He survived nine crash landings and famously shot down a German plane that had just bombed Buckingham Palace.
"I was shot down nine times in 16 weeks. Twice I got out with my aeroplane burning from end to end, once with no tail on it," he said.
He continued flying fighter missions until the end of the war, including a transfer to India where he took on the Japanese.
At the end of World War Two, he was credited with having shot down 28 confirmed planes, four "probables" and nine damaged - one of the highest tallies of all the RAF's British fighter pilots.
After the war he became a pilot instructor
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-40660077
thanks Steve!
There was another incident over the Palace during said battle, where a Hurricane pilot who's guns jammed, decided to ram a german Dornier and cut it in half as it flew toward the Palace. The wreck of the hurricane was only recently unearthed, 12 feet below Buckingham Palace Road, and a company over there used the aluminium, brass and bronze from the wreck to cast cufflinks and some small sculptures of the plane. They were also able to reunite the pilot with his Joystick still set on 'Fire'.
ReplyDeleteAll this reminds me of a story I read recently....
"The German air controllers at Frankfurt Airport are renowned as a short-tempered lot.
They not only expect one to know one's gate parking location, but how to get there without any assistance from them.
So it was with some amusement that we (a Pan Am 747) listened to the following exchange between Frankfurt ground control and a British Airways 747, call sign Speedbird 206.
Speedbird 206: " Frankfurt , Speedbird 206 clear of active runway."
Ground: "Speedbird 206. Taxi to gate Alpha One-Seven."
The BA 747 pulled onto the main taxiway and slowed to a stop.
Ground: "Speedbird, do you not know where you are going?"
Speedbird 206: "Stand by, Ground, I'm looking up our gate location now."
Ground (with quite arrogant impatience):
"Speedbird 206, have you not been to Frankfurt before?"
Speedbird 206 (coolly): "Yes, twice in 1944, but it was dark, -- and I didn't land."