Last Surviving Ace of Battle of Britain Passes - RIP

The greatest of the greatest.
God bless and keep.

Cheerio, old Chap! Well done

Obit from the Times

he was the last ace, apparently there are two other pilots still alive.

Actually, Win Cdr Farnes flew Hurricanes during the Battle of Britain.

quote:

---

In 2015, the then retired Sqn Ldr described the "moving" moment he and his comrades were spontaneously applauded during a service at Westminster Abbey to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

Mr Farnes, who flew a Hurricane during the war, said: "It was very emotional today because, when we walked out of the abbey, the audience applauded and it's never happened before at the annual service and I was very moved by it.

"It is amazing that the Battle of Britain has caught on with the public and I am very proud to have been a part of it."

---

A good article about the role of the Hawker Hurricane in the Battle of Britain:

Unsung Hurricane True Ace of Battle of Britain

The obituaries in the Telegraph are worth following. It seems there’s always a WW2 veteran with an amazing story.

There was one a few years ago that told this story.

A British army officer, our hero, was in Tobruk during the Axis siege. A tank near his position came under fire and was disabled. The crew was trapped, unable to escape, even as the tank burned.

He ran across open terrain, through enemy fire, opened the tank hatches, and dragged each member of the crew to safety.

When the Germans figured out what he was doing, they, according to the obituary, stopped firing and clapped.

The gentleman in the story was eventually captured by the Italians and sent to a POW camp.

It being an Italian run camp, he escaped immediately, probably by walking out the front gate.

He spent the rest of the war in Rome, pretending to be an obscure Italian count.

He wrote a memoir about the war and his time in Rome.

I’m trying to track down a copy.

shite I hope I look that good if I make it that long

Courageous man. All those aces are now gone. Soon all the WWII vets will be.

If interested in these stories, a good read is the book (or see the movie) Reach for the Sky, about Captain Douglas Bader. He was credited with 22 aerial victories, four shared victories, six probables, one shared probable and 11 enemy aircraft damaged. The incredible thing about Bader is that he did it without legs, having lost them in a crash prior to the war.