I remember seeing a thread on this forum about the battle of barking creek. Did anyone know that the pilot who’s hurricane was shot down, Pilot Officer Montague Leslie Hulton-Harrop, was a very good friend of Kenneth More the famous actor (A Night to Remember, Reach for the Sky).
They tried to join the RAF together but Kenneth More failed by 2 points.
P/O Hulton-Harrop was the first allied pilot killed during the war and his Hurricane was the first aircraft to fall to a Spitfires guns.
The Spitfire pilot, P/O John Freeborn, was court-marshalled because his commanