Matt Braddock

Matt Braddock
Matt Braddock
Publication information
Publisher	D. C. Thomson & Co. Ltd
First appearance	1952
In-story information
Team affiliations	Royal Air Force, United Kingdom
Abilities	Master pilot, skilled boxer, champion level darts player.

Matt Braddock(Derp), VC and bar, is a fictional World War II bomber pilot who appeared in the pages of the Victor and Rover comics in the 1950s and 1960s. Some of his stories were published in book form I Flew With Braddock. The narrator of these stories was his navigator, George Bourne.

Braddock was known for his fearless nature, superb piloting skills and no-nonsense attitude. He had no time for petty rules and regulations, and remained at the rank of sergeant, refusing to be promoted to an officer rank. However this didn't stop him from standing up to incompetent superiors, or defending other enlisted men from overzealous courts-martial.

Braddock was so highly regarded that he had carte blanche to pick his own flight crew, and was frequently called upon to advise high ranking commanders of the RAF. Braddock flew virtually all types of aircraft, but his most prominent command was the Lancaster Bomber F Fox.

Some of Braddock's more outstanding exploits included :

• Sinking a U-boat with a rocket armed Mosquito fighter-bomber.
• Bombing Peenemünde, severely setting back German rocketry experiments.
• Successfully transversing the Alps to attack an Italian port, after the entire raid had been scrubbed due to hazardous weather.
• Shooting down a German fighter with a flare gun.
• Sinking the Degen, a German aircraft carrier.

The sinking of the Degen was notable in that Braddock successfully bombed the ship after his plane was damaged by anti-aircraft fire, destroying the bomb sight and knocking out his bomb aimer. Braddock himself took the responsibility of dropping the bomb, and managed to score a direct hit with the naked eye.

Braddock, in addition to his piloting abilities, was a skilled boxer and champion level darts player.

External links

• Sample Matt Braddock Story & a 2nd
• Sample comic page and brief character profile
• Red Dagger restrospective with brief bio of Braddock