Last Known Battle Of Britain Pilot Reaches 105 Years Of Age

Yesterday, July 17, the last known remaining fighter pilot from the 1940 Battle of Britain celebrated his 105^th birthday. Group Captain (ret’d) John Allman “Paddy” Hemingway, DFC, AE, was born in Ireland in 1919. In the summer of 1940, Hemingway turned 21 while flying Hawker Hurricanes with the Royal Air Force’s 85 Squadron, led by then Squadron Commander Peter Townsend. Townsend was later to earn arguably greater fame for his romantic involvement with Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Queen Elizabeth. Hemingway and 85 Squadron were based at RAF Debden (later home of the USAAF 4^th Fighter Group) and then RAF Croyden during the storied battle, in which the badly outnumbered RAF Fighter Command defeated the previously unbested German Luftwaffe. The setback caused Hitler to reverse course eastward and attack Russia and turned the tide World War II.

Though Paddy Hemingway was already flying in combat well before the official start of the Battle of Britain and destroyed a Heinkel He 111 on May 10 and a Dornier Do 17 the next day, he never achieved ace status (five enemy aircraft destroyed). But with "the luck of the Irish," he said, he survived being shot down twice during the Battle, and twice more—once in North Africa and again in Italy. He served as an air controller during the Normandy Invasion and was temporarily made Squadron Leader. Following VE Day, he was appointed commander of RAF 43 Squadron, and became a Wing Commander and later appointed station commander at RAF Leconfield. He served as a NATO staff officer in France, ultimately achieving the honorary rank of Group Captain upon retirement in 1969.