A Spitfire Pilot's Story: Pat Hughes: Battle of Britain Top Gun

by Dennis Newton

  At the end of the day when darkness had fallen and the night bombers were droning towards London the neighbours gathered to sit with us in our air raid shelter. Before going in we paused to look at a scene never to be forgotten, the sky to the north was alight with a warm red glow, search light fingers swept the heavens, sometimes they focused on one place, then there were sparks of anti-aircraft fire, great pools of light were drifting down as bombers dropped flares to see their way. I saw many raids later but nothing to compare with this. We guessed (correctly) that London was on fire and the red sky was from the flames.

  Sitting in the cosiness of the shelter everyone was of course talking of the day’s events. Mr Cook who was the first on the scene at the Dornier crash described the attempts to rescue the men. From what he said they were dead anyway and must have died quickly. Someone said, ‘Poor blighters.’ Another, ‘They were only flesh and blood like us.’ A mother remarked, ‘They were someone else’s sons after all.’ This seemed to be the mood of most people in the village on that day and after.

  During the night church bells which had been silent since the surrender of France were heard to ring the signal for invasion! My father and Mr Cook along with other members of the defence volunteers ‘stood to’ next day, and on the Monday went about their work armed, but luckily for us it was a false alarm, no invasion fleet had sailed.

  On Sunday morning, the 8th, we boys went to the crash and we stood by the birch trees, the silence of the morning broken only by the ripple of the stream. We looked at the broken green and blue wreckage and the violence in the world seemed all wrong, and my friend said sadly, ‘Just think Des, yesterday these Germans and our pilot were alive and now they are gone.’ This was a moment which made a great lasting impression on me and has stayed with me over the years.

  The following Tuesday or Wednesday, I am not sure which, they were given a military funeral and laid to rest in our churchyard among village people. The father of Mrs Wells who keeps a village shop was a carpenter and he made the coffins for the men. Flowers were placed upon the grave, there was a touching posy from two little girls who lived near the scene of the crash, a white painted cross was placed, it was simply inscribed:

  Schneider

  Schneider

  Ruprecht

  German air force

  7-9-40

  During the years they lay in our churchyard flowers were placed, from time to time the grass was trimmed and the cross repainted, no one owned to doing these things but they happened.

  These are my memories of a day seen through a ten-year-old’s eyes. Ever since then I have wondered about these men, what they looked like, what manner of people they were, etc. They are not forgotten, certain people still remember on the day and spare them a thought.

  A few years ago the men were exhumed and taken to an official war cemetery at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire, England. When this happened some people were indignant and thought they should remain in the village over which they fell. I felt that way at first but on reflection it is better perhaps to be in an official burial place where their names will be seen for all time. I expect they would have eventually passed into obscurity in our church yard.

  From books on the subject of the Battle of Britain I have learned the target that afternoon was the London docks. The raid apparently was a complete success for the Luftwaffe. The RAF were taken off guard by a change of tactics and the bombers were on the way out from London going home when they were intercepted.

  The pilot who died with the Germans was claimed by the RAF so was not buried in the village. It is now known that he was an Australian, Flt Lt Hughes of 234 Squadron RAF operating at that time from Middle Wallop, Hampshire.

  That seems to be all I have to say, except I wonder what became of Hauptman Roche and if Herr Schneider Senior ever heard from him after the war.

  *

  But what really happened to Pat Hughes? Was he shot down by Me 109s?6

  This has to be a distinct possibility. Certainly there were plenty of German fighters about. Precise figures for the armada, according to most accounts, have been put at 348 bombers and 617 fighters, which meant there were nearly two fighters for every bomber. In this particular battle, ‘Budge’ Harker claimed two Me 109s, Keith Lawrence one Me 109, ‘Zig’ Klein probably destroyed a 109, and Spike O’Brien was shot down and killed by Me 109s near Biggin Hill.

