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Personal Account of Experience 15
September 1940 - Battle of Britain by R E Jones, Flight Lieutenant
RAF 605 Squadron Hurricane L 2122
We took off at about 11.20, just before lunch and I was shot
down about half an hour later. The 15th September was of course
Battle of Britain Sunday and I think the RAF claimed to have
shot down 180 enemy aircraft. It was a very, very busy day.
I was shot down by cannon fire from, I can only assume, a
ME109 fighter as they were escorting bombers. My aircraft was
shot from the rear. I know they were firing with 20 mm cannon
because they took a 20 mm nose cap out of my forearm in an operation
performed in the evening of the event. I had the nose cap for
years until it disappeared from my office. I was not, to my knowledge,
fired at by the German bombers who were in front of me and partly
to the right of me.
I have always estimated that it must have hit the ground at
a speed in excess of 300 mph. I was hit by the 20 mm cannon shells
at a height of 18,000 ft. in the Maidstone Sevenoaks patrol
line, whilst commencing an attack on a formation of Dornier bombers.
I did not see the aircraft that destroyed my Hurricane but the
bombers were escorted by M E 109 fighters. At the time I was
hit, I was in full fine pitch and my throttle was "through
the gate" and the last thing I remember doing before trying
to escape was pushing the stick forward and to the left to avoid
the rest of my flight who were climbing rapidly to attach the
bombers, the cannon shell entered my left elbow and down my forearm.
It lodged just above the wrist, so the throttle was never closed.
I managed to get clear of the aircraft at an estimated height
of 3000 ft.
When I was hit I was chasing a large gaggle of German bombers
and was lining up on the section of the left of the formation
when all hell broke out in my cockpit, first the bursting of
the shells; one or two hit my radiator and the hot cooling liquid
rushed into the cockpit. My uniform was completely soaked with
glycol. I unleashed my harness and slid the canopy open
it immediately closed. I hadn't locked it after take off. I pushed
the joystick forward to escape the enemy on my tail and avoid
the rest of the flight who were climbing rapidly. I started a
dive towards the earth, pulled the canopy open again and at the
same time stuck my head out. The force of the speed of the aircraft,
the engine was on full power and at fine pitch sucked me out
of the aircraft and I came to in my parachute swing peacefully
backwards and forwards.
There was just silence no aircraft noise and no wind.
As I looked around I saw a column of white smoke about a mile
or so away. It was here my aircraft had hit the ground. I was
drifting toward a building, Old Soar Manor and the house next
door. I drifted over a line of tall trees and then suddenly I
was on the ground on my back and watching a green apple roll
along the ground. I had landed in an apple orchard.
I had lost, in the jump from the aircraft, my helmet, my flying
boots and my gauntlets. These must have been forced from my body
when the parachute opening. I must have been doing more than
300 mph when I pulled the ripcord.
I was shot down over a little village in Kent called Plaxtol.
It was the only place I really knew in Kent, because a group
of prewar pilots from our flying school went down to the thatched
cottage of a farm at Plaxtol for weekend of horse riding.
(The Flying school was situated at Gatwick airport which had
been started in1936/7 and was a large grass field next to the
railway line. There was a station about 300 yards from the control
tower and airport buildings. There were about 3 other aircraft
parked there, apart from the flying school aircraft, Tiger Moths,
Harts, Hinds, Audax.)
I landed in my parachute within 300 yards of Old Soar Manor,
which I had visited before the war. My aircraft flew into the
ground about 1 mile from where I landed. It crashed about 50
yards from a farm house. It was dug up a considerable time after
the event.
I staggered up and to the gate which I climbed over and met
the people who had watched my descent from the front garden of
Old Soar Manor. They immediately, to my relief, recognised me
as an RAF pilot and then escorted me with the assistance to the
house next door to Old Soar Manor where they gave me hot tea
and comfort until they had bandaged my arm and at my request
put me to bed in a room on the ground floor where I immediately
fell asleep. I was awakened somewhat between 3 and 4 pm by the
arrival of the ambulance driver who was the farmer who owned
our weekend cottage!
The farmer / ambulance driver picked me up from Old Soar Manor
and took me to Wrotham Cottage Hospital in the early part of
the Sunday afternoon. The Cottage Hospital, which was primarily
a maternity hospital only had one other patient there when I
arrived and he was a New Zealander from my own squadron who had
been shot down during the week and we escorted him down, his
clothing was burning as he went down. His name was Jack Fleming
and he was moved to the burns hospital where, after a long serious
time he survived and continued as a pilot.
They took the bullet from my arm the evening I arrived there.
The nose cap had taken a piece of the arm of my tunic into my
arm and this was not actually discovered until they opening my
arm at a swelling and discovered this unwanted item. This was
in January. After that my arm healed quickly and I resumed flying
in March 1941.
Apart from the nose cap in my arm I had two very black eyes,
the whites of which were completely blood red. This happened
when after struggling to get my canopy open I stuck my head out
and whistled into the sky.
I was later posted to Central flying School at Upavon where
I completed my Instructors Course. I was posted to Kidlington
RAF Flying School. The to South Africa, 24 Air School Dunnotar.
Then back to UK Mosquito Training School, High Ercall, and from
there back to 605 Squadron Night Intruding Castle Camps at Bradwell
Bay.
Then as Chief Flying Instructor to Mosquito O.T.H. in Canada
31 OTV Debret and then back to England for VE day and demobbed
20 Aug 1945.
R E Jones
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