James William Elias Davies

James William Elias Davies — “Jimmy” to the squadron — was born at Bernardsville, New Jersey, on 29 October 1913, the son of a Welsh-born father and an American mother of Welsh descent. The family later settled in Wales, and in 1936 Davies joined the Royal Air Force, where he was recorded as British. By the outbreak of war he was a fighter pilot with No. 79 Squadron, flying the Hawker Hurricane from RAF Biggin Hill.

Davies proved an aggressive and successful pilot through the fighting over France and the Low Countries in the spring of 1940. He was Mentioned in Despatches early in the year, and by late June he had been credited with six enemy aircraft destroyed and a share in two more — enough to count him a flying ace. His Distinguished Flying Cross was announced in the London Gazette on 28 June 1940.

That notice appeared the day after he was lost. On 27 June 1940 Davies led a flight of three Hurricanes sent out as escort to a reconnaissance sortie toward Saint-Valery, on the French coast. Over the Channel the three fighters were bounced by three Messerschmitt Bf 109s; two of the Hurricanes were shot down, and while one pilot baled out, Davies went down with his aircraft (Hurricane P3591) and was posted missing, believed killed. He was 26. With no known grave, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, and is generally remembered as the first American-born airman to be killed in combat in the Second World War.