May his gallant soul rest in peace.
Last of The Few
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
Rest in Peace, Group Captain John Hemingway, Distinguished Flying Cross.
“The 15th of September is known as the Battle of Britain Day. On this day in 1940, the Luftwaffe embarked on their largest bombing attack yet, forcing the engagement of the entirety of RAF 11 Group in defence of London and the South East, which resulted in a decisive British victory that proved to mark a turning point in Britain’s favour.” Retrieved from RAF sources.
Most flyers were from the British Empire. Also included were flyers of free French, Belgium, Ireland, Poland and Czechoslovakia, Southern Rhodesia and the US.
I knew a few WW II pilots in my old home town of Te Puke, NZ.
*Tommy Austin joined the NZRAF in 1941, learnt to fly in a de Havilland Tiger Moth bi-plane, went to Canada for training in Harvards (we have a number of them in Tauranga) then in 1942 flew Hurricanes, Spifires & Hawker Typhoons. After the war became a local building contractor.
*Squadron Leader Noel James – a neighbor when I was a kid – flew Grumman Avengers in the Pacific.
*Joe Bell – a county lineman who did business with Dad – flew Corsairs in the Pacific.
Les Munro – a farmer in a nearby town. I met him at our local Classic Flyers Organisation – was the last surviving member of the Dambusters who flew Lancasters – he died in 2015.
Joe Murphy – my uncle – who was a navigator in Lancasters. Shot down 3 times, escaped twice & got back to England via the underground. The 3 rd. he spent a year or so in a Stalag. Came home & was a farmer in the King County in central North Island.
*Bryan Cox – I met him at Classic Flyers. Flew Corsairs in the Pacific.
Quite a number for a small area. God rest their souls.
Don Beckett, I don’t know your age, but I can imagine how exciting it must have been for you as a boy or young man to meet these aviators, heroes of WWII.
Hi CAM. I’m coming up 83 in May born in 1942, and yes, apart from Les Munro & Bryan Cox whom I met about 20 years ago, the others I knew from my childhood. In particular Noel James who flew the Grumman TBF’s in the Pacific. His son was almost my age & a close friend. We used to make model aircraft as a hobby, mostly being WW II fighters & bombers. Noel would pick up a model plane & describe to us how they would fly in formation & when the enemy ships were in sight, would peel off down to about 6,000 ft. align the ships & peel off again in an attack, often releasing their torpedoes at sea level Fascinating for a 10 y/o boy, who was an avid reader of books on war stories. My dad had served in Italy -suffered a back injury, came home at the end of 1944 on a hospital ship & he & a couple of other back injury blokes were used as guinea pigs experimenting on improving spinal surgery. He spent nearly 15 months in hospital. When he came out he had to wear a back brace, and took pain killers for the rest of his life. He died in 2005 aged 93.
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