Don Geffene

WWII Fighter Pilot

Don with his two favorite machines, his trusty Enfield Motorcycle and his personal Hurricane.  Colombo, Ceylon.  March, 1942.

Don Geffene was a California boy, who grew up in Pacific Palisades, just outside of Los Angeles.  As a teenager he had been fascinated by flight and by his late teens he was working to pay for flying lessons whenever he could arrange them.  World War two broke out in 1939 and by 1940, with the onset of the Battle of Britain,  the British were desperate for qualified pilots.  A number of Americans showed keen interest in flying against the Germans, however, officially the United States was still neutral.  Rather than paying for American pilots to travel to the Britain, only to be turned down, the Canadians arranged (with the covert co-operation of the United States Government) to test volounteers for the Royal Air Force while they were still in the U.S.

In November of 1940 Don applied for the RAF and was told to report to the “Polaris Flying School” at the Grand Central Aerodrome in Glendale, California.  When he reported for his pilots testing he met a number of other experienced pilots also there for RAF assessment.  There were also Royal Canadian Air Force and U.S. Army Air Force instructors, dressed in civilian pilots gear to avoid any uncomfortable questions about US neutrality.  Once their skills were exhibited they were accepted and handed train tickets for Ottawa, Ontario.  Don and his fellow Yanks headed off to Canada, boarding a ship for England,  in Halifax in March of 1941.  Don roomed with Flying Officer John A. "Red" Campbell, who wrote:

My first impression of Don was that he was an above average pilot, and a above average ladies man. He was fun to be around but he loved the practical joke and was at times a pain in the ass because he did not care who got in trouble because of them.  When we boarded the train at Los Angeles station in early March 1941, on the way to Canada,  Don said "good by and-do you know you are my only love" to at least 4 different girls.  In Ottawa, Canada we were processed and sent off to the UK as brand new pilot officers on probation.  Don and I roomed together on the trip over and through the training at #56 OTU Sutton Bridge ( Hurricanes).  He drove me crazy because he was super organized, to the extent that when I (who was a bit of a slob) did not put my things (i.e. garment drawers) in what he considered proper order he would on occasion re-arrange them. So, later at 121 Eagle Squadron we did not room together. 

At #56 OTU we immediately started training on Hawker Hurricane Fighter aircraft. I found it interesting that most fighter pilots, who worked their way through standard RAF training, had only 140 hours of flying time when they arrived at Sutton Bridge.  At OTU, the training lasted 5 weeks. We trained in Formation Flying, Instrument Cloud Training and some Gunnery and Dog Fighting with Camera-Guns. These training flights would consume most of our day and they took place, rain or shine. I gained 84 flying hours in Hurricanes, at OTU. 

Once training was completed, I was posted to Port Reith in Cornwall, on the southwest tip of the UK.  I was given the opportunity to fly Spitfires at night. A new and very dangerous, experience for me. There were a great number of flying accidents, as the field was located on a high bluff, overlooking the ocean. After about 2 weeks of intensive training, the squadron was transferred and I found myself posted to 121 Eagle Squadron. This was a new Squadron being formed at Kirton-Lindsey, near Lincoln and would become the main Fighter Base for defense of the large port city of Hull, on England’s East Coast.  Don and I arrived at the 121 Squadron during the last week of May 1941.

Once we were settled in, we were initially equipped with Hurricanes. We flew mostly in defense of Hull’s shipping activity and spent hour after hour doing boring patrols over the shipping convoys in the English Channel. Every now and then, the boredom was broken up with the occasional Bomber Escort mission over occupied coast towns. It was around this time that we started changing our equipment over to Spitfires. Eventually, Don (who had earlier moved to 71 Eagle Squadron) and I both applied for a transfer to the North African Theater, as things there were starting to heat up. We left for the Middle East to join up with the 258 Hurricane Squadron on Nov. 3, 1941.

