Another lucky escape

21st September 1940: A fighter pilot recalls the narrowest of margins between survival and obliteration

Spitfires of No. 610 Squadron, based at Biggin Hill, flying in 'vic' formation, 24 July 1940. N3289 DW-K and R6595 DW-O nearest.

The young fighter pilots, facing the German onslaught day after day, fought and played hard like no others. Every day, they were literally fighting for their lives, as the German objective was to kill as many of them as possible. Almost all of them were in their early twenties; ‘wine, women and song’ was the release that many of them found in the hours when they were not flying.

A 1940 portrait of ‘Tony’ Bartley (1919-2001) who flew Spitfires with No. 92 Squadron, based at Biggin Hill. He married the film star Deborah Kerr in 1945, before she found international fame in Hollywood.

Antony Bartley¹ had been shot down on the 18th September when he had been bounced by a Me 109 just as he shot down a Dornier 17 bomber. He was about to bale out from his badly damaged Spitfire, when he saw the Me 109 circling - and realised he was likely to to be shot up as he descended in his parachute. He survived a crash landing just as his engine blew up.

The rescue party took him to the local pub where he was treated to five pints of beer before being picked by the military police - who treated him to a large Scotch at their base befor being handed over to the police for return to his squadron. He was treated to Sherry in the Chief Constable’s office before being returned to Biggin Hill. At No 92 Squadron he learnt that two fellow pilots had also been shot down and one of them killed … so the party continued.