December 21st, 1941.
The North Atlantic.
HMS Audacity, Britain’s first escort carrier, sinks after being torpedoed by a German submarine.
24 men escaped the freezing water.
Only two survive the night.
One of them is a 22-year-old fleet airarm pilot named Eric Brown.
17 years later, in 1958, Commander Eric Brown walks into German naval headquarters in Keel.
His mission, help Germany build a new naval aviation force.
The same navy that nearly killed him.
The Germans are apprehensive.
Will this British officer remember? Will he hold grudges? Brown smiles and extends his hand.
Let’s build something remarkable.
This is how enemies became partners and how one pilot’s extraordinary career helped former adversaries become allies.
Eric Melrose Brown was born January 21st, 1919 in Leath near Edinburgh, Scotland.
His father had been a Royal Flying Corps pilot in World War I, and young Eric took his first flight at age 8, sitting on his father’s knee in a glouester gauntlet biplane.
From that moment, Eric wanted to fly.
In 1938, while studying languages at the University of Edinburgh, Eric traveled to Germany.
He befriended Anst Udet, a legendary World War I ace who now held a senior position in the Luftvafer.
Udet introduced Brown to test pilot Hannah Reich and took him to aviation demonstrations, including the revolutionary Fauler Wolf FW61 helicopter.
Brown fell in love with German aviation and the German people.
He returned to Germany in 1939 as an exchange student and teacher.
On September 3rd, 1939, a knock on his door woke him.
A woman stood there with news.
Britain and Germany were at war.
Brown was arrested by authorities, but not imprisoned.
Instead, they escorted him to the Swiss border and released him.
He made his way home to Britain.
Upon returning, Brown joined the Royal Navy Volunteer Reserve as a fleet airarm pilot.
He was posted to 802 Naval Air Squadron, flying Grumman Martlet Fighters, the British name for the F4F Wildcat.
In July 1941, Brown Squadron moved to HMS Audacity, Britain’s first escort carrier.
The ship was a converted merchant vessel, barely 467 ft long, carrying just eight fighters.
Her job, protect Atlantic convoys from German patrol aircraft.
Brown excelled.
Flying from the pitching deck of a tiny carrier in the North Atlantic, he shot down two Faulk Wolf FW 200 Condor Maritime Patrol aircraft using head-on attacks that exploited blind spots in their defensive armorament.
He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his skill and bravery.
But on December 21st, 1941, HMS Audacity’s luck ran out.
U751, a German submarine commanded by Gearard Bigal, torpedoed HMS Audacity during a convoy escort mission.
The carrier took multiple hits and began sinking rapidly.
Brown was in the ready room when the torpedo struck.
He scrambled topside as the ship listed severely.
24 menaged to escape into the freezing Atlantic water.
Most were crew members.
A handful were pilots like Brown.
The first rescue ship departed quickly after picking up some survivors.
Ubot were still in the area and remaining meant risking another sinking.
Brown and several others were left behind in the water.
The North Atlantic in December is lethal.
Water temperature hovered around 40° F.
Hypothermia kills in minutes.
Brown wore a May West life jacket and his flight suit, but both offered minimal insulation.
He spent the entire night in the water.
Around him, men succumbed to the cold one by one.
By dawn, only two men remained alive out of the original 24.
A rescue ship finally arrived and pulled Brown from the water.
He was one of only two survivors.
The experience marked him deeply.
He’d lost friends and squadron mates.
After recovering, Brown returned to duty.
He flew with Royal Canadian Air Force bomber escort missions, then returned to Britain for fighter patrols.
In December 1943, Brown was assigned to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnbr as a test pilot.
His expertise in carrier operations was badly needed.
Britain was rapidly expanding its fleet airarm, and someone had to test new aircraft for carrier compatibility.
Brown proved exceptional.
By the end of 1943, he’d performed approximately 1,500 deck landings on 22 different carriers.
On March 25th, 1944, he became the first pilot ever to land a twin engine aircraft on a carrier, a dehavlin mosquito on HMS Indaticable.
As the war in Europe neared its end, Brown’s fluency in German became valuable.
He was assigned to interrogate captured German aviation engineers and test pilots.
He flew to Italy to evaluate captured aircraft, then to Germany as Allied forces advanced.
Flying the MI63 was particularly memorable.
The aircraft used extremely volatile rocket fuel, a combination that could explode if not handled correctly.
Many German pilots had died testing it.
Brown later joked that the only safe way to land it was to run out of fuel first.
On December 3rd, 1945, Brown achieved another milestone, the first landing of a jet aircraft on an aircraft carrier.
