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Lieutenant Peter Goodfellow World Naval Ships Forums Archive

Lieutenant Peter Goodfellow

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[B]Lieutenant Peter Goodfellow[/B] Lieutenant Peter Goodfellow, who has died aged 90, flew with the Fleet Air Arm throughout the Second World War, scoring several victories and once ditching into the sea; he also witnessed the drama of aircraft being hurled into the air and sliding beneath the waves when the carrier Ark Royal was torpedoed amidships just as he was preparing to land on her. Goodfellow learned to fly in Tiger Moths, and in December 1940 he joined 808 naval air squadron in Ark Royal to fly antiquated Blackburn Skua fighter-bombers. Routine operations included patrols over the Atlantic in all weathers; he was once forced by low oil pressure to make a forced landing at North Front, Gibraltar. He then flew Fairey Fulmar fighters in intense operations in the Mediterranean against superior numbers of Italian, German and Vichy French land-based aircraft. Between July and August 1941 Ark Royal's aircraft shot down 15 enemy planes; Goodfellow was credited with a share in downing two Italian three-engined Savoia-Marchetti SM79 bombers and damaging a third on July 23. In September he engaged an Italian SM84 bomber which was shot down by his section of aircraft, but he was forced to ditch and was rescued by a destroyer. When Ark Royal was torpedoed on November 13, Goodfellow was forced to fly off, short of fuel, to Gibraltar. Having shown himself a superior pilot, he was rested as a flying instructor for six months, then sent to the merged remnants of 807 and 808 squadrons in the escort carrier Battler. These provided air defence for the North African landings, and two Vichy aircraft were shot down, two more damaged and others destroyed on the ground. After learning the techniques of close air support, Goodfellow gave cover for the Sicily landings. He was then again appointed an instructor, this time in the advanced flying section of the Naval Air Fighter School at Yeovilton. On July 27 1943 he was practising deck landings in a Sea Hurricane on the training carrier Argus when he snagged his tailhook and spilt into the water. Finally he attended No 2 test pilots' course at Boscombe Down, where he was involved in the development of different aircraft types. He retired from the Navy at the end of the war. Alan Peter Goodfellow was born on January 19 1919 at Bideford, Devon, and educated at Aldenham before being apprenticed at AV Roe's aircraft factory. Preferring the outdoor life, however, he went to work on an uncle's farm in Oxfordshire, and started to fly gliders with his father. A member of the Royal Flying Corps as a teenager, his father had shared a tent with Albert Ball, the fighter pilot VC, and was a founding member of the RAF in 1918. He, his sister and brother held pilot's licenses in the 1930s; and on the outbreak of war young Peter, his brother Norman (who flew in 804 and 880 squadrons) and their father all volunteered for the Fleet Air Arm. After coming out of the Navy Peter Goodfellow studied agriculture at Reading University, then managed a farm in the Waveney Valley before starting work as a buyer for Walls Meats, covering the east of England from a base at Saxmundham, Suffolk. When Walls was reorganised, Goodfellow quickly found a similar job dealing with fruit farmers for the banana company Geest. His keen interest in wildlife led him to start collecting books on the subject, a hobby which consumed the last 40 years of his life, and he used his business travels as an opportunity to haunt the bookshops of East Anglia. He acquired an encyclopedic knowledge of books about birds and corresponded widely with other collectors. In 2000 he displayed rare items from his private collection at an exhibition in Norwich. Goodfellow dealt in books, under the name Carlton Books, and the Inland Revenue twice accused him of running a business rather than pursuing a hobby. On each occasion he was able to show that on ordinary accounting principles he was making a loss, and that – were he a business – they would owe him money. No lover of bureaucracy or officialdom, he was rather pleased with these victories. Goodfellow lived modestly, surrounded by his books, and continued to fly, first with the London Gliding Club. Then, in 1959, he helped to found the Norfolk Gliding Club, based at Tibenham. He owned an Olympia 2b and then a Skylark 4. A life member of the Spitfire Association, he was a guest at Duxford for the fighter's 70th anniversary, having flown most of its marks. On his 80th birthday he flew his 80th aircraft type. Peter Goodfellow died on April 11. He married, in 1945, Brenda Stevens, who died in 1969. Four years later he married Jill Thompson (née Nicholls), who survives him with a son and two daughters of the first marriage. Published: Daily Telegraph 07 May 2009
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