Remembering a Veteran: Captain D'Urban Victor Armstrong, 151 Squadron RFC/RAF

Born in the Colony of Natal on 26 July 1897, and educated at Hilton College, D'Urban Victor Armstrong joined the Royal Flying Corps in 1915. He was assigned to No. 60 Squadron the following year; while with them, he scored his first victory on 9 November 1916. His next posting was to No. 44 Squadron on home defense duties. His last assignment was to 151 Squadron.

He was one of the first night fighter victors in aerial warfare, as 151 Squadron was the Royal Air Force's first night fighter squadron. Armstrong was credited with four nighttime victories between 29 June and 17 September 1918, including a Gotha G bomber on 24 August near Bouvincourt-en-Vermandois, France. Two days after war's end, Armstrong was killed in a flying accident while flying aerobatics in his Sopwith Camel. He was awarded the DFC for a night patrol in a driving rainstorm. The citation described him as "a brilliant pilot of exceptional skill."

His death was strikingly described in Cecil Lewis's Sagittarius Rising 

I suppose everyone who saw him would agree that Armstrong was the finest pilot in the Force. He was a past master at that most dangerous and spectacular business of stunting near the ground. He would take his Camel off and go straight into a loop. The Camel, if the engine held, gained about ten feet on it. If the engine spluttered or missed, he was for it. . . Then, one day, he was spinning down to the ground, with him a favorite method of descent; but he left it too late, pulled out, thought he had not enough room, jerked back the stick before the machined had flying speed, went into another spin, and struck the ground. He was killed outright. They found his tongue on the engine.

 

Sources: Biographical sketch from Wikipedia, photo from the Imperial War Museum.