Flying a De Havlin Sea Vampire, he touched down on HMS Ocean.
This single test flight opened the door to modern jet carrier operations.
Brown’s postwar career continued with high-speed testing, including experimental aircraft that pushed toward the sound barrier.
He flew the Dehavlin DH108, a dangerous experimental jet that had already killed one test pilot and would kill his successor.
Brown nearly died in it himself, but survived.
By the 1950s, Brown had become Britain’s chief naval test pilot.
He was also the most experienced carrier pilot in the world with over 2,400 deck landings and nearly 500 different aircraft types in his log book.
Then in 1957, he received unusual orders.
West Germany was rebuilding.
After World War II, the country had been divided, disarmed, and occupied.
But by the mid 1950s, Cold War tensions meant NATO needed West Germany as a military ally against the Soviet Union.
In 1955, West Germany was permitted to rearm.
The new Bundesphere Federal Defense Force needed an air force and a navy.
And the navy wanted its own aviation branch, the Marine Fleger.
But Germany had no recent naval aviation experience.
The wartime Luftwaffer had controlled all aviation, including maritime operations.
Germany needed help building a carrier capable or at minimum ship-based aviation force from scratch.
Britain offered assistance.
In 1958, the Admiral Ty announced the British naval air mission to Germany.
Commander Eric Brown would lead it.
Brown packed his family, his wife Lynn and son Glenn into their new Vauxil Victor and drove to Keel, Germany.
He would spend the next 3 years there.
The assignment was delicate.
Brown would be working directly with former German Navy personnel, some of whom had served during the war.
They would be training German pilots to fly British aircraft and Brown himself had nearly been killed by the German Navy just 17 years earlier.
When Brown arrived at German naval headquarters in Kil Halterau, the German officers were apprehensive.
They knew Brown’s record and the HMS Audacity episode.
Would this British pilot hold grudges? Brown’s approach was simple.
Treat them as fellow professionals.
He spoke fluent German which helped immediately.
He didn’t dwell on the past.
He focused on the mission.
build the best naval aviation force possible.
The Germans responded with relief and respect.
Brown later wrote that once they realized he was approaching this pilot to pilot, not victor to defeated, they opened up completely.
Brown helped established two squadrons.
The first flew Hawker Seahawks, carrier capable fighters Germany purchased from Britain.
The second flew ferry ganet anti-ubmarine warfare aircraft.
German pilots trained at RAF Losy in Scotland and RNA Egllandon in Northern Ireland before returning to Germany.
On May 19th to 20th, 1958, both squadrons were officially commissioned.
Brown attended the ceremonies.
Former enemies stood together celebrating the birth of the numer settled into German life.
His son Glenn attended German schools.
Lynn Brown made friends with German families.
The Browns lived in Schulzy near Keel and integrated into the community.
Over 3 years, Brown worked closely with German naval officers, including Capitans Orilhelm Verllor, chief of the Marine Fleeer staff.
They became colleagues and friends.
Brown also reconnected with former German aviation engineers he’d interrogated after the war.
He visited Kurt Tank, designer of the Fauler Wolf fighters Brown had fought against.
Their initial interrogation had turned into a mutual discussion of aircraft design.
Now years later, they met again as fellow aviation enthusiasts.
In 1960, Brown completed his tour in Germany.
The Marine Fleger was operational and integrated into NATO.
His mission was complete.
Eric Brown continued his naval career, eventually reaching the rank of captain.
He commanded HMS Fulmer, now RAFP Losimoth, in Scotland and retired from the Royal Navy in March 1970.
His record stood unmatched.
487 different aircraft types flown.
2,47 carrier landings, 2721 catapult launches.
These records remain unbroken and likely never will be.
Brown lived to age 97, passing away on February 21st, 2016.
Tributes poured in from around the world.
The German embassy in Washington issued a statement remembering him.
Marine Fleer veterans praised his role in establishing their force.
What made Brown’s story remarkable wasn’t just his flying skill, though that was legendary, but his ability to separate professional duty from personal loss.
HMS Audacity’s sinking could have left him bitter toward Germany.
Instead, he chose to view former enemies as future allies.
Brown later said that most German pilots and engineers he encountered were simply professionals doing their jobs much like himself.
The war had been about nations and politics, not personal hatred between individuals.
The marine fleeer he helped establish became an effective component of Western European defense during the Cold War.
Brown’s life demonstrated that expertise, professionalism, and respect can bridge even the deepest wartime divisions.
It took courage to help former enemies.
It took courage to separate past from future.
Eric Winkl Brown had both kinds of courage in abundance.
