Danish WW2 Pilots

2nd Off Knud Gether-Caspersen

(1912 - 2001)

Knud Gether-Caspersen joins the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and is trained as pilot. Following service as ferry pilot he ends allied service in the Norwegian Air Force.

Knud Gether-Caspersen is born on 25 April 1912.

A Young Man At Sea

In the early 1930’s he joins the Danish East Asia Company. According to the U.S. Immigration records he arrives in New Work four times from March to July 1930 on-board the S/S UNITED STATES sailing from Copenhagen. He is 18 years old and deck boy.

In 1938 having been trained as shipmaster he joins the Danish Navy and is accepted for pilot training in the Naval Air Service. He does not finish training, though, and returns to the commercial fleet.

Volunteers for the Royal Air Force

In 1940 he is signed on the East Asia Company S/S DANMARK bound for Liverpool, England. Following the German occupation of Denmark on 9 April 1940, Knud Gether-Caspersen volunteers for Royal Air Force.

He undergoes the compulsory tests and is accepted for pilot training, but serves a while in the convoys on the Atlantic before commencing pilot training at an Elementary Flying Training School. At the end of training he is transferred to the Air Transport Auxiliary as ferry pilot.

In Norwegian Service

On 30 November 1944 he is transferred to the Royal Norwegian Air Force, transport command, at RAF Station Leuchars, St. Andrews, Scotland. He is in Norwegian service until 20 September 1945.

At the end of the war, Knud Gether-Caspersen returns to Denmark and is engaged by Danish Airlines as commercial pilot.

In 1947 he joins the Naval Air Service. On 1 June 1947 he is promoted to Flyverløjtnant af 1ste Grad af Reserven (Flight Lieutenant of the Reserve). In 1950 he is transferred to the newly established Royal Danish Air Force holding the same rank. He is promoted to Kaptajnløjtnant (Lieutenant Captain) on 1 March 1952 and further to Kaptajn (Captain) on 2 June 1954. He retires in 1963 at the age of 52.

(Ancker, 2001; Wold, 1990; FLYV, 4/2001; ancestry.co.uk)