Noël le Chevalier Agazarian | |
|---|---|
 Noel Agazarian, photographed at RAF Warmwell, August 1940[1] | |
| Nickname(s) | Aggy[2] |
| Born | (1916-12-26)26 December 1916 London, England |
| Died | 16 May 1941(1941-05-16) (aged 24) nearKambut, Italian Libya |
| Buried | |
| Allegiance | United Kingdom |
| Service | Royal Air Force |
| Years of service | 1939–1941 |
| Rank | Flying Officer |
| Unit | No. 609 Squadron No. 274 Squadron |
| Battles / wars | World War II |
| Relations | Jack Agazarian (brother) Monique Agazaria (sister) Francine Agazarian (sister-in-law) |
Noël le Chevalier Agazarian (26 December 1916 – 16 May 1941) was a British World War IIfighter ace with seven victories. He was the brother ofSpecial Operations Executive agentJack Agazarian, who was executed by the Germans in 1945, and Monique Agazarian, pilot, author and businesswoman.[3]
Noël Agazarian's father was Berge Agazarian (died 1944),[4] anArmenian who arrived in the United Kingdom in 1911 as a teenager with little money.[3] However he eventually prospered, owning a successful electrical engineering company. He married Frenchwoman Jacqueline Marie-Louise le Chevalier. They had six children, four boys (three of whom later joined theRoyal Air Force) and two girls, one of whom, Monique Agazarian, later served as a pilot in theAir Transport Auxiliary.[3] The four siblings' interest in aviation may have been sparked by their mother, who bought a World War I surplusSopwith Pup fighter for £5 at a Croydon auction, and parked it in the back garden of the family house for use as a plaything by her children.[5]
Noël Agazarian was schooled atDulwich College, where he was a member of the first XVRugby union team, captained both the swimming and boxing teams and was awarded theVictor Ludorum for sporting achievement. He then went on toWadham College, Oxford in 1935.[2] An earlier application toTrinity College, Oxford was rejected, allegedly because the Trinity College President,Herbert Blakiston, objected to Agazarian's ethnicity.[6][7][8][Note 1] At Oxford, Agazarian began his flying career with theOxford University Air Squadron. He achieved ablue in boxing and became friends withRichard Hillary, who became well known some years later for his autobiographyThe Last Enemy about his time as a fighter pilot.[8]
Hillary later wrote this description of Agazarian:
Noël, with his pleasantly ugly face, had been sent down[Note 2] from Oxford over a slight matter of breaking up his college and intendedreading for the Bar. With an Armenian father and a French mother he was by nature cosmopolitan, intelligent, and a brilliant linguist, but an English education had discovered that he was an athlete, and his University triumphs had been of brawn rather than brain. Of this he was very well aware and somewhat bewildered by it. These warring elements in his make-up made him a most amusing companion and a very good friend.
— Richard Hillary[10]
Noël Agazarian joined the Royal Air Force as aVolunteer Reservist and was commissioned as apilot officer on 14 February 1939.[11] He completed his initial flying training at the same time as Richard Hillary, atLossiemouth,[12] after which both were assigned toOld Sarum, to train as army co-operation pilots.[Note 3] They flewWestland Lysanderliaison aircraft andHawker Hector biplanes; during the training, Agazarian crashed a Hector but was unscathed.[13] By the time his course ended in June 1940,France had fallen, theDunkirk evacuation had taken place and aGerman invasion of Britain was thought to be imminent. Because of this crisis, Hillary and Agazarian were both amongst the majority of pilots from the graduating Army co-operation class who were immediately reassigned as fighter pilots, something that pleased Agazarian immensely.[12][13]
After a few weeks of fighter training, Agazarian joinedNo. 609 Squadron, a fighter squadron flyingSupermarine Spitfires and based atWarmwell in Dorset.[12] His first victory was on 11 August, when he shot down aMesserschmitt Bf 110 heavy fighter[12] around 15 miles (24 km) south of theIsle of Portland.[14] It appears his victim wasGruppenkommandeur (Group Commander)Major Ernst Ott ofZerstörergeschwader 2. Ott was killed along with his gunner/radio operator.[15] On 12 August, he shot down twoMesserschmitt Bf 109 fighters and damaged a Bf 110[12] around five miles (8 km) south ofPortsmouth.[16] This occurred during a large battle, when a formation of German bombers and their fighter escorts were intercepted by three RAF fighter squadrons after they bombed Portsmouth and its dockyards.[17]
Agazarian was promoted from pilot officer toflying officer on 14 August[18] and continued to fly throughout theBattle of Britain. His last victory with No. 609 Squadron was on 2 December, when he shared in the destruction of aDornier Do 17 bomber with Polish pilotTadeusz Nowierski (in Polish).[12] By this time he had shot down six aircraft, damaged four and shared in the destruction of three. One of the aircraft he flew during the battle, Supermarine Spitfire numberR6915, still exists and is preserved in theImperial War Museum in London. He twice made forced landings in it because of battle damage, but used it to shoot down four German aircraft and damage another.[19]
In January 1941, Agazarian received a requested transfer toNo. 274 Squadron in North Africa,[12] a fighter squadron equipped withHawker Hurricanes. On 1 May 1941, he destroyed a Bf 109 overTobruk, Libya. However, on 16 May, he was shot down and killed by Fw. Franz Elles in a Bf 109 of 2./JG 27 nearGambut (Kambut),[12] during the Commonwealth offensive known asOperation Brevity.[20] He is buried in theKnightsbridge War Cemetery,Acroma, Libya.[21]
