John Gillespie Magee Jr.
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John Gillespie Magee Jr. | |
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No. 412 Squadron RCAF | |
Battles/wars | World War II |
John Gillespie Magee Jr. (9 June 1922 – 11 December 1941)
Early life
- "We laid him in a cool and shadowed grove
- One evening in the dreamy scent of thyme
- Where leaves were green, and whispered high above —
- A grave as humble as it was sublime;
- There, dreaming in the fading deeps of light —
- The hands that thrilled to touch a woman's hair;
- Brown eyes, that loved the Day, and looked on Night,
- A soul that found at last its answered Prayer...
- There daylight, as a dust, slips through the trees.
- And drifting, gilds the fern around his grave —
- Where even now, perhaps, the evening breeze
- Steals shyly past the tomb of him who gave
- New sight to blinded eyes; who sometimes wept —
- A short time dearly loved; and after, — slept."
John Gillespie Magee was born in Shanghai, China, to an American father and a British mother, who both worked as
Magee began his education at the American School in
Whilst at Rugby Magee fell in love with Elinor Lyon, the daughter of P. H. B. Lyon, the headmaster. In later life an accomplished children's author, she became the inspiration for many of Magee's poems.[4] Though his love was not returned, he remained friends with Elinor and her family.
Magee visited the United States in 1939, staying with his mother and brothers in
Because of the outbreak of
Magee climbed a tall tree to rescue a cat; before he had come down out of the tree, there was a circle of admiring and exclaiming girls watching him from the ground . . .
His attitude toward the war gradually evolved from one approaching pacifism to a decision to become a pilot to help protect his friends in Britain. Stabler recalled:[7]
One afternoon, after lying on top of a tower [at the School] for a couple of hours in the sun, Magee turned to his companion and suddenly announced, “Well, I think I’ll join the R.A.F.”
He once again stayed with his family in Martha's Vineyard in the summer of 1940, learning to drive and having a very active social life:[8]
Mornings on the beach, surrounded by a bevy of girls . . . dances . . . beach parties . . . occasionally a drop too much of alcohol . . . wild drives around the bay to Vineyard Haven and Edgartown . . . . . and grave discussions with his father on the state of the world or some phase of Christian living. When his father remonstrated with him once on turning night into day, John answered, "My generation does not expect to live long, and we want to enjoy ourselves while we may."
After discussions with his parents, he decided to go to Canada to join the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), with the intention of learning to fly, and then being sent to Britain. Accordingly, while he had been offered a scholarship to Yale University for 1940–41, he did not enroll.[9]
World War II
Magee joined the R.C.A.F. in October 1940 and received flight training in
Shortly after his promotion to the rank of
After completing his training with No. 53 Operational Training Unit he was assigned to
Magee arrived at Digby on 23 September 1941, where he continued to train on the Spitfire. When Magee joined No.412 Squadron it was flying the Supermarine Spitfire Mk II; the squadron switched to the more powerful Mk Vb shortly after his arrival. He first took a Mk Vb aloft on 8 October 1941. On 20 October 1941, he took part in a convoy patrol, and on that same day the Squadron moved from the Digby Aerodrome to the nearby RAF Wellingore in Lincolnshire, a satellite station of Digby.
Raid on Lille
On 8 November 1941, he took part in a sortie to
In late November- early December 1941 Magee took part in three more convoy patrols.[16]
Death
On 11 December 1941, in his tenth week of active service, Magee was killed while flying Spitfire VZ-H (Serial No. AD291, the same aircraft he had flown in the engagement with the Luftwaffe over France four weeks earlier).
At the inquiry afterwards a local farmer who witnessed the accident testified that he saw Magee after the collision struggling to push back the canopy of his Spitfire as it descended apparently out of control.[2] Magee succeeded in opening the canopy and bailing out of the out of control aeroplane, but was at too low an altitude for his parachute to have time to open, and he fell to earth and was killed instantly on impact with the ground in farmland near the village of Ruskington. He was 19 years of age.[17][2][3] Leading Aircraftman/Pilot Under-Training Griffin, the other pilot involved in the mid-air collision, was also killed in the incident.[19]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3e/High_Flight_-_John_Gillespie_Magee%2C_Jr_poem_manuscript_%28LOC_markings_removed%29.jpg/300px-High_Flight_-_John_Gillespie_Magee%2C_Jr_poem_manuscript_%28LOC_markings_removed%29.jpg)
NOTE that this version has had the Library of Congress markings digitally removed, to more closely resemble this letter's appearance when it was received by the Magee parents (click on this image to see the original).
Magee's body was buried in the graveyard of Holy Cross Church in the village of Scopwick in Lincolnshire.[2][3] On the gravestone are inscribed the first and last lines from his poem "High Flight". Part of the official letter to his parents read, "Your son's funeral took place at Scopwick Cemetery, near Digby Aerodrome, at 2.30 pm, on Saturday, 13 December 1941, the service being conducted by Flight Lieutenant S. K. Belton, the Canadian padre of this Station. He was accorded full Service Honours, the coffin being carried by pilots of his own Squadron".
High Flight
Magee's posthumous fame rests mainly on his
Cultural significance
During April and May 1942, many Hollywood stars including Laurel and Hardy, Groucho Marx, Cary Grant, Bing Crosby, and Bob Hope joined the Hollywood Victory Caravan as it toured the United States on a mission to raise war bonds. Actress Merle Oberon recited High Flight as part of this show.[22] During the performance on 30 April 1942, at the Loew's Capitol Theatre in Washington, D.C., and before her recitation of the poem, Oberon acknowledged the attendance of Magee's father, John Magee, and brother Christopher Magee.
