Billy Fiske: A Unique American War Hero

Born in Chicago in June 1911, William “Billy” Meade Lindsley Fiske III came from a privileged family background. His father, William, was a senior partner of Dillon, Read & Co., one of New York City’s most prestigious investment banks. In the early 1920s, William was appointed head of the firm’s Paris branch, meaning that the entire family, including Billy, moved to the French capital. 

During winter holidays in the fashionable Swiss resort of St Moritz, teenage Billy first began to display a talent for extreme sports when he joined the exclusive St Moritz Tobogganing Club, whose members competed in high-speed races down the infamous Cresta Run.

Fiske went on to become one of the greatest competitors on the Cresta course, setting a series of record times for the fastest descent. 

Tobogganing was not the only winter sport in which he excelled. When St Moritz hosted the 1928 Winter Olympics, the 16-year-old Fiske was selected as a driver for one of the two US bobsled teams. Much to the chagrin of the US Olympic Committee, Fiske nicknamed his sled “Satan.”

The official records show that he led the more prosaically named USA II bobsled team to victory. In the process, he became the youngest man in history to win a Winter Olympic gold medal. 

Four years later at Lake Placid, Fiske repeated the feat, but in 1936 he spurned the chance to win an unprecedented hat trick of gold medals. Reports suggest that he turned down the opportunity to represent the USA at that year’s Games as they were held in the German ski resort of Garmisch-Partenkirchen. This was in protest of the Nazi regime. 

Whilst studying for a degree in economics and history at Trinity College, Cambridge, the daredevil American discovered fast cars, albeit after having taken up the relatively sedate sport of golf. Fiske became infamous for the breakneck speed with which he would drive his 4.5-litre Bentley on the back lanes of East Anglia to the golf course at Mildenhall in Suffolk some 24 miles away.

Student friends later recalled that he would customarily complete the journey in just 17 minutes, hitting a top speed of 110mph along the way. 

In late 1933, the Daily News ran a feature on Fiske which illustrated the extent to which the flamboyant 22-year-old was enjoying the stereotypical lifestyle of a wealthy young American playboy. “He has hunted big game in Africa, he has piloted racing automobiles…and planned an expedition for the British Museum of Ethnology into the interior of New Guinea…which didn’t materialize,” the newspaper reported.

The feature goes on to reveal that Fiske had just become actively involved in a new Hollywood film production company which was pioneering the then relatively new concept of filming on location.

The Daily News didn’t report that Fiske was also harboring ambitions of creating a top-class North American ski resort to rival the best winter sport destinations in Europe. Along with businessman Ted Ryan, he had already earmarked a remote Colorado mountain town named Aspen as a suitable location. The town had once been home to a booming silver mining community, but by the early 1930s had been largely abandoned, meaning that it was possible to purchase significant tracts of land in the area at rock-bottom prices. 

Fiske and Ryan were instrumental in the creation of the first ski trail on Aspen Mountain, which opened in 1936. The first ski lodge was built in Aspen in the same year, setting in motion the eventual transformation of this once desolate town into one of the world’s most fashionable ski resorts.

Sadly, Fiske did not live long enough to see his plans fully come to fruition.

By the late 1930s, Fiske was focusing more on his banking career and was splitting his time between the London and New York offices of Dillon, Read & Co. Whilst in London, the well-connected American banker joined the exclusive White’s Club, which brought him into close contact with members of the so-called “Millionaires’ Squadron.” The activities of this group of wealthy amateur aviators, who regularly frequented White’s, intrigued Fiske and inspired him to take up flying lessons.

His ties to his adopted homeland of England were further strengthened by his 1938 marriage to a British socialite named Rose Bingham. His wife’s divorce from her aristocratic first husband, the Earl of Warwick, had been finalized just months earlier.

The gossip columnist for the British newspaper Daily Express reported: “At 8.55am yesterday, after two-and-a-half years’ acquaintance but less than 48 hours’ notice, Lady Warwick was married to William Fiske III at Maidenhead Register Office.”

Less than a year after his marriage, war broke out in Europe. Fiske was working in New York at the time, but, intent on joining the Royal Air Force, he decided to accompany a British friend from his White’s Club days who was preparing to set sail for England on board the Aquitania.

The American faced one significant hurdle. The United States did not officially enter World War II until December 1941, and because of US neutrality laws, he was prohibited from serving in the British armed forces. The intrepid Fiske was not to be deterred and, in the end, concocted a story claiming Canadian nationality. He was assigned to 601 Squadron, the auxiliary RAF unit to which his fellow White’s Club members belonged. 

During the summer of 1940, the courageous pilots of 601 Squadron found themselves at the forefront of a large-scale aerial military campaign against their German counterparts in what is now known as the Battle of Britain. The RAF’s eventual success proved to be a major turning point in the war, as it prevented a planned Nazi invasion of Britain.

But it came at a huge cost in terms of the number of lives lost on both sides. 

Despite his inexperience in flying fighter aircrafts, Fiske soon proved his mettle as a Hawker Hurricane pilot, personally bringing down several enemy planes within the first month.

In mid-August, the brave American airman sent a cable to his father: “Don’t believe everything you hear from Berlin. British reports, if anything, understate it. Everything fine.”

Just hours later, he took off with other members of 601 Squadron from RAF Tangmere in West Sussex on what proved to be his final mission. 

Tasked with intercepting a squadron of German Stuka dive-bombers, the RAF pilots became embroiled in a bitter dogfight, during which Fiske’s Hawker Hurricane received a direct hit from enemy fire. This rendered his plane’s engine inoperable, but rather than bailing out, the courageous American airman somehow managed to guide his crippled aircraft back to the airbase.

Tragically, the plane’s fuel tank exploded shortly after landing, and Fiske suffered multiple burns.

Fiske died of his injuries the following day and was laid to rest in a secluded corner of nearby Boxgrove Priory Church. In a further hammer blow to the family, Fiske’s father, who had himself only fled France for New York earlier the same year, died suddenly of a heart attack just seven weeks after the loss of his son.

A year later, a memorial plaque in the pilot’s honor was unveiled in the crypt of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral. The simple inscription read “An American citizen who died that England might live.”

Fiske’s unique sporting and military achievements have continued to capture the public imagination to the present day. The Billy Fiske Foundation was established in 2016 with the aim of commemorating the courageous airman whose personal sacrifice embodied the wartime spirit of friendship and co-operation between Britain and the US, still held dear by many on both sides of the Atlantic today. 

A lasting memorial to this unique American war hero was unveiled in London last summer in the form of a statue outside the new US Embassy.