Air Collisions

[Doc_uk]

Sgt. Bruce Hancock (742644) was a trainee bomber pilot in a Avro Anson and he saw a Heinkel bomber attacking a small airfield in Gloucester (Windrush) on the 18th of August 1940. The Heinkel then turned towards the Anson (N9164) attacking it. Hancock turned off his landing lights an when the bomber closed to about 150yds Hancock banked violently to port and flew into the the path of the Heinkel. Hancock died in the impact as did the crew of the Heinkel.
Eye witnesses on the ground said that Hancock deliberately rammed the Heinkel.

I have included him because i think he was a very brave pilot and deserves some recognition for his selfless act.

P/O John Kenneth Haviland an American was born on the 19th of January 1921 in Mount Kisco, New York. He spent most of his early life in England, starting school there at the age of five. John went to Nottingham University at 17. He obtained his 'A' Licence and joined the R.A.F.V.R. He was called up at the outbreak of war and was posted to I.T.W. at Pembroke College, Cambridge in November 1939. After completing his flying training he went to the No 1 School of Army Co-operation, Old Sarum. He volunteered for Fighter Command, was posted to No 6 - O.T.U. Sutton Bridge in August 1940 and after converting to Hurricanes joined No 151 Squadron at Digby on the 23rd of September 1940. The following day, the 24th of September he collided with another Hurricane during formation practice and made a forced-landing in a paddock at Waddington. He was awarded the D.F.C. on the 16th of February 1945, as a Flight Lieutenant with No 141 Squadron.

Skirmishes in the air were fought in many places along the South coast. In particular, 54 Squadron, flying from Manston in Kent was operating continuous sorties in an effort to cover convoys threading their way through the Straits of Dover. It was in these sorties that Alan Deere, the young New Zealand fighter pilot who was to survive an amazing number of hair raising incidents in the Battle, experienced one of them. In a dogfight, he was in a mid-air collision with an Me109. As a result, the propeller of the Spitfire was bent completely backwards while the engine of the aircraft was put out of action. Deere tried to leave the aircraft pulling at the cockpit canopy. But it would not budge. Deere did the only thing he could do which was to try and glide the doomed aircraft towards the coast several miles away. He just succeeded in reaching the English coast. He then managed to put his powerless aircraft down on the first field he came across. After a number of heavy bumps the aircraft eventually came to a standstill. Now his frantic efforts to pull the canopy back met with success. He wrenched it free running for his life in case the aircraft blew up. The Germans would have counted his crash as being a British aircraft downed. But as with many cases later on in the fighting, the RAF pilot survived to fight another day.

This one doesnt mention who?
http://www.military-times.co.uk/arti...oon-attack.htm

This was taking from a book
Battle of Britain Day.....by Dr. Alfred Price
On 15 September 1940 the Luftwaffe mounted two massive daylight raids on London. RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes responded, and the resulting air combats were among the most concentrated ever fought, with eight aircraft destroyed in mid-air collisions alone. Those momentous events are still commemorated each year on "Battle of Britain Day", and Alfred Price's book documents the memories and first-hand accounts of those who witnessed them in the air and on the ground.

I'm sure theirs more, to find out there
regards
Doc