Unidentified Buffalo deliberately damaged at Church Fenton airfield.
On an unknown date in October 1940 three unidentified 71 Squadron Buffalo aircraft are said to have been deliberately "crashed" onto Church Fenton airfield to write them off.
The reason for this is not known. The identities of the aircraft is within the series of Brewster Buffalo's AS410 to AS437, which is a reasonably small number of
aircraft in the batch. Five of the aircraft became instructional airframes, those being AS410, AS411, AS414, AS429 and AS430. AS414 has been previously listed on this
website, so AS414 can be ruled out but if damage was only slight then these three Buffalo's may have become instructional airframes but why intentionally damage them?
Pilot - F/O Eugene Quimby "Red" Tobin RAF (81622), of Los Angeles, California, USA.
"Red" Tobin was born in Los Angeles. Various websites detail his life and career; in brief, he qualified as a pilot prior to arriving in Europe in the mid 1930s.
He served in the French Air Force just before France fell and came to England to join the RAF with another American, Andrew Mamedoff (pilot of one of these other
(Buffalos). He was posted to 609 Squadron on 8th August 1940 and on 18th September 1940 was posted to 71 Squadron when it was created. On 7th September 1941 F/O Tobin
was killed flying Spitfire W3801 following combat with enemy aircraft over France. He is buried in Boulogne Eastern Cemetery and was twenty four years old.
