BoB Spitfire Pilot Brian Lane DFC - Memorial Plaque Unveiling, London

[PeterPanPan]

A memorial plaque in honour of Squadron Leader Brian Lane DFC RAF will be unveiled on his former London home on Sunday 25 September 2011.

The event will be marked by a Spitfire and Hurricane flypast from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at 2:30pm.

Brian Lane flew with RAF 19 Sqn and achieved 7 kills during his career, having seen action over Dunkirk and in the Battle of Britain. On 13 December 1942, he was last seen giving chase to two FW 190s. He never returned from this mission and was listed as “Missing in Action”. Brian Lane has no known grave having most likely been shot down over the North Sea.

Lane wrote and published Spitfire!, one of only a few contemporaneous autobiographical accounts of the life of a Battle of Britain Spitfire pilot. The book has been republished and is well worth a read.

If anyone wants to come to the unveiling, please PM me for more info.

PPP

Brian Lane is pictured above, in the middle, immediately after a Battle of Britain sortie in September
1940. The strain and exhaustion on his face belie his young age and make this one of the best known and
most powerful images to come out of the Battle of Britain.