Irish-born John Hemingway, the last surviving Battle of Britain pilot, has died.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvg1z42pkj8o

Rest in peace, John, along with all your comrades from all nations who flew alongside you in those dark days.

Edited March 18, 20251 yr by Paul K

My Mother's uncle was a Spitfire pilot in the Battle of Britain. They were all heros. My Mother was from Norwich. I'm not sure where he was from. I suspect Norwich.

 

Bill W

Edited March 18, 20251 yr by BillW
Additional Information.

Reading the obituary, not only was this bloke extraordinarily brave, he was extraordinarily lucky too,
not to mention extraordinarily modest.
Looking around the UK at the moment, it is hard to imagine how such young men could possibly be 
found today, but I would like to think that in times of adversity, perhaps they would also step up and
do just as well.

RIP, the last of the few, an extraordinary man among extraordinary men and women.
 

1 hour ago, Reader said:

Looking around the UK at the moment, it is hard to imagine how such young men could possibly be 
found today, but I would like to think that in times of adversity, perhaps they would also step up and
do just as well.

John Hemingway was indeed one of a special generation. Life was much harder then for most people, but they had a sense of duty which is sadly lacking today.

I'm sure there are still young men and women who would step up, but today they would probably never be selected for training. The RAF is now run by those who think the woke agenda is more important than professional ability.  

Cost cutting and peacetime apathy have reduced flying hours drastically for all aircrew.  More senior officers have even less flying experience, because they have been promoted rapidly from desk to desk.  I despair, at what has been done to the RAF.  On my first squadron tour, our Commander in Chief was AVM Johnnie Johnson, the highest scoring RAF fighter pilot in WW2. He was very different to today's career officers.  Right now we cannot even train enough combat ready pilots to adequately man the few fighters we now posess.