RICHEY, Paul Henry Mills, from Chelsea, London was born in Chelsea London on May 7, 1916.

Richey joined the RAF in 1937 and was posted to 1 Squadron, flying Furies. After completion of his training, Richey was posted, in March 1939, to No.1 Squadron based at Tangmere, flying Hawker Hurricane fighters.

On Sept 8th, shortly after war was declared Richey's squadron were ordered to Vassincourt in France where they flew counter-air patrols in the Metz area.

On December 23, 1939 Richey married Hon. Teresa Robinson, daughter of Roy Lister Robinson, 1st and last Baron Robinson and Charlotte Marion Cust Bradshaw.

On May 10th, 1940 with the start of the German Blitzkrieg began a period of intense fighting. In Hurricane L1679 Flying Officer Paul Richey destroyed a Dornier 215 on his first sortie of the day and a Dornier 17 on his 5th.

A day later, on May 11th, Richey managed to shoot down two enemy planes before he was shot down and had to bail out. Richey suffered a concussion but recovered to fly again four days later on the 15th, when he claimed two more enemy planes, but was again hit by the Germans and forced to bail out.

Again, after only four days recovery, on the 19th, Richey was back in the air. He downed an enemy plane in short order but was hit by enemy fire receiving a bullet wound to the neck. Richey crash landed, was recovered and taken to a hospital in Paris, where the bullet was removed. He spent the rest of the Battle of France in the hospital and returned to the United Kingdom in June 1940 where he received a DFC.

Richey was awarded with the distinguished flying cross (DFC) for his performance in France. The DFC is a military decoration awarded to personnel of the United Kingdom's Royal Air Force for "act or acts of valour, courage or devotion to duty whilst flying in active operations against the enemy".

Unfit for flying, Richey wrote up his memoirs under the title Fighter Pilot .

Published in September 1941, Richey's Fighter Pilot was a first of its kind memoir to describe the war in the air and was popular with the public. By January 1942, the book would already be in its sixth impression.


Richey returned to flying in the Spring of 1941. He joined 609 Squadron as a flight commander, flying Spitfires under his brother-in-law, Squadron Leader Michael Lister Robinson and flew 53 missions across the English Channel.

Richey then took command of 74 Squadron, but returned to 609 as
Commanding Officer in May 1942.

On October 12, 1942 Squadron Leader Richey was promoted to Wing Commander, Fighter Ops, at Headquarters, Bengal Command, in India. Then he took command of No. 165 wing Comilla and finally No. 188 Wing at Palel in the Imphal
Valley.

In February 1944, Richey was invalided back to the United Kingdom and did not return to operational flying.

After the war, Richey became a journalist, and joined the RAuxAF.

Richey married Mary Tylor, daughter of Major Vyvian Alfred Tylor. He and Mary Tylor later divorced in 1961.

In 1950, at the time of the Korean War, Richey was called up for three months and commanded 601 Squadron.

He married Diana Bowring, daughter of James Paull Bowring, in February 1969.


W/Cdr. Paul Henry Mills Richey died February 23, 1989 at the age of 72, at which time the tenth edition of Fighter Pilot was about to be published. He had five children.

Bio compiled from information available in the following sources:

609(WR) Squadron - Royal Auxiliary Air Force Archives compiled by Mark Crame http://www.609wrsquadron.co.uk/Archiv...

BLITZKRIEG on EAST ANGLIAN AIRCRAFT RESEARCH GROUP website http://www.sweffling.freeserve.co.uk/...

Military Aviation Museum website http://www.tangmere-museum.org.uk/

thepeerage.com http://www.thepeerage.com

Pilots Pilot Profiles background for The Tangme