Group Captain Desmond James Scott, (11 September 1918 – 8 October 1997) was a New Zealand fighter pilot and flying ace of the Second World War. He was credited with the destruction of at least five enemy aircraft.
Born in Ashburton, he learnt to fly privately. He joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in March 1940. Arriving in Britain in September, he was attached to the Royal Air Force (RAF) and flew Hawker Hurricanes with No. 3 Squadron. Awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar for his service with the squadron, he later flew Hawker Typhoons in operations over the English Channel and Europe. In 1943, he commanded No. 486 Squadron, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Order, and then the Tangmere Fighter Wing. At the end of the year, he was appointed the station commander of RAF Hawkinge. While in this role, he rescued a pilot of a crashed and burning Supermarine Spitfire, and was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire for this feat. He commanded No. 123 Wing during Operation Overlord and subsequent campaigns in France and the Netherlands. He ended the war as a group captain, the youngest man in the RNZAF to achieve this rank. After the war, he transferred to the RAF and served with Transport Command. He returned to New Zealand with his family in 1948 and retired from the RAF in 1949. He died in 1997, aged 79.
Early life
Desmond James Scott was born in Ashburton in the province of Canterbury, New Zealand, on 11 September 1918. His father, John Scott, was a shepherd but later moved his family to Cheviot, where he worked as a stock and station agent. Scott was educated at Cheviot School from 1929 and then from 1933, attended Cathedral Grammar School in Christchurch, as a boarder. Once his education was completed, he became a stock agent. He later worked as a salesman of agricultural equipment. He also served in the Territorial Force, joining the Canterbury Yeomanry in 1936 as a cavalryman. It was while he was on an exercise with the yeomanry, when his troop experienced a mock attack by Bristol fighters of the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF), that he resolved to learn to fly. He commenced flying lessons shortly afterwards.
Second World War
In March 1940, with the Second World War well underway, Scott joined the RNZAF. According to Scott, he had taken advantage of a scheme that provided government funds to private individuals for flight training in return for a commitment to serve in the military if called upon. On the outbreak of hostilities with Nazi Germany, the scheme compelled him to enlist in the RNZAF. He was sent for training to the RNZAF base at Wigram Aerodrome and in late 1940, with others from his flight school intake, he sailed to England as a sergeant pilot to serve in the Royal Air Force (RAF). After his arrival, he received further flight training at RAF Sutton Bridge, where he learnt to fly the Hawker Hurricane.
Service with No. 3 Squadron
Scott was posted to RAF Fighter Command, joining No. 3 Squadron, based at RAF Skeabrae in the Orkney Islands at the time. Not long after his arrival at the squadron, he helped recover the body of a pilot who had crashed on the airfield. He was reprimanded for this as he had left the cockpit of his Hurricane, idling on the airfield at the time, without permission.
In the spring of 1941, No. 3 Squadron, commanded by fellow New Zealander Russell Aitken was transferred to Martlesham Heath, near Ipswich, and became part of No. 11 Group. The squadron commenced a variety of duties: fighter sweeps, attacks on enemy shipping in the English Channel, escort missions, and night-fighter duties. On 7 August 1941, while on a sweep over France, he claimed one Messerschmitt Bf 109 as probably destroyed and another damaged over Le Touquet. Soon afterwards, he was promoted to flight sergeant. Later in the year and into 1942, Scott flew several night intruder missions over the Netherlands; a Messerschmitt Bf 110 was probably destroyed on the night of 5 January, with his first confirmed destroyed enemy aircraft, an unidentified type, achieved nearly three months later, on the night of 26 March. By this time, he was a pilot officer, having been commissioned earlier in the year. In May, and now flying a Hurricane Mk IIC, he destroyed two more aircraft, one being a half share with another pilot, and two probables, one of which was a Junkers Ju 88 bomber. Another Ju 88 was claimed as damaged. The same month, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). The citation, published in the London Gazette, read: