During the Battle of Britain journalist Quentin Reynolds, a major correspondent for Colliers, kept a journal of his personal experiences which was published in 1941 and titled A London Diary. While reading this text for the journalism class in graduate school, I stopped dead in my tracks when Reynolds began speaking of a pilot that was boarding with him and some other writers. The pilot's name was Red Tobin.
Within the pages of this journal, Reynolds has documented his interactions with Tobin and written an account of the pilot's entry into the RAF, much of it in Tobin's own words! These accounts differ in many respects from the historical and scholarly accounts in the other sections of the site. Many of these differing facts make one wonder if historians are getting the facts straight, if Tobin embellished his account for Reynolds, or if Reynolds just heard him wrong. Regardless, they are rare and interesting.
I hope you find these accounts as fascinating as I have.
"We have a new boarder staying with us-Gene Tobin. He's a tall, red-headed kid from, of all places, Hollywood. Until a year ago he was a guide at the MGM studios there. His story is fantastic. He learned to fly Piper Cubs on week-ends, taking a lesson whenever he had the necessary dollars. He managed to pile up around two hundred hours. Then he and a pal headed for France to join the French Air Force. They managed to get in all right by lying about the hours they had. They were just about ready to be put into combat aiplanes when France collapsed. Gene and a few pals tried to steal some French aircraft and head for England, but just as they were about to pull it off the Germans bombed the airport at Tours and the planes went up in smoke. However, they managed to get to England one way or another and Gene got into the RAF. He told them that he had lost his log book in France, but that he'd put in about five hundred hours in all sorts of planes. They took him.
"They told him to take up a Miles Master. This is a good but rather tricky training plane and it had more horsepower in it than Gene had ever handled before. But he got away with it, all right. He took it up, did a few banks and then dropped it down without doing any damage.
"'The instructor said,' Gene tells it, 'you're all right, I can see that. Now here's a Spitfire. Take it up for a short hop.'
"'I almost died,' Gene adds. 'I didn't know how to handle such speed. I remembered what one of the boys had said about a Spitfire. He told me, "As soon as you get off pull the hood over you and from then on don't let the airplane get in front of you." You never pull the hood over you until you take off. That business about not letting the airplane get in front of you means you should keep remembering you are going like a bat out of hell and don't kick the airplane all over the sky. When you're going that fast you can't kick your airplane around so much. So I took off with a prayer and by golly everything was all right. Once we were up there it was easy. All you gotta do is to remember that you're going fast. Try to bank when you're going like that and you'll black yourself right out. I landed it all right. They gave me a few weeks of training, and there I was right over the Channel having many a scramble.'
�Red Tobin has been with the RAF all summer and his record is excellent. Now the Eagle Squadron has been organized and he has been transferred to it. Bob met him when he was visiting the Eagle lads and inevitably, of course, suggested that any time Red was on leave he should stay with us.
"He has a week's leave. Last night was his first in London and he didn't like it much although it was comparatively quiet. Red is as American as a bowl of cornflakes: a breezy, good-looking, fresh, grand kid...Some time ago Bob gave me a flask, a pigskin-covered quart flask. It has caught Red�s eye.
��You know you might give me one of those for Christmas,� he announced tonight. �Write something on it. I�ll tell you what I�ll do. This came from Fortnum and Mason's. I�ll drop around and order it for you-save you the trouble.�
��Christmas is more than two months off,� I reminded Red.
��Yeah, but it�s patriotic to do your Christmas shopping early. That�s what the post office says. Don�t you ever read the papers?�
"'Listen Glamour Boy!' Bob said, 'have you figured what I have to give you for Christmas?'
"'Sure,' Red said easily, 'a watch. I want one that not only tells the time but that works like a compass too, see? I'll findn out where they sell 'em and let you know.'
"'Raus came in looking worried. 'Will you have dinner at the Mayfair tonight?' he asked.
"'I don't know, Raus. Why?'
"'Well, we'll be needing a lot of eggs. The pilot officer eats four eggs for breakfast. So maybe you better see Mansell.'
"Mansell is one of the head waiters at the Mayfair Hotel restaurant. He used to be here at Lansdowne House. Mansell owns a little farm in the country. Every week he gives me a dozen fresh eggs laid by his contented hens.
"'Just because you moved in,' I told Red, 'I got to go and love up a head waiter to get you eggs.'
"'Sure, why not?' Red said complacently. 'And another thing. I don't drink. Raus, be sure there's lots of Coca-Cola on hand. In the icebox. And none of that tea for me for breakfast. I want cocoa or coffee.'
"'Yes, sir," Raus said.
"It looks as though our place will be a bit livelier from now on."
From the entry dated October 21, 1940 -
"Our Glamour Boy, Red Tobin, is still with us. Tonight, when [a bomb] fell around the corner, I asked him, 'Why the hell aren't you up there protecting us?'
"'Too cold to fly these nights,' Red explained calmly. 'We only fly in nice weather.'
"Our boy has taken London by storm. Chris, Frank Owen, Harry Watt-everyone who drops in is crazy about our protege. The kid is out of a book. He's only twenty-two and he has an answer for everything. And he's such a decent, honest kid. If the Germans get him, Bob and I will really be mad."
PERSONAL NOTE: Reynold's journal ends on April 1, 1941. I can only assume that he and Bob were really mad a few months later when Red Tobin perished over France.