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|branch= Royal Air Force |serviceyears=1941–1948 |rank=Wing Commander |servicenumber=80227 |unit= |commands= |battles=Second World War |awards= |relations= |laterwork=Businessman; electoral candidate for the Rhodesian Front in 1962; director of Central African Airways }} Ioannis Agorastos "John" Plagis DSO, DFC & Bar (1919–1974) was a Southern Rhodesian flying ace in the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War, noted especially for his part in the defence of Malta during 1942. The son of Greek immigrants, he was accepted by recruiters only after Greece joined the Allies in late 1940. Following spells with No. 65 Squadron and No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron, he joined No. 249 (Gold Coast) Squadron in Malta in March 1942. Flying Spitfire Mk Vs, Plagis was part of the multinational group of Allied pilots that successfully defended the strategically important island against numerically superior Axis forces over the next few months. Flying with No. 185 Squadron from early June, he was withdrawn to England in early July 1942. After a spell as an instructor in the UK, Plagis returned to action in September 1943 as commander of No. 64 Squadron, flying Spitfire Mk VCs over northern France. He took command of No. 126 (Persian Gulf) Squadron in June 1944, and led many attacks on German positions during the invasion of France and the campaign that followed; he was shot down over Arnhem during Operation ''Market Garden'', but only lightly wounded. After converting to Mustang IIIs, he commanded a wing based at RAF Bentwaters that supported bombing missions. He finished the war with the rank of squadron leader and remained with the RAF afterwards, operating Gloster Meteors at the head of No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron. Plagis was the top-scoring Southern Rhodesian ace of the war, and the highest-scoring ace of Greek origin, with 16 confirmed aerial victories, including 11 over Malta. Awarded the Distinguished Service Order and other medals, he was also one of Rhodesia's most decorated veterans. The Southern Rhodesian capital, Salisbury, honoured his wartime contributions by naming a street in its northern Alexandra Park neighbourhood after him. On his return home after retiring from the RAF with the rank of wing commander in 1948, he set up home at 1 John Plagis Avenue, opened a bottle store bearing his name, and was a director of several companies, including Central African Airways in the 1960s. He contested the Salisbury City constituency in the 1962 general election, running for the Rhodesian Front, but failed to win. He died in 1974, reportedly by suicide. ==Early life== John Plagis was born on 10 March 1919 in Gadzema, a mining village near Hartley, about south-west of the Southern Rhodesian capital Salisbury. His parents, Agorastos and Helen Plagis, were Greek immigrants from the island of Lemnos; he had five siblings. Christened with the Greek name Ioannis Agorastos, Plagis used the English form of Ioannis, John, from childhood, and attended Prince Edward School in Salisbury. Having been interested in aviation since he was a boy, Plagis volunteered for the Southern Rhodesian Air Force (SRAF) soon after the outbreak of war in September 1939. He was turned down because he was the son of foreign nationals and therefore not a citizen, despite having lived in Rhodesia all his life. After Italy invaded Greece in late October 1940, bringing the Greeks into the war on the Allied side, Plagis applied again—this time to join the Royal Air Force, which had absorbed the SRAF in April 1940—and was accepted. Training first in Southern Rhodesia, then England, Plagis passed out with the rank of flight sergeant in June 1941 with above-average ratings in all of his flying assessments. Though he was officially in the RAF as a Greek (he became a Rhodesian citizen only after the war), Plagis considered himself a Rhodesian flyer and wore shoulder flashes on his uniform denoting him as such. He named each aircraft he piloted during the war after his sister Kay, and painted that name on the side of each cockpit. After briefly flying Spitfires with No. 65 Squadron RAF, Plagis joined No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron, an almost all-Rhodesian Spitfire unit, on 19 July 1941. He served in the UK for about half a year, during which he was commissioned as a pilot officer, before being posted to the Mediterranean theatre in January 1942. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Plagis」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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