Billy Drake Group Captain Billy Drake DSO , DFC & Bar ( 20 December 1917 – 28 August 2011 ) was a British air ace . He scored 20 enemy aircraft confirmed destroyed , six probable and nine damaged with the Royal Air Force ( RAF ) during the Second World War . Drake flew Hawker Hurricane s , Supermarine Spitfire s and Curtiss P - 40 s ( Tomahawks / Kittyhawks ) , with squadrons based in France , England , West Africa , North Africa and Malta . He was the top - scoring RAF P - 40 pilot and the second - highest - scoring British Commonwealth P - 40 pilot , behind Clive Caldwell . Drake was born in London , to an Australian mother and a British father . He was educated in Switzerland . Career . Drake joined the RAF on a Short Service Commission in July 1936 . He joined No . 1 Squadron at RAF Tangmere in May 1937 , flying the Hawker Fury before converting to the Hawker Hurricane . Following the outbreak of war , the squadron was sent to France . On 20 April 1940 , during the Battle of France , Drake scored his first kill , a Messerschmitt Bf 109 . Subsequent victories over France included a Dornier Do 17 and Heinkel He 111 . While attacking another Dornier , Drake was shot down by a Messerschmitt Bf 110 and wounded with shell splinters in the foot , ending his participation in the campaign . On 20 June 1940 , Drake was posted as a flying instructor to No . 6 Operational Training Unit , at RAF Sutton Bridge . He returned to operational duty , with No . 213 Squadron RAF , on 2 October 1940 at RAF Tangmere . Three weeks later , he was appointed commander of No . 421 ( Reconnaissance ) Flight RAF ( later part of No . 91 Squadron RAF ) on Spitfires , flying specialised low - level reconnaissance patrols over the Channel and the French coast . He claimed a further two kills and two probables ( all Do 17s and Ju 88s ) . Drake was awarded the DFC on 7 January 1941 . He then returned to instruction duties in early 1941 , with No . 53 Operational Training Unit , at RAF Heston and as Chief Flying Instructor at RAF Llandow until September 1941 . In December 1941 , Drake was posted to West Africa to form and command No . 128 Squadron RAF at Hastings , Sierra Leone , flying Mark II Hurricanes . Soon afterwards , he shot down a Vichy French Glenn Martin 167F bomber , near Freetown . In April 1942 , Drake was posted to Air HQ Middle East , and at the end of May he succeeded Caldwell as commander of No . 112 Squadron , flying P - 40s , from RAF Gambut , Egypt . On 1 September 1942 , a day in which the Desert Air Force suffered heavy losses , Drake shot down two Junkers Ju 87 s . Drake was awarded a Bar to the DFC on 28 July 1942 and the Distinguished Service Order on 4 December 1942 . He scored 13 aerial victories in P - 40s . After being promoted to Wing Commander in January 1943 , Drake briefly assumed a staff job in Cairo , before becoming commander of the Krendi Wing at RAF Krendi on Malta , flying Spitfires . In July 1943 , he made his last claim of the war , a Macchi MC . 202 of " 4 Stormo " , " Regia Aeronautica " , over Sicily . In November 1943 , Drake returned to England and commanded No . 20 Wing RAF , operating Hawker Typhoon s with the Second Tactical Air Force . He was later sent on liaison duties to Fort Leavenworth in the United States . On 22 October 1943 , he was awarded the American Distinguished Flying Cross . Drake later served as deputy station commander at RAF Biggin Hill , and finished the war as a staff officer at Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force . He later served as a staff officer and air attaché at British embassies , retiring from the RAF as a Group Captain , on 1 July 1963 . Upon retirement , Drake spent 20 years in the Algarve coastal area of Portugal , where he managed properties and ran a bar . In recent years , he lived in Teignmouth , Devon . He was twice married and is survived by two sons from his first marriage . He was credited with 24 . 5 aerial kills — another pilot was given half of one kill — and he reportedly destroyed a dozen more enemy planes parked on the ground He died on 28 August 2011 .