Last Battle of Britain Pilot Dies at 101 Years
- Thread starter walkinghorse
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Rest well Wing Commander and thank you.
Actually, the article I read said he was the last ace. There were 2 others still alive, though not aces.
As the link notes, Winston Churchill put it well: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
They're all aces
Slow hand salute.
Sistema1927
US Veteran
We will not see their like anytime soon. Men who put on their airplanes like a well fitting suit, flying by the skin of their teeth with the most rudimentary of avionics and equipment.
LVSteve
Member
Farnes was the last ace from the Battle of Britain. There are now thought to be only two surviving members of The Few - Flight Lieutenant William Clark and Flying Officer John Hemingway, both aged 100.
Paul Farnes: Battle of Britain's last fighter 'ace' dies aged 101 | inews
Paul Farnes: Battle of Britain's last fighter 'ace' dies aged 101 | inews
Sadly, there's going to be more "lasts" like this one, and then they'll be gone. In the 70's, I used to drink beer with a guy named Charles, part of the customer's staff for our construction project. After a while, a party & work together group emerged . He stood out in our group of 30-somethings, because in his mid 50's he looked like a middle-aged Beatle with shoulder length black-dyed hair, and had the English accent to go with it. We weren't quite sure what to make of him, thinking maybe the accent was a put-on because the girls liked it. He hung with us youngsters, bar hopping, dancing, partying hard, and it took a while to find out the English accent was for real.
Charles had been an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain and after. After we finished the project, I moved on and never saw him again. I wish now I made more effort to get to know him better.
Charles had been an RAF pilot in the Battle of Britain and after. After we finished the project, I moved on and never saw him again. I wish now I made more effort to get to know him better.
Thinking back, I missed another chance to meet a special veteran.
During the '80's and '90's, we took a series of ten foreign exchange students who lived with us for about eleven months each and went to high school here. In 1993, my wife and I took a one month tour to visit them and their families, starting from Sweden, then south in a big arc through Europe to France.
Shortly before we left Paris for home, we were standing with Maude, the mother of one of our kids, at the wall at the Palais de Chaillot overlooking the Eiffel Tower. She was older than I, lived in Paris during WW2, and while we were standing there, she did some reminiscing about German occupied Paris. Earlier, her parents, who were in The Resistance, told us some amazing stories and showed us pics of the fighting and liberation of Paris.
While looking at this man-made wonder, Maude told us she remembered thousands of people in the streets on VE day, and saw an airplane fly under the Eiffel Tower. She told us there was a news photographer on the mezzanine who snapped a pic for the newspaper, which appeared the next day.
After I was home and back to work, I ran into a woman I'd worked with off and on again over the years, but I hadn't seen for a while. She asked me where I'd been, and after I rattled off our itinerary ending with Paris, she sighed, "Oh, I've always wanted to see Paris."
I opined that if you liked big cities, Paris was wonderful, but I preferred other places we saw. I asked her "Why Paris?"
She told me she was Polish, that her parents fled Poland after Hitler invaded and made their way to England. There, her father joined the Polish Wing of the RAF, fought from the Battle of Britain all the way through the war, and at the end of the war, flew his plane under the Eiffel Tower in celebration. She said he got into big trouble because the newspaper published a picture of his plane taken from the tower, with his buzz numbers plainly visible. That's why she wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. She never made it there, succumbing to a fast growing cancer shortly after our conversation. Her father outlived her for several years, but by the time the internet came along and I found him, he had passed on, living just a short ways from me.
It's a small world.
And that's the rest of the story.
During the '80's and '90's, we took a series of ten foreign exchange students who lived with us for about eleven months each and went to high school here. In 1993, my wife and I took a one month tour to visit them and their families, starting from Sweden, then south in a big arc through Europe to France.
Shortly before we left Paris for home, we were standing with Maude, the mother of one of our kids, at the wall at the Palais de Chaillot overlooking the Eiffel Tower. She was older than I, lived in Paris during WW2, and while we were standing there, she did some reminiscing about German occupied Paris. Earlier, her parents, who were in The Resistance, told us some amazing stories and showed us pics of the fighting and liberation of Paris.
While looking at this man-made wonder, Maude told us she remembered thousands of people in the streets on VE day, and saw an airplane fly under the Eiffel Tower. She told us there was a news photographer on the mezzanine who snapped a pic for the newspaper, which appeared the next day.
After I was home and back to work, I ran into a woman I'd worked with off and on again over the years, but I hadn't seen for a while. She asked me where I'd been, and after I rattled off our itinerary ending with Paris, she sighed, "Oh, I've always wanted to see Paris."
I opined that if you liked big cities, Paris was wonderful, but I preferred other places we saw. I asked her "Why Paris?"
She told me she was Polish, that her parents fled Poland after Hitler invaded and made their way to England. There, her father joined the Polish Wing of the RAF, fought from the Battle of Britain all the way through the war, and at the end of the war, flew his plane under the Eiffel Tower in celebration. She said he got into big trouble because the newspaper published a picture of his plane taken from the tower, with his buzz numbers plainly visible. That's why she wanted to see the Eiffel Tower. She never made it there, succumbing to a fast growing cancer shortly after our conversation. Her father outlived her for several years, but by the time the internet came along and I found him, he had passed on, living just a short ways from me.
It's a small world.
And that's the rest of the story.
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Sistema1927
US Veteran
It looks like more than one pilot has flown under the Eiffel tower:
WWII fighter pilot who flew THROUGH the Eiffel Tower dies in Virginia aged 92 | Daily Mail Online
Warplanes did fly under the Eiffel Tower | | stardem.com
The Bridge
– Sierra Hotel Aeronautics
WWII fighter pilot who flew THROUGH the Eiffel Tower dies in Virginia aged 92 | Daily Mail Online
Warplanes did fly under the Eiffel Tower | | stardem.com
The Bridge
– Sierra Hotel Aeronautics
Texas Star
US Veteran
If you haven't seen the 1969 film, Battle of Britain, do. It's an excellent account of those trying times, with an all star cast.
Excerpts are on YouTube .
Excerpts are on YouTube .
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