played a very large part in the blocking of the road. By his skill and leadership, F/Lt. Coke contributed materially to the success achieved. In addition to the low flying machine-gunning operations which have been carried out, F/Lt. Coke has led the Squadron with great success in air combat. During an engagement 2 days later the Squadron shared in the destruction of 5 Messerschmitt 109s.

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Roald Dahl joined 33 Squadron in April that year. Morale within the squadron was low at the time, as they were up against large numbers of Luftwaffe and Italian aircraft.

Dahl found most of his fellow squadron members taciturn and fatalistic. However, the affable Coke took Dahl under his wing and advised him on how to deal with the German bombers. As Dahl mentions in his memoir ‘The way David Coke had treated me was exceptional, but then he was an exceptional person.’

In one sortie during the Battle of Athens on 20th April 1941, four of the Squadron's fifteen RAF pilots were killed, including Squadron Leader and ace ‘Pat’ Pattle. Greece fell mere days later, on 27th April.

Dahl recorded:

They got five of our twelve Hurricanes in that battle. One of our pilots baled out and was saved. Four were killed. Among the dead was the great Pat Pattle, all his lucky lives used up at last. And Timber Woods, the second most experienced pilot in the squadron, was also among those killed.

Greek observers on the ground as well as our own people on the airstrip saw the five Hurricanes going down in smoke, but they also saw something else. They saw twenty-two Messerschmitts shot down during that battle, although none of us ever knew who got what.

So we now had seven half-serviceable Hurricanes left in Greece, and with these we were expected to give air cover to the entire British Expeditionary Force which was about to be evacuated along the coast. The whole thing was a ridiculous farce. I wandered over to my tent. There was a canvas washbasin outside the tent, one of those folding things that stand on three wooden legs, and David Coke was bending over it, sloshing water on his face. He was naked except for a small towel round his waist and his skin was very white.

‘So you made it,’ he said, not looking up.

‘So did you,’ I said.

‘It was a bloody miracle,’ he said. ‘I’m shaking all over. What happens next? I think we’re going to get killed,’

I said. ‘So do I’ .

He replied ‘You can have the basin in a moment. I left a bit of water in the jug just in case you happened to come back.’

The extract is from Dahl's autobiography Going Solo (ISBN-10: 0142413836 and ISBN-13: 978-0142413838).

Dahl’s career as a fighter pilot was cut short in June 1941 when the injuries he had sustained to his skull following a crash the previous year began to give him severe headaches, even causing him to black out. He was invalided back to Britain (also see portrait at bottom)..

Above image and portrait at top courtesy of the Holkham Estate

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© the Estate of Sir Matthew Bracy Smith.

The above portrait was painted by Sir Matthew Smith, whose son, F/Lt. CDS Smith, served in the Battle but was killed in action in 1941. His only other child, Mark, was killed serving with the RAF in June 1940.

The portrait is currently on loan to the National Portrait Gallery.