THE last of The Few has died, age 105.
Group Captain John “Paddy” Hemingway had been the sole surviving pilot from the Battle of Britain.
Battle of Britain hero John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, pictured in 2022, was the last of The Few who defended our skies[/caption]
Paddy, left, with fellow pilots at the base[/caption]
Incredibly, one of Paddy’s downed planes has been dug out of the ground and is being restored – he had hoped to see it fly again next year[/caption]
Less than 3,000 Allied airmen took part in the air battle against Hitler’s bombers in the summer and autumn of 1940, and grateful Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously hailed them as “The Few”.
Former fighter pilot Hemingway died yesterday evening in a Dublin care home where he had lived for eight years, his family confirmed.
The decorated hero was shot down four times and survived two crash-landings during World War Two.
At the height of the Battle of Britain, Hemingway, then a 21-year-old Pilot Officer, was twice forced to bail out of his Hurricane fighter plane in the space of a week.
Incredibly, one of his downed planes has since been dug out of the ground and is being restored.
Paddy had hoped to live to 106 to see the Hawker Hurricane fighter Number P3966 fly again when the restoration is due to finish next year.
John Allman Hemingway was born on July 17, 1919, the eldest of four children of wealthy businessman Basil Hemingway and wife Dorothy.
He was educated at Dublin’s best schools and his parents wanted him to be a surgeon but Paddy could not stand the sight of blood.
Apart from being a rugby player, his only other interest was planes, and so in 1938 he left Ireland to join the RAF as a trainee pilot.
By the year’s end he was flying Hurricanes with 85 Squadron — motto: We Hunt by Day and Night.
Paddy flew with his friend and hero, Flt Lt Dickie Lee — godson of RAF chief Lord Trenchard who was related to the Queen Mother.
Paddy recalled: “Dickie was a born pilot who could fly a Hurricane upside down close enough to the ground to catch grass in the tail fin.”
Luck of the Irish
But when World War Two broke out in September 1939, Paddy and 85 Squadron were sent to northern France to protect shipping in the Channel.
He recalled that time, of the so-called phoney war, as “some of the best months of my life, enjoying the wine and women of Lille and Rouen”.
Paddy said: “The uniform had its use. There were a lot of attractive ladies and it gave you an attractive value — though I was not a dancer.”
There was no time for anger, you needed to be clinical and aware of everything around you. I have been told 80 per cent of pilots who were shot down never saw who shot at them
Group Captain John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway
Following the coldest winter in 50 years, the Battle of France became a brutal affair as the Nazis pummelled the French into submission.
On May 10, 1940, Paddy shot down his first enemy aircraft, attacking the lead plane in a wave of nine Heinkel III bombers over Belgium.
He recalled: “No one was firing back. I had not been hit. Then the terrifying thought struck me: ‘Had I really started a fighting war, should I be shooting down German aircraft?’
“I pulled up and away but only momentarily. I dived straight back and emptied my guns into the same aircraft, which faltered and crashed. That moment, life as a fighter pilot took on a new meaning.”
Next day, his Hurricane was hit by enemy flak near the city of Maast-richt, in the Netherlands, and Paddy crash-landed in a field.
Walking with refugees, he was eventually picked up by British soldiers in an Army scout car and after three days on the missing list returned to base near Lille.
But by the end of the month, he was back in the air providing cover for the British retreat from Dunkirk, where 50,000 British troops were captured or killed.
He said: “It was chaos on the beaches. I later learned my own uncle, Major Baynard Allman of the Royal Ulster Rifles, was there. He was one of the lucky ones.”
Flying Officer Hemingway claimed he, too, had the luck of the Irish. Fighting in France over Dunkirk cost the lives of 110 RAF pilots, with 47 wounded and 26 taken prisoner.
When France fell to Hitler, Paddy’s squadron was down to just three serviceable Hurricanes and 13 of the original 20 fighter pilots had been killed, maimed or captured.
With the fall of France, in the summer of 1940, the Battle of Britain was beginning.
At RAF Debden, near Saffron Walden, Essex, 85 Squadron had a new commanding officer, Sqn Leader Peter Townsend, who would later woo the Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret.
She and the divorced pilot would become caught in a national scandal over their romance.
But during the war, Paddy was an usher at Townsend’s wedding to first wife Rosemary.
