A Spitfire Pilot - addendum
The extract below is from post #1379.
The following day Owen Hardy and I were picked for the first aerodrome patrol and our first job was to get rid of the long range tanks. We’d had no instruction on this and although we tried pressing every button and switch and lever, there was no way we could get this damn tank off. Eventually one of us sat in the cockpit and pulled the lever and the other one gave the tank a mighty kick and it fell off. So we tried that with the other aircraft and managed to get all of them off without a great deal of further bother.
We’d been doing our usual patrol up and down the aerodrome, seeing if anything was coming our way, flying as usual about 200 yards apart and on the other side of Owen, who happened to be nearer the sea than I was, a 109 came in very, very low and shot across the aerodrome, shooting things up on the way, turned round and belted for home. Owen Hardy and I both turned in to chase the 109, but we hadn’t a great deal of height advantage and from what we could gather the 109 was a lot faster than we were.
Anyway, we chased this 109 on the deck for quite a way and I had visions of the thing getting away and I was shrieking at Owen to fire as soon as he could. He was quite calm about it, he lined up the 109, gave it a couple of good burst and the thing burst into flames and hit the deck. That was our first enemy aircraft in North Africa.
I had the great pleasure of sitting next to Owen Hardy DFC* AFC at my uncle and aunts' Diamond Wedding celebration lunch today. I had never met him before, but I had spoken to him in New Zealand 10 years ago, though only on the phone.
I mentioned my fathers' memoirs and his appearance in them, and especially their first Squadron success in North Africa. I was particularly interested in why my Old Man kept shouting at Owen to fire on the 109. "Ah," said Owen, "The reason I took so long was that I had just realised I was about to become a killer . . . "
A sobering thought, but one that did not spoil the occasion, A sprightly 90+year old, still as sharp as a knife, he has had self-published (lulu.com) his own memoirs under the title "Through my Eyes", his career from 1940-1969 in the RAF from which he retired as a Wing Commander. Needless to say I ordered it a few hours ago!!