Aviation Art of No.193 Sqn

Squadron Leader Percival H. Beake DFC
Our estimated value of this signature : £50
Died : 2016

Squadron Leader Percival H. Beake DFC

Joining the RAFVR in April 1939, Percival Beake was mobilised at the outbreak of war. Posted to 64 Squadron on Spitfires in the summer of 1940 at the height of the Battle of Britain, he flew with them until June 1941 when he was posted first to 92 Squadron at Biggin Hill, and then 601 Squadron at Duxford. After a spell instructing he returned for his second tour in December 1942, joining 193 Squadron as a Flight Commander. In May 1944 he took command of 164 Squadron at Thorney Island flying Typhoons, moving to France shortly after the Normandy Invasion. With two victories to his credit he was awarded the DFC in September 1944.

Starting with 6th August 1944 my log book records that a successful attack was carried out on an enemy strong point in a quarry and that on the following morning I flew home on a very rare 48 hour leave. For a few days after my return we had only one specific target - an enemy dump which we effectively bombarded with rockets on 11th August - so we were deployed on armed reconnaissances. After landing from one of these on 13th August my Wing Commander, Walter Dring, called me to his caravan and said - Beaky, you have just done your last op. You are not to fly again and that is an order, until returning to the UK. I am arranging for your relief as soon as possible. - I was absolutely stunned and my lasting memory of that period is not of carnage but of acute embarrassment at having been grounded. I just hated sending the squadron up without myself leading and remember making frequent calls to the met office hoping to get forecasts of filthy weather that would make operational flying impossible. In the event, my relief, Squadron Leader Ian Waddy, was shot down by flak within two or three days of taking over command, so maybe Wally Dring had some sort of premonition that prompted my grounding.
Percival Beake died on 25th June 2016.

Flt. Lt. David Ince DFC
Our estimated value of this signature : £55
Died : 2017

Flt. Lt. David Ince DFC

Flt. Lt. David Ince DFC was born in Glasgow and was educated at Aysgarth School and Cheltenham College. Failing to meet the eyesight standards for aircrew he became a gunner officer in 1940 and managed to pass a wartime RAF medical board at his third attempt. Seconded for Army Cooperation duties, he trained in Canada at 35 EFTS and 37 SFTS before returning to the UK to fly Hurricanes and Mustangs at 41 OTU. Subsequently converting to Typhoons he flew with 193 and 257 Squadrons, from Normandy until the end of hostilities in Europe, completing almost 150 sorties and being awarded an immediate DFC. He took a leading part in trials, demonstrations and the early operational use of Napalm. Almost shot down on one reconnaissance flight, he later devised and proved a camera installation for low level close up target photography, which was an immediate success. In the closing stages of the war he was leading 193 Squadron on shipping strikes in the Baltic. After attending the first post war course at The Empire Test Pilots School he returned to University to complete an engineering degree. He died in Winchester, Hampshire aged 96 on 2nd August 2017.

Warrant Officer Norman Samuels
Our estimated value of this signature : £50

Warrant Officer Norman Samuels

Initially flying Typhoons with 193 Sqn, Norman then transferred to 610 Sqn flying Spitfires on fighter sweeps over France, heavy-bomber missions, and operations against VIs. Returning to ground attack Typhoons over Europe with 193 Sqn, he was shot down in March 1945 and taken prisoner of war. Mr Samuels was born in Newbury in 1921 and grew up in the West Berkshire market town. In 1940, aged 19, he joined the Royal Air Force Oxford University Air Squadron. At that time the UK had no place for trainee pilots. So, after six weeks of basic training he was sent to America to learn to fly under the Arnold Scheme, a training programme run by United States Army Air Corps General 'Hap' Arnold. In 1941, at ease in the cockpit of almost any flying machine, he says, he was sent back to the UK. He said: I joined 193 Squadron in Devon, and that was where I met my future wife, Barbara Lean, on Christmas Day 1942. A Spitfire squadron had lost six of its 12 pilots in one day, so they moved us across to 610 Squadron. They were marvellous planes to fly, and I enjoyed every moment. We had Spitfire MkVs then - they weren't fast enough for war really at that time. We cleaned them with car polish, and that gave us an extra 5mph, then they clipped the wings and that gave us another 5mph. Of course we were still 100mph short of the Germans' speeds, but what could you do?
He helped defend London, and fought over Beachy Head, but with losses elsewhere he was drafted back to 193 Squadron, which was by now in Antwerp, Belgium, in 1944. After surviving the ill-fated Battle of Arnhem in Holland in September, 1944, his luck ran out in a Typhoon near the same town in 1945, just weeks before the end of the war. He said: It was the last push by the Germans and on March 18 I was shot down. I'd already fought in the Battle of Arnhem, when we suffered heavy losses. Going back, I wasn't so lucky.
He continued: I didn't have time to think if I was going to die. I must have been knocked out clean by my gun sight. I'd put rubber on it because I was always hitting it with my hand. I'd seen men die in crashes; they hit their head and it killed them. The rubber must have saved my life. To be honest looking back I should have died many times over. I ended up walking through Germany, got on a train, and that was bombed by the Allies. I walked and walked, right up to the Baltic Rhine, I scavenged for food and did what I could to survive. It was a long time between being shot down and being captured. Every day was 'live or die'.
The Germans eventually caught up with him and sent him to Stalag Luft I, a camp filled with about 9,000 PoWs. He said: I had lost weight by the time I arrived, and we didn't have a lot of food. I remember a battle with a Welshman who kept stealing my bread. Luckily I was only there a few weeks before we were liberated, by the Americans, on my wife's birthday, April 30, 1945. I started the war with the Americans, and finished it with the Americans.
After the war he worked as an engineer for the Southern Electricity Board.

Aces for : No.193 Sqn RAF
A list of all Aces from our database who are known to have flown with this squadron. A profile page is available by clicking the pilots name.
Name	Victories	Info
Richard A Peterson	15.50	The signature of Richard A Peterson features on some of our artwork - click here to see what is available.