The Battle of Britain was one of the major turning points of World War 2. Not only was it one of the first major engagements fought solely with aircraft and anti-aircraft weapons, but it was the event that halted Nazi Germany's westward drive. While the invasion of the Soviet Union was yet to come, and while most of western Europe was under German occupation, after the Battle of Britain Adolf Hitler gave up his plans for Operation Sea Lion - the invasion of the British Isles.
On August 20, 1940, at the conclusion of the Battle of Britain, Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a speech to the House of Commons, in which he famously said:
Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.
On Monday, the last of the Few passed away. Pilot Officer John Allman "Paddy" Hemingway, aged 105, has passed away peacefully.
His combat career began in the Battle of France:
Eighty-five years ago, a nineteen-year-old Royal Air Force Pilot Officer from Ireland, flew his Hurricane in the skies over France, providing fighter cover (strafing attacks, air patrols and dogfights) to the British Expeditionary Force and other allied troops as they retreated to the beaches of Dunkirk in the face of overwhelming Nazi Blitzkrieg attacks. It became known as the ‘Battle of France’.
When the invasion of France commenced in May 1940, Paddy, a pilot with No. 85 Squadron, found himself locked in a bitter contest with the Luftwaffe. In an eleven-day period the squadron accounted for a confirmed total of 90 enemy aircraft; there were many more claims that could not be substantiated. On 10 May, Paddy was recorded as destroying a He-111, the following day he downed a Do-17 but his Hurricane aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft fire, and he had to make a forced landing. As the Germans advanced, it was clear the airfields would be overrun and the remaining pilots, aircraft and crews returned to the UK.
He went on to serve in and after the Battle of Britain, and his story is inspiring.
No. 85 Squadron, under a new commanding officer, Peter Townsend, became one of the front-line squadrons of the 11 Group (Fighter Command) response to the daily attacks from Nazi aircraft, which came to be known as the ‘Battle of Britain’. Paddy’s logbook records, almost nonchalantly, the daily sorties he and the other pilots undertook in defence of the United Kingdom. In August 1940, during hectic dogfights, Paddy was twice forced to bail out of his Hurricane, landing in the sea off the coast of Essex and in marshland on the other occasion.
Towards the end of the October 1940, the strain of fighting and loss of comrades was beginning to take its toll on Paddy. He was particularly troubled by the loss of his dear friend ‘Dickie’ Lee DSO, DFC in August 1940, saying in later years that his biggest regret was the loss of friends.
On 1 July 1941, Paddy was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and in September that year, he was Mentioned in Dispatches. His journey to London to receive his DFC from The King began with him escaping from a wrecked Blenheim aircraft which crashed on take-off.
Paddy Hemingway was, sadly, a man of the sort that the United Kingdom seems to be in short supply of nowadays.
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The Battle of Britain was a key turning point. Had the Royal Air Force not prevailed, the United Kingdom may well have been invaded, and while conquering the stubborn people of 1940 Britain may have been difficult even for the German war machine, it's important to note that the Germans were not yet engaged in the eastern front, meaning that the Germans could have thrown considerable forces into the effort. But thanks to brave young men like Paddy Hemingway and his fellows, not to mention many volunteer pilots from Poland and the United States, the RAF prevailed - and that was, as Prime Minister Churchill put it, not the beginning of the end for Hitler's Germany, but it was certainly the end of the beginning.
After the fall of France, a British cartoonist, David Low, produced a political cartoon portraying a British soldier, standing on a rock as the ocean waves crashed around him; he had his Enfield rifle in one hand and was shaking a fist at a sky full of German airplanes. The caption: "Very well, alone." Paddy Hemingway exemplified this spirit, and the United Kingdom is, today, a poorer place for his absence, and the absence of many others like him. The last of the Few is gone - we can only hope that if Britain needs men like this, they will still come, from somewhere.
About his service, Flying Officer Hemingway replied with a sentiment you so often hear from men of his sort:
John Allman ‘Paddy’ Hemingway was the last Battle of France and Battle of Britain (last of “The Few”) pilot. He never saw his role in the Battle of Britain as anything other than doing the job he was trained to do. He didn’t see it as an epoch-making moment in the history of the RAF or the United Kingdom.
That's typical, and if you ask many of America's current decorated heroes, you'll likely hear much the same thing: "I was just doing my job."
Rest well, Flying Officer Hemingway.
