Vernon Keough

Pre-War

At just 4 feet 10 inches tall, Vernon Charles “Shorty” Keough hardly looked like the stereotypical fighter pilot. Yet long before the Second World War, the diminutive American had already built a life around aviation, risk and adventure.

Vernon Charles Keough was born on 8 June 1911 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, to Charles and Constance Theresa Keough. His family was later associated with Brooklyn, New York, and Keough grew up to become an experienced civilian aviator.

Flying was only part of his remarkable pre-war career. Keough was also a professional parachutist who performed at air shows across the United States. By the outbreak of the Second World War he was reportedly an experienced parachute jumper with approximately 500 jumps to his credit, an extraordinary total in an era when parachuting remained a dangerous and highly specialized pursuit.

When war broke out in Europe, Keough was unwilling to remain a spectator. He travelled overseas intending to volunteer to fight for Finland during the Winter War against the Soviet Union. The conflict ended before he could enter combat, and his attention turned to France, where he sought to fly against Nazi Germany.

The rapid German advance during the Battle of France overtook those plans. With France collapsing in June 1940, Keough made his way to Britain along with fellow American pilots Andrew Mamedoff and Eugene Tobin.

The three Americans were about to become part of a very small group of United States citizens who chose to fight Nazi Germany while their own country was still officially neutral.

War Service

Keough joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in 1940 and was commissioned as a Pilot Officer with service number 81620. His friends followed immediately behind him: Andrew Mamedoff became 81621 and Eugene Tobin 81622.

After conversion training on the Supermarine Spitfire at No. 7 Operational Training Unit at Hawarden, Keough was posted to No. 609 Squadron RAF at Middle Wallop on 8 August 1940.

He had arrived at one of the most dangerous moments of the Battle of Britain.

Throughout August and September, Keough flew operational sorties as Fighter Command struggled to prevent the Luftwaffe from gaining control of the skies over southern England. His unusually small stature created a practical problem in the cockpit. At only 4 feet 10 inches tall, Keough reportedly needed two cushions beneath him so that he could see properly over the instrument panel and out of his Spitfire.

The nickname “Shorty” was inevitable.

His size, however, had no bearing on his willingness to fight.

On 15 September 1940, the day subsequently remembered as Battle of Britain Day, Keough was involved in the destruction of a German Dornier Do 17, sharing the victory with fellow 609 Squadron pilots John Dundas and Mike Appleby.

For an American citizen whose own country would not enter the war for another fifteen months, it was an extraordinary place to be.

Only days later, Keough’s war took another historic turn.

He transferred to the newly forming No. 71 Squadron RAF, the first of the famous Eagle Squadrons created to bring American volunteers together in RAF service. Keough, Mamedoff and Tobin were among its original combat-experienced pilots. They had crossed the Atlantic together, joined the RAF together, received consecutive service numbers and fought together during the Battle of Britain.

No. 71 Squadron became operational in February 1941, flying Hawker Hurricanes on defensive patrols and convoy-protection duties.

Keough would survive only ten more days.

On 15 February 1941, Pilot Officer Vernon Charles Keough took off in Hawker Hurricane Mk I V7606 on an operational patrol over the North Sea. During the mission his aircraft was lost following an encounter with a German bomber.

Keough did not return.

Later accounts differ over the exact location, the type of German aircraft involved and whether Keough’s final descent resulted directly from combat or another cause. What is certain is that his Hurricane went into the North Sea and neither Keough nor his aircraft was recovered.

He was 29 years old.

Vernon “Shorty” Keough had crossed an ocean to fight a war his own country had not yet entered. In barely six months of RAF service, he had fought in the Battle of Britain, shared in the destruction of an enemy bomber and become one of the pioneering American pilots of the first Eagle Squadron.

His two American companions would not survive the year. Andrew Mamedoff was killed in October 1941 and Eugene Tobin in September. The three friends who had arrived in Britain together and received consecutive RAF service numbers were all dead before the United States formally entered the Second World War.

With no known grave, Pilot Officer Vernon Charles Keough is commemorated on Panel 33 of the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede, overlooking the countryside he had crossed the Atlantic to defend.