Referring to Townsend’s affair with Margaret in the Fifties, Paddy said: “People might think he was flying too high but to us he was a first-class leader of men. We liked him.”
From July 10, 1940, Townsend and 85 Squadron were pitched into what Churchill called the Battle for Britain as Hitler’s Luftwaffe tried to bomb the UK into submission.
Paddy said: “Our job was to shoot down German bombers or at least turn them back.
“We only engaged enemy fighters when they tried to prevent us from getting to the bombers. We only had 14 seconds of ammunition, which we fired in a series of two or three-second bursts. It all happened fast.
“There was no time for anger, you needed to be clinical and aware. I have been told 80 per cent of pilots who were shot down never saw who shot at them.”
During the Battle of Britain, Paddy was pictured by a Life Magazine photographer — sprinting in his shirt sleeves to scramble his Hurricane — and it became one of the iconic shots of the war.
He said: “I flew in shirt sleeves as I preferred the freedom of movement.
“If you were hit and had to bail out you needed a reliable cockpit hood to pull back before you were severely burnt.
“They could stick, that was a worry. Fortunately, it never happened to me. Not everyone was that lucky.”
On August 18, 1940 — known as The Hardest Day — 100 German aircraft and 136 British planes were shot down in three Luftwaffe raids.
Paddy and best friend Dicky Lee were in a patrol sent to intercept a swarm of fighters and bombers, 20 miles out over the North Sea.
I tried to climb on the wing, holding the stick but everything was so slippery I was blown straight off
Group Captain John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway
Paddy said: “As we closed, Dicky attacked a stray JU88 bomber and I broke away to continue to climb towards the circling bombers.
“I looked to the right and saw two aircraft attacking as I almost stalled. When their firepower hit me it knocked me over and I began to spin.
“Everything in the cockpit was covered in oil but the hood opened. I could then see enough to regain control at about 9,000ft.
“I set course for England, but my engine stopped. I had no wish to bail out but remembered Hurricanes tipped up and sank when they landed in the sea.
Pile of manure
“I tried to climb on the wing, hold-ing the stick but everything was so slippery I was blown off. I’d have died had I landed that way in the sea and been thrown forward at 70mph.
“My parachute opened and I landed in the sea. I saw a ship and started swimming breaststroke toward it.
“The crew saw me bail out so launched a boat. But after two and a half hours of searching, when they knew I could no longer survive in the cold sea, they turned back toward the ship.
“Shortly afterward they heard an unusual splash, rowed toward it and bumped into me.
“I insisted on taking an oar on the way back to the ship, where I was dressed in warm clothes, watered and fed.”
Paddy, second from right, relaxes between missions with fellow fighters[/caption]
The hero pilot, second from right, scrambles to take on an incoming threat[/caption]
Paddy’s proud son Brian at the restoration site of his dad’s jet[/caption]
He later learned pal Dicky was dead, believed to have run out of fuel chasing three Messerschmitts.
Paddy added: “If anything affected me seriously, it was that. He was a wonderful person.”
In 2020, on the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, he told The Sun: “The main skill was luck. I had bags of luck and here I am. It’s either being Irish or being lucky. If you are both you are really lucky.”
A week later Paddy was shot down again, this time over Pitsea Marshes in Essex.
I suppose we must have felt proud. When all your friends are gone that still means something even now. I don’t remember feeling fear, we were just doing our duty and obeying orders
Group Captain John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway
He was flying one of 12 Hurricanes, at nearly 300mph at 15,000ft, to attack 15 Dornier bombers and their escort of German fighter planes.
He said: “I remember diving ever steeper to attack as the planes flew directly toward and below us.
“I managed to get in the briefest of bursts before scudding closely under the blue belly of a Dornier 215 going in the opposite direction.
“As I pulled hard around to try and follow, the sky seemed empty of bombers.
“Almost immediately, I was hit in the engine and behind the cockpit by cannon fire. The hood opened, so I bailed out at 18,000ft.
“Remembering that the enemy were shooting at parachutists over England, and the cloud tops were about 8,000ft, I did a delayed drop as far as the cloud before pulling the cord and opening my parachute.
“I paid for it because my sinuses just about killed me for four days afterwards.
“I landed safely near the Barge Pub, where the local Home Guard was. I still get flashbacks of smoke and burning rubber.”
THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN
RAF:
- Aircraft: 1,963
- Killed: 542
- Wounded: 422
- Aircraft destroyed: 1,250
LUFTWAFFE:
- Aircraft: 2,550
- Killed: 2,662
- Wounded: 735
- Aircraft destroyed: 1,744
The Hurricane fighter Paddy flew that day, P3966, was recently dug out of the marshes and is being restored to its former glory.
By September 15, 1940, the RAF had forced Hitler to abandon plans to invade the UK.
Winston Churchill thanked the Battle of Britain heroes in a famous speech when he said: “Never in the history of human conflict has much been owed by so many to so few.”
Paddy recalled: “It didn’t mean anything at the time, though we knew he was talking about us.
“I suppose we must have felt proud. When all your friends are gone that still means something even now.
“I don’t remember feeling fear, we were just doing our duty. New pilots with just a few hours in Hurricanes did not have the instincts of us more experienced pilots. For that reason, many did not last long.”
For Paddy, the war was not over with the end of the Battle of Britain — but his luck continued.
On patrol in May 1941, instruments in his Havoc night fighter plane packed up in bad weather forcing him to bail out at just 600ft.
He broke his hand as he hit the plane’s tail, so was unable to open his para-chute properly.
But the disabled chute caught on the branches of a tree, which slowed his descent and Paddy landed in a pile of manure in the garden of the poet Walter de la Mare’s home in Twickenham, South West London.
On July 1, 1941, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross but the RAF Blenheim bomber he was due to fly to London in crashed on take-off at West Malling, Kent.
Dressed as a peasant
Paddy escaped the wreckage with-out a scratch, borrowed another plane and within an hour was back in the air in time to meet King George VI at Buckingham Palace.
Exhausted after over two years of combat, he spent three months in hospital, and then trained pilots.
But by April 1945 he had been promoted to Squadron Leader and was back in action, in charge of 45 Squadron in northern Italy.
He was attacking German forces near Ravenna when his Spitfire was hit several times by anti-aircraft fire. After parachuting into enemy territory, he had to run through an orchard while shot at by German soldiers.
Rescued by the Italian Resistance, he dressed as a peasant and was later led through German positions to British lines by a nine-year-old, Carla Fabbri, who bravely held his hand.
Later he said: “I owed her the world but never went back or revisited the war in any way.”
After the war, he stayed in the RAF for the next 15 years. Group Captain Hemingway had flying commands and staff jobs in Italy, Austria, Greece, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, Northern Ireland and the UK.
His wife Helen, known as Bridget, was an RAF Squadron Leader. They met at RAF Aldergrove, Northern Ireland and married in 1948. She died in 1998, age 82. They had children Susan, Michael and Brian.
After postings at the Air Ministry in London and with Nato in Paris he retired from the RAF in 1969, age 50 — after a spell as CO of RAF Leconfield, near Beverley, East Yorks.
Following his death, his proud son Brian said: “Dad was the last living link to Churchill and the Battle of Britain and now he has gone.”
In one of Paddy’s final interviews, he said modestly: “I’m here because I had staggering luck and fought along-side great pilots in magnificent air-craft, with the best air force.
“All my closest friends were killed. If being ‘the last’ draws attention in a good way to the Battle of Britain pilots and the rest of the RAF at that time, then I’m happy.”
Group Captain ‘Paddy’ celebrating his 105th birthday, with son Brian and daughter Susan[/caption]
Winston Churchill thanked the heroes in a famous speech when he said: ‘Never in the history of human conflict has much been owed by so many to so few’[/caption]
A painting of John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway being shot down[/caption]
His six crashes
- May 11, 1940: Crash lands near Maastricht, Netherlands. Walks for three days back to base.
- August 18, 1940: Shot down off Essex, rescued from sea.
- August 26, 1940: Plummets 10,000ft before parachuting on to Pitsea marshes, Essex.
- May 13, 1941: Parachute fails to open properly but he lands in a dung heap in the garden of the poet Walter de la Mare in London.
- July 29, 1942: Heading to London to get a Distinguished Flying Cross from the King, his RAF jet crashes during take-off.
- April 23, 1945: Bails out over enemy territory in Italy, chased and shot at by Germans, but led to safety by a six-year-old girl.
