Andrew William "Nicky" Barr, OBE, MC, DFC and Bar (10 December 1915 – 12 June 2006) was a member of the Australian national rugby union team who became a flying ace in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. He was credited with twelve aerial victories, all scored flying the Curtiss P-40 fighter. Born in New Zealand, Barr was raised in Victoria and first represented the state in rugby in 1936. Selected to play for Australia against the United Kingdom in 1939, he had just arrived in England when the tour was cancelled following the outbreak of war. He joined the RAAF in 1940 and was posted to North Africa with No. 3 Squadron in September 1941. The squadron's highest-scoring ace, he attained his first three victories in the P-40D Tomahawk and the remainder in the P-40E Kit
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| - Andrew William "Nicky" Barr, OBE, MC, DFC and Bar (10 December 1915 – 12 June 2006) was a member of the Australian national rugby union team who became a flying ace in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. He was credited with twelve aerial victories, all scored flying the Curtiss P-40 fighter. Born in New Zealand, Barr was raised in Victoria and first represented the state in rugby in 1936. Selected to play for Australia against the United Kingdom in 1939, he had just arrived in England when the tour was cancelled following the outbreak of war. He joined the RAAF in 1940 and was posted to North Africa with No. 3 Squadron in September 1941. The squadron's highest-scoring ace, he attained his first three victories in the P-40D Tomahawk and the remainder in the P-40E Kit
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| serviceyears
| - 1940(xsd:integer)
- 1951(xsd:integer)
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| death place
| - Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia
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| Nickname
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| Name
| - Andrew William "Nicky" Barr
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| Caption
| - "Nicky" Barr during World War II
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| Title
| - Commanding Officer No. 3 Squadron RAAF
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| Battles
| - World War II
*Middle Eastern theatre
*North African Campaign
*European theatre
*Normandy Campaign
*South West Pacific theatre
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| Before
| - Squadron Leader Bobby Gibbes
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| After
| - Squadron Leader Bobby Gibbes
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| Source
| - Nicky Barr on the P-40 Tomahawk, interview, 1990
- Nicky Barr, Australian Story, 2002
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| Quote
| - I was not very proud of the things that I was called upon to do. Nonetheless, I accepted the fact that some people have to do the killing. But when you are recruited, it's not sold to you that way and you find out that after they teach you to fly they then teach you to kill. And, uh, I didn't like it at all, but I did it – that was my job.
- ...it had two guns firing from the cockpit and four – two in each wing – to augment it. And I liked very much indeed the loading of the guns when one took off. There was a closeness to combat which seemed to help me with my make-up, the smell of cordite in the cockpit was particularly helpful to me; I really felt that I was at a war.
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| abstract
| - Andrew William "Nicky" Barr, OBE, MC, DFC and Bar (10 December 1915 – 12 June 2006) was a member of the Australian national rugby union team who became a flying ace in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. He was credited with twelve aerial victories, all scored flying the Curtiss P-40 fighter. Born in New Zealand, Barr was raised in Victoria and first represented the state in rugby in 1936. Selected to play for Australia against the United Kingdom in 1939, he had just arrived in England when the tour was cancelled following the outbreak of war. He joined the RAAF in 1940 and was posted to North Africa with No. 3 Squadron in September 1941. The squadron's highest-scoring ace, he attained his first three victories in the P-40D Tomahawk and the remainder in the P-40E Kittyhawk. Barr's achievements as a combat pilot earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross and Bar. Shortly after taking command of No. 3 Squadron in May 1942, he was shot down and captured by Axis forces, and incarcerated in Italy. He escaped and assisted other Allied fugitives to safety, receiving for his efforts the Military Cross, a rare honour for an RAAF pilot. Repatriated to England, he saw action during the invasion of Normandy in June 1944 before returning to Australia as chief instructor with No. 2 Operational Training Unit. After the war he became a company director, and rejoined the RAAF as an active reserve officer from 1951 to 1953. From the early 1960s he was heavily involved in the oilseed industry, for which he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1983. He died in 2006, aged ninety.
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