Panel 33 (Under the panel Heading of 1941 ROYAL AIR FORCE Pilot Officer)

An inscribed “Wall of Missing” in a Commonwealth Grave Commission (CWGC) memorial cemetery.

Vernon C. “Shorty”  Keough  was born in Brooklyn in 1912. He had earned a civil pilot's license and was also a professional parachute jumper with over 500 jumps, performing at air shows across America.

He joined the French Air Force towards the end of the Battle of France, but as France fell he came to England with his friends and fellow Americans Andrew Mamedoff and Eugene Tobin and joined the Royal Air Force in 1940.

Keogh was the smallest pilot in the whole of the Royal Air Force, hence the nickname, and was just 4'10" tall. He had to use two cushions in his Spitfire to see out of the cockpit.

He flew many missions during the height of the Battle of Britain in August and September. He was credited with one shared 'kill': Dornier Do 17 bomber shot down on 15 September.  He was one of 11 American pilots who flew with RAF Fighter Command between 10 July and 31 October 1940, thereby qualifying for the Battle of Britain clasp to the 1939–45 campaign star.

He was posted to RAF Kirton in Lindsey in Lincolnshire on 18 September 1940 and was a founder member of No. 71 'Eagle' Squadron.

On 15 February 1941, Keogh was on a convoy-protection mission off Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire. During the chase of a Heinkel He 111, he was last seen spinning off into the sea. He was 29 years old -Killed in Action (KIA). His body was not recovered, but he is remembered on the Air Forces Memorial at Runnymede.

1941

ROYAL AIR FORCE

PILOT OFFICER

KEOUGH V.C.