Paddy Down

Londoners sometimes see him on his infrequent play nights, striding through the restaurants and bars with an air of careless majesty. There, the onlooker instantly knows, is somebody. He is somebody: Brendan ("Paddy") Finucane, Irish leader of Australia's famous No. 452 Fighter Squadron.

To 21-year-old Squadron Leader Finucane's credit, up to last week, were 25 German planes shot down, scores of fighter-bomber attacks on Nazi shipping in the Channel and on Nazi targets in Occupied France. He had won the Distinguished

Service Order and the Distinguished Flying Cross with two bars (one bar is a prized distinction). Tall, bush-thatched, ever-smiling, he had many a friend among U.S. pilots in the R.A.F. and U.S. Army observer-flyers in Britain.

Paddy Finucane also had a lot of luck. His plane had been badly shot up only once. He limped for awhile, but not from enemy bullets: he fell off a wall at Croydon, while celebrating an R.A.F. victory.

Last week Squadron Leader Finucane's luck turned.

Two Focke-Wulf s attacked him and Pilot Officer Richard Lewis while they were harrying a Nazi steamer. One of the Focke-Wulfs riddled Finucane's plane and wounded him in the leg and thigh. By radio he ordered Lewis to run for home. Lewis disobeyed. He hovered behind Finucane's tail, fought off repeated Focke-Wulf attacks. One of the Focke-Wulfs crashed into the Channel. Finucane and Lewis scurried back to their home airdrome. Squadron Leader Finucane taxied his fighter up to the line and then collapsed at the controls.

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