  However, Keith Lawrence made no mention of any Me 109s at the point in his combat report when Pat was attacking the Dornier. Nor did Desmond Hall’s father. Desmond related ‘according to my father and other witnesses two aircraft, a Spitfire and a Dornier 17, appeared to collide’ – no Messerschmitt. It would seem, then, that Me 109s were not involved just at that moment, but perhaps they should not be completely ruled out. Desmond Hall’s father was undoubtedly more concerned with the Dornier ‘spinning down straight’ on top of him than looking around for other planes, and Keith Lawrence was busy too. As the old saying goes: ‘it’s the one that you don’t see that gets you.’

  *

  Kay Hughes had been told that ‘Pat had bailed out, but a German fighter followed him down, riddling him with bullets’.7

  This can be discounted. According to Desmond Hall’s father, the Spitfire pilot jumped out but his parachute did not open: ‘Then according to my father and other witnesses two aircraft, a Spitfire and a Dornier 17, appeared to collide. As they began to fall two men took to parachutes, one of which failed to operate and the wearer, the Spitfire pilot, died among the flowers in the garden of a bungalow alongside the main road (A25). His aircraft fell in a meadow close by.’

  It would have been a well-nigh impossible shot for any fighter pilot to try and hit a falling figure, probably with a streaming parachute attached if the ripcord had been pulled and its canopy failed to open. To waste time and precious fuel on such a fleeting target, one that was obviously doomed anyway, was pointless. In any case, the Me 109s were operating at close to the limit of their range. In the circumstances, to waste time and precious fuel chasing after and firing on a man at the end of a parachute would increase the risk of having to ditch in the Channel. And would it have been possible to tell if the falling aviator was British or German? The man on the parachute was Erich Rosche!

  But perhaps Pat was hit, or injured, as he tried to bail out. Perhaps he was not able pull the ripcord. Perhaps the parachute itself was damaged.

  The witnesses did not mention a streaming parachute. Nor did John Day mention a parachute in his account when his father was asked by William Norman to inspect Pat’s body on the lawn in the back garden of No. 16 Main Road, Sundridge.

  According to some accounts Pat’s aircraft went down spinning wildly and he had no chance to bail out.

  In January 1984, George Bailey, who was then living in Albany, Western Australia, wrote:

  Whilst in 234 (F) Sqn. [Pat] wore his dark blue uniform with gold stripes, the original RAAF uniform. Had he not been killed 7/9/40 trying to save his a/c instead of jumping when damaged he could easily have been one of the outstanding figures in the record books.8

  This was clearly not the case. Desmond Hall’s father was positive that as the Dornier and Spitfire began to fall two men, Erich Rosche and Pat, tried to parachute to safety. Pat’s parachute failed to operate and he died among the flowers in the back garden of No. 16 Main Road, Sundridge, where William Norman found him and John Day’s father inspected his body. Pat’s Spitfire, X4009, crashed at Dark’s Farm, Bessels Green west of Sevenoaks. He was not found in the wreckage.

  In 1968, Ken Anscombe and a number of colleagues, collectors of Second World War relics, decided to explore the area with a metal detector. Small aluminium fragments were located and the point of impact established. After obtaining permission, a dig was organised and some aircraft remains were recovered including a small information plate from the tail fin. Serial numbers found on the relics identified the aircraft as Spitfire X4009 – Pat’s machine.

  *

  Did Pat
’s Spitfire ram the Dornier, as stated by Desmond Hall in his September 1990 letter?

  Pat’s intention would not have been to deliberately ram another aircraft – that was not his way. His way was to go in close and blast them! His way when out of ammunition and confronted by three Me 109s was to pretend to make a head-on attack so that he could escape in the opposite direction. He was a survivor. Pat had too much to live for; but there was another possibility.

  Pat could have seriously misjudged his attack. Keith Lawrence’s combat report revealed that he was well ahead of the others in his dive to chase after the bombers. Gregory Krikorian had time the night before to observe the Australian’s stress and fatigue. Later he blamed himself for making light of Pat’s depressed state of mind when told he was seeing spots before his eyes while flying. Pat’s ability to estimate speed and distance could have been seriously compromised when he plunged down to make his usual close-in attack on the lagging Dornier.

