To England by Way of France
Three other Yanks wound up in the RAF by accident. Andrew Mamedoff, Vernon Keough, and Eugene Tobin had gone to fight Hitler by joining the French defense effort. All had been recruited into the French Armee de l'Air. By the time the group reached France, however, the country was being overwhelmed by the German blitzkrieg and was on the verge of surrender.
The three decided to try their luck elsewhere. After evading the advancing German Wehrmacht and crossing into Spain, they boarded the steamer Baron Nairn, bound for England, in late June 1940. Two days later, on British soil, Mamedoff, Keough, and Tobin decided to join the RAF. The trio went to the US Embassy for assistance, but got an argument. Ambassador Joseph Kennedy, father of future US President John F. Kennedy, did not like the idea of US citizens fighting in British uniforms and tried to have the three returned to the United States.
To circumvent Ambassador Kennedy and the Neutrality Acts, the three Yanks sought and received the help of an unidentified Member of Parliament. Their new friend got Keough, Tobin, and Mamedoff into the RAF. They lied about their flying time--Tobin increased his total from 200 hours to 5,000--and were taught to fly Spitfires. From flight school, all three were sent to 609 (West Riding) Squadron at Warmwell aerodrome in Dorset.
