Ford   “Buck” Buchanan   Wittacker

Though the Beau’s particular forte in the Middle East was low-very low-strikes against land and shipping targets, its performance in the air against the Luftwaffe and or/ Regia Aeronautica proved equally doughty, and no few Beaufighter pilots accumulated impressive aerial combat kill tallies over the desert and Mediterranean Sea. Probably the most successful, certainly one of the greatest Beaufighter pilots in this context was Wing Commander John Kenneth Buchanan. A native of Southsea, “Buck” Buchanan joined the RAF with a Short Service Commission on 3 May 1937, and after training at No 8 FTS, Montrose was posted to No 101 Squadron at Bicester on 27 November 1937 to pilot lumbering Boulton Paul Overstrand bombers, though in June 1938 the unit replaced these with Blenheim I. Buchanan was to remain a bomber pilot during the following four years, being posted to the Middle East and gaining a DFC in July 1940.
By November 1941 he had become commander of No14 Squadron, succeeding Wing Commander Deryck Stapleton ( later, AVM, CB, CBE, DFC, AFC), flying Blenheim IV’s from LG75 and Gambut. By then he had already gained a considerable reputation in the Middle East RAF bomber circles as an adventurous, even cavalier pilot, yet never foolhardy. His constant interest in and obvious love of flying were exemplified by his mounting total of operational sorties flown, apart from seizing every oppurtunity to be airborne between sorties on training flights, testing flips, or simply “to keep my hand in”(sic).
His appearance, in view of his high reputation, was highly misleading to newcomers. Of slender build- to quote one pilot’s description, “a figure like a girl’s...”- “Buck” was always immaculately turned out, no matter what form of dress or uniform, with carefully combed hair and a neat Ronald Colman Moustache. To his ever-neat appearance he added a coolly “English” Oxford accent and almost affected gestures when discussing any subject, yet beneath his studied, near-effeminate pose Buchanan’s natural authority and leadership qualities soon emerged when the occasion demanded. His quiet self-confidence and instinctive charm obviously captivated Morley Lister, the female American war correspondant from Life magazine, when she visited Gambut on 13 January 1942. During the next ten days she accompanied Bucanan on at least two bombing sorties, before a shocked Cairo-based superior ordered her to return from her unauthorised flights over enemy territory.
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