  Desmond Hall modified his account in his letter to Herr Bauman. He said simply that the two aircraft ‘appeared to collide’, which in itself implies that his father may not have actually seen Pat’s Spitfire ram the Dornier at all.

  *

  Was it the Dornier that crashed into Pat’s Spitfire?

  According to some, this may well have been the case. Statements have ranged from ‘the Dornier was attacked at 16,000 feet by fighters, which killed the pilot and the aircraft went into a dive’,9 to the Dornier ‘went out of control and collided with Flight Lieutenant Hughes of 234 Squadron’.10 This suggests that the Dornier went out control when the pilot was hit during Pat’s attack. On the other hand, Keith Lawrence clearly stated that a wing crumpled, which would obviously cause loss of control, and it went down spinning.

  The aircraft was under control before Pat attacked, although it was straggling below the rest of the formation. Possibly the pilot may have already been wounded or the aircraft had already been damaged in earlier encounters with other RAF fighters. It may have been struggling to get home when Pat attacked. Was this loss of control a dying effort by the Dornier pilot to evade Pat’s line of fire?

  Maybe the Dornier lagged back in order to photograph the bombing of London’s docks – it would have been at the rear of the formation for this duty – and was in the process of trying to catch up to the other bombers for safety as they all raced for home. Regardless of whether or not there was a wounded pilot aboard, or damage to the aircraft, Pat’s attack clearly delivered the coup de grâce.

  *

  Did the Dornier blow up ‘with such force that it wrecked his Spitfire’?11

  If such an explosion had occurred, particularly while the Dornier was being attacked at a height of around 16,000 feet, wreckage including bodies and body parts would probably have been spread all over the place. This was not the case. Keith Lawrence did not mention a big explosion. What he described was a sequence: he followed Pat down; saw him make a quarter attack; large pieces flew off the German bomber, then a wing crumpled; and it went down spinning.

  Desmond Hall wrote that the Dornier came through the sky with an awesome wail of racing engines, which

  I can still call to mind even now, the aircraft narrowly missing the water pumping station, came to rest in a stream (the infant River Darenth) alongside a birch plantation. For what seemed a long time after the crash but must have only been minutes there was silence, then people began to run to the scene, rescue vehicles arrived but there were alas no survivors, an armed guard was mounted to keep people away until the ambulance men removed the German airmen to a place of rest.

  A man named Mr Cook who was the first on the scene of the Dornier crash described attempts to rescue the airmen. From what he reportedly said, those still in the aircraft were dead anyway and must have died quickly. The next day Desmond Hall and his friends went to the crash and stood nearby looking at ‘the broken green and blue wreckage’.

  Clearly, the Dornier did not ‘blow up’, it came down relatively intact. Desmond Hall’s father thought he and his friends were finished when the German plane was spinning down straight for them ‘but a wing came off and it veered away’. This ‘wing’ was apparently the tail fin which was found some distance away.

  The wreckage was intact enough for rescuers to arrive and try to recover survivors, and for a guard to be mounted to keep people away until the bodies were removed.

  *

  Did wreckage from the Dornier strike Pat’s Spitfire?

  This seems obvious, as Keith Lawrence’s combat report stated clearly that he saw large pieces fly off the bomber, a wing crumple and the Dornier go down spinning. An instant later, after glancing away to seek his own target, he saw a Spitfire, which he assumed was Pat’s, spinning down with about a third of its wing missing. The impression given is that the Dornier’s wing must have smashed into the Spitfire’s wing.

  He did not report that he saw the two planes actually crash into each other, or their wings touch or them touch each other in any way, but there was definitely debris before the wing gave way (presumably outboard of the engine as Desmond Hall recalled hearing ‘an awesome wail of racing engines’ – plural – so they must have been still attached).12 With Pat making his usual style of close-in attack, to have some debris or the part-wing strike his Spitfire is the strongest of possibilities.

