LONDON (AP) – The last surviving pilot of the British Battle has died and has halted the last living link with thousands of young men who fought the Nazi Air Force amid fears that Britain might be forced to surrender in the early months of World War II.
According to the RAF, Irish national John Hemingway, who joined the Royal Air Force before the war began, said he died Monday at his home in Dublin. He was 105 years old.
Hemingway was only 20 years old when he and his royal comrades took the sky towards the sky after the waves of Nazi aircraft that sought to subjugate Britain in the summer and fall of 1940.
That August, when German bombers mercilessly targeted airfields in southern England and the outcome of the battle was still questionable, Prime Minister Winston Churchill was famously standing in front of the House of Representatives to pay tribute to the young pilot who defended Britain.
“Thanks to our island, our empire, and indeed every home in the world, will go out to British airlines that do not dare their constant challenges and fatal dangers and untiring odds, except for guilty homes. “In the field of human conflict, many people owed so much from so many.”
Since then, Britain has respected the “minority” to save the country at a dangerous moment. The Battle of the British Memorial Hall on the English Channel Coast lists 2,941 Allied air forces who participated in the battle.
During a dogfight with a German aircraft in August 1940, Hemingway was forced to bail out twice from the hurricane fighter. He was awarded the famous flying cross of the Gallantry in 1941.
However, Hemingway rejects the proposal of courage and heroes, saying that he was a pilot and had work to do.
“The world is at war and I couldn't go somewhere and say, 'I'm in peace and I won't fight war,'” he said in a 2020 interview with the BBC.
“My main skill was lucky. You had to be lucky no matter how good you were. For example, my boss, Dickie Lee, was the best pilot I've seen, and he was shot down and killed.
Born on July 17, 1919 in the Rasmins area of Dublin, Hemingway joined the RAF in 1938.
He first saw the action during the French Nazi invasion when he flew the cover of a fighter jet because he retreated the British.
Following the British battle, he served as a controller and helped direct the RAF's response to the German attacks. At the end of the war, Hemingway served as commander of the 43rd Squadron, flying Spitfires in northern Italy.
Hemingway remained at the RAF after the war and retired in 1969 after more than 30 years of service.
