<i>Royal Air Force- West Africa Command, 1941-1945.</i><br><p>Squadron Leader Billy Drake stands in the cockpit of his Hawker Hurricane Mark IIB, BD897, at Hastings, Sierra Leone, at the conclusion of his command of No. 128 Squadron RAF.  Note Drake's personal emblem ("Zut") painted on the nose, and the red, white and blue spinner sported by many of this unit's aircraft.
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Drake joined the RAF in 1936 and was posted to No. 1 Squadron RAF with whom he saw action in the Battle of France, until he was shot down and wounded on 13 May 1940.  After recovery that October, he commanded a flight of No. 421 Flight, specialising in low-level fighter reconnaissance work over the Channel.  Following a spell as a Chief Flying Instructor with Operational Training Units at Heston and Landow between January and September 1941, he was posted to West Africa to command 128 Squadron, and succeeded in scoring one of that unit's rare victories on 13 December 1941 when he shot down a Martin M-167F of the Vichy  French Air Force in BD897.  After handing over 128 Squadron to Squadron Leader J I "Killy" Kilmartin, he took command of No. 112 Squadron RAF in the Western Desert in April 1942.
Gale (Plt Off), Royal Air Force official photographer
<p><a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//55/media-55083/large.jpg">http://media.iwm.org.uk/iwm/mediaLib//55/media-55083/large.jpg</a>
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<td>This photograph <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205212115">CM 2531</a> comes from the collections of the <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.iwm.org.uk/">Imperial War Museums</a>.
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