  Desmond Hall’s father saw the German plane ‘spinning’ straight down before what he thought was a wing (the tail fin) come off and it ‘veered away’. In his modified account, he said simply that two aircraft ‘appeared to collide’, which means perhaps his father may not have seen Pat’s Spitfire actually ram the Dornier at all.

  Keith Lawrence’s combat report also stated the height of the enemy to be ‘17,000 approx’. So Pat would have attacked the straggling Dornier at about 16,000 feet. From the ground at that distance, smaller pieces of wreckage flying off would have been invisible to the naked eye. What those on the ground so far below would have seen, if indeed they were watching from the very beginning, was two planes come extremely close together, so close that they might have touched.

  The sound of Pat firing as he attacked would not have reached them until a second or so later (sound travelling slower than light) and possibly not much at all depending upon wind direction and other noise. By then, their attention would have fastened onto the larger machine losing part of a wing and going into a spin, followed an instant later – almost instantaneously – by the smaller plane falling with part of its wing gone too! Then, two men jumped for their lives and one parachute opened as they realised the larger plane was coming down on top of them – all of this happening in a matter of seconds!

  The sound of an explosion as the two planes came close together, or just after, was not mentioned by those on the ground. Could that have been what drew their attention to the two aircraft in the first place? But then, how much other sound was there in the air with the straining engines of the bombers racing for home and of fighters darting in and out, all mixed in with the rattle of gunfire? So much was going on, all at the same time!

  *

  Were the circumstances of Pat’s death caused by friendly fire?13

  Unfortunately, friendly fire incidents happen in warfare far too often. Witness the fate of the three Blenheims back on 26 August because of faulty aircraft recognition. They were patrolling over the Solent when they were suddenly attacked by Hurricanes mistaking them for Ju 88s. One Blenheim plunged into the sea, the second crash-landed and the third escaped with minor damage.14 Witness how Me 109Es were misidentified so often as non-existent Heinkel He 113s.15 At one point, ‘Budge’ Harker, as he was about to attack an Me109 firing at a Spitfire, realised at the last instant it was actually a Hurricane, and it was firing!

  Consider then the combat report of a Spitfire pilot from 222 Squadron, Pilot Officer Brian van Mentz, who was caught up in the same chase over the same general area. He submitted the following account:

  I followed A Flight into an attack on a formation of Dor
nier 215’s.

  As I was manoeuvring for position, a yellow-nosed ME 109 flew between me and my target aircraft. I therefore gave him a long burst and saw glycol or petrol start pouring from his engine. He turned on his back and disappeared. I continued my attack on the 215 and saw his port rudder come adrift. As I broke away I was hit by one bullet which punctured my glycol pipe. I landed the aircraft without further damage at Hornchurch.16

  From Johannesburg, Brian van Mentz was accepted for a short service commission in the RAF in October 1937. In May 1940, he joined the Hurricane-equipped 504 Squadron which moved to France on the 12th, straight into action. He claimed three confirmed victories and one unconfirmed in France before the unit evacuated back to the UK after ten days of heavy fighting and heavy losses. Straight after his return he was posted to 222 Squadron at Hornchurch and during the summer fighting over Britain he claimed three more victories. The South African’s claims on 7 September 1940 were for one Me 109 probably destroyed and one Do 215 damaged.

  Externally, the Dornier Do 17Z and Dornier Do 215 aircraft were almost identical. The most obvious difference was the engines. Do 17Zs were powered by two Bramo 323 air-cooled radial engines whereas Do 215s had a pair of Daimler-Benz liquid-cooled inline engines. To fighter pilots attacking from above and coming from behind, the different power-plants would hardly be noticed.

  But why would the pilot of a Messerschmitt 109 do that – fly between a Spitfire and its target? Wouldn’t he attack the Spitfire rather than place himself in harm’s way – unless, of course, in the twisting, turning fight he just happened to unintentionally fly into that patch of sky?