Don's letter home in August, 1941, page1

Don's letter home in August, 1941, page2

258 Sqn were equipped with Hurricane ll C’s equipped with two 44gallon long range tanks ( which were bolted on and could not be dropped in flight) and armed with four 20mm cannons. They held 140 rounds each with a 400 rounds per minute rate of fire (when they worked).  Our mission was to be tank busting. We had to qualify for carrier landings by practicing using a carrier deck painted on our airdrome. Those who could not or were short on experience were left behind or embarked by separate ships with ground crews and spare parts. They were to arrive via South Africa and Suez canal. We left the UK November 3, 1941 aboard the H.M.S. Athena,  with our aircraft on board with wings removed for storage.  At Gibralter half of the group loaded on the Aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, and a much smaller carrier the HMS Argus. This group flew off to Malta. On the way back a German submarine torpedoed and sunk the Ark Royal.  Since this left us with out a means to reach Malta, we were temporarily based at the airdrome in Gibraltar. Our mission there (due to our long range capability),  was to patrol the coast looking for subs and flying all the way up to Cadiz, Spain, looking for the Focke-Wolfe Condors that we knew were operating there (contrary to Spain's neutrality) against Atlantic shipping.  It was on one of these patrols that Don was flying as my #2 . On the way back Don reported engine failure I followed him down as he forced landed on the beach near Cape Spartel, which is on the north west tip of Africa in Spanish Morocco. He did a wheels up forced landing on the beach just south of the cape. (I was in radio contact with him all the way) he reported down safe and I flew down and waved and he waved back while standing out on the wing.  I told him to destroy the aircraft but he said no matches so I told him to stand clear as men were approaching from the land side. He did and I opened fire on his downed aircraft, causing major damage. By this time Flt/lt. Denny Sharp who was flying near Gibraltar, appeared and finished the destruction, setting it on fire. It should be noted that this incident caused some problems with the Franco government.  Don was interned there, in Tangier.  I heard later that he charmed the Governor General's daughter into helping him escape.

Don was re-assigned to 30 Squadron where he met his soon to be best friend Flight Lieutenant Jimmy Whalen, a Canadian from Vancouver, British Columbia.  Don and Jimmy soon discovered that they were soon to ship out for Colombo, Ceylon.  On February 27th the squadron was placed, aircraft and all, onto the H.M.S. Indomitable and shipped to their new base.  On March 6th the squadron disembarked the aircraft carrier and set up just outside of Colombo at Ratmalana. There was a large Royal Navy fleet stationed at Colombo, and it was the squadron's duty to defend it.  Once there Don bought an old Enfield motorcycle.  He and Jimmy used it on a regular basis to go into town and meet the local ladies.  As the bike had no headlight, and they never planned on coming home before dark, Don tied an issue flashlight to the handlebars.  When not at readiness, Don and Jimmy spent their days at the fine local beach. 

Also posted to Colombo was the only Canadian squadron in the Far east at the time, 413 Squadron RCAF, who were operating Catalina flying boats. Squadron leader Len Birchall and his men were tasked with patrolling the ocean watching for a possible Japanese attack. On April 4th, 1942 Birchall and his crew were nearing the end of an extended patrol when they spotted a Japanese carrier task force steaming for Ceylon. They barely had time to radio back to Colombo before they were swarmed by Zeros and shot down. At the time it was assumed that Squadron Leader Birchall had died, sacrificing himself for Ceylon. He became an instant hero, known as " The Saviour of Ceylon". Only at the end of the war was it realized that he had survived, been captured, and spent the war in a Japanese prison camp.

On April 5th a Japanese strike force under the command of Vice-Admiral Chuichi Nagumo, fresh from their attack on Pearl Harbour, attacked Ceylon with 120 Carrier based air planes. (A detailed description of the Battle of Ceylon is provided by the Royal Air Force web site). The RAF could field only 40 defending aircraft. These were Fulmars and Hurricanes, which were no match for the swift and maneuverable Zeros of the Imperial Japanese Navy. Don, Jimmy and their flight leader,  Flight Lieutenant Bob Davidson, who was also from Vancouver, sprinted to their Hurricanes and as their base was under attack.  They took off under fire and gained altitude as fast as possible.   Although greatly outmatched, the 30 Squadron pilots were able to repulse the attacking Japanese.  However, the price was costly. Five 30 Squadron pilots had been killed, including Flying Officer Don Geffene. 

Don had ignored US neutrality and joined the RAF to fight the Germans. In a strange twist of fate he was killed fighting the same planes that had drawn the United States out of neutrality with their attack on Pearl Harbor.  Don’s body was never recovered.  His name is inscribed with those of other missing South East Asia pilots, on the Singapore Memorial. 

To e-mail Don's nephew, Dan Shapiro