Owing to its cheerful description of flying and its symbolic descriptions of transcending Earth, High Flight is beloved by many aviators and
Per Ardua
(To those who gave their lives to England during the Battle of Britain and left such a shining example to us who follow, these lines are dedicated.)
They that have climbed the white mists of the morning;
They that have soared, before the world's awake,
To herald up their foeman to them, scorning
The thin dawn's rest their weary folk might take;
Some that have left other mouths to tell the story
Of high, blue battle, quite young limbs that bled,
How they had thundered up the clouds to glory,
Or fallen to an English field stained red.
Because my faltering feet would fail I find them
Laughing beside me, steadying the hand
That seeks their deadly courage –
Yet behind them
The cold light dies in that once brilliant Land ....
Do these, who help the quickened pulse run slowly,
Whose stern, remembered image cools the brow,
Till the far dawn of Victory, know only
Night's darkness, and Valhalla's silence now?
Shortly after Magee's first combat action on 8 November 1941, he sent his family part of another poem, referring to it as "another trifle which may interest you". It is possible that the poem, "Per Ardua", is the last that Magee wrote. There are several corrections to the poem, made by Magee, which suggest that the poem was not completed when he sent it.
References
- Notes
- ^ a b Government of Canada (2007). Battle of Britain – Pilot and Aircrew Manual – Ceremony 2007. Ottawa: Government of Canada.
- ^ a b c d e f "RAF Digby – John Gillespie Magee Jr". Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- ^ a b c d "High Flight Poem – John Gillespie Magee Jr". Archived from the original on 8 February 2008. Retrieved 2 March 2008.
- ^ Sunward I've Climbed. Hermann Hagedorn, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1942. (In this biography, Elinor was referred to as "Diana.")
- ^ Haas, Ray. Touching the Face of God: The story of John Gillespie Magee, Jr. and his poem "High Flight." High Flight Productions; 1st edition (Sept. 10 2014)
- ^ "Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee". Macla.co.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
- ^ Haas, Ray. Touching the Face of God: The story of John Gillespie Magee, Jr. and his poem "High Flight." High Flight Productions; 1st edition (Sept. 10 2014)
- ^ Hermann Hagedorn. Sunward I've Climbed. New York. The Macmillan Company. 1942. p86
- ^ Haas, Ray. Touching the Face of God: The story of John Gillespie Magee, Jr. and his poem "High Flight." High Flight Productions; 1st edition (Sept. 10 2014)
- ^ Hagedorn, p. 103
- ^ Rob Kostecka, "Finding Magee – the Story Behind the High Flight Harvard." Vintage Wings of Canada. http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/44/Finding-Magee--In-search-of-the-High-Flight-Poet.aspx Archived 27 December 2019 at the Wayback Machine Photograph of logbook page here: http://www.vintagewings.ca/Portals/0/Vintage_Stories/ArchivedStories/Magee12.jpg Archived 2 August 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ see also: Elinor Florence, "High Flight Written 75 Years ago." 17 February 2016. https://www.elinorflorence.com/blog/high-flight/
- ^ Stephen M. Fochuk, "Maggie's War – John Gillespie Magee's One and Only Time he engaged the Luftwaffe", Air Force Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 3, 15 December 2017, pp. 44, 49; http://www.raf-lincolnshire.info/digby/digbyhistory_ch3_1941.htm
- Joachim Munchebergsays his unit was flying FW190s at that time
- ^ Stephen M. Fochuk, "Maggie's War – John Gillespie Magee's One and Only Time he engaged the Luftwaffe", Air Force Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 3, 15 December 2017, p. 48
- ^ Stephen M. Fochuk, "Maggie's War – John Gillespie Magee's One and Only Time he engaged the Luftwaffe", Air Force Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 3, 15 December 2017, p. 47
- ^ a b Stephen M. Fochuk, "Maggie's War – John Gillespie Magee's One and Only Time he engaged the Luftwaffe", Air Force Magazine, Vol. 41, No. 3, 15 December 2017, p. 49
- ^ 'Bomber County Aviation Resource' website, 1941 Lincolnshire Aviation Incident Logs, entries for 11 December 1941. http://www.bcar.org.uk/1941-incident-logs
- ^ "Casualty Details". CWGC.org. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
- )
- ^ John Magee papers. Library of Congress. 1943.
- ^ "Search Library Databases | Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 27 January 2016.
- ^ [1] Archived 6 April 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ [2] Archived 28 May 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- Bibliography
- The Complete Works of John Magee, The Pilot Poet, including a short biography by Stephen Garnett. Cheltenham, Gloucestershire: This England Books, March 1989.
- Icarus: An anthology of the poetry of flight. Macmillan, London, 1938.
- Sunward I've Climbed. Hermann Hagedorn, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1942.
- High Flight: A Story of World II. Linda Granfield, Tundra Books, August 1999.
- High Flight: The Life and Poetry of Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee. Roger Cole, Fighting High Publishing, January 2014.
- Touching the Face of God: The Story of John Gillespie Magee Jr. and his poem High Flight. Ray Haas, High Flight Productions, North Carolina, September 2014.
- A Day in Eternity. Kathryn Gabriel Loving, SoulJourn Books, September 2016. (Based in part on the life, letters, and poetry of John Gillespie Magee Jr.)
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- A website devoted to Magee Archived 9 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine, by High Flight Productions.
- A video of the original 1960s "High Flight" television station sign-off on YouTube.
- Works by John Gillespie Magee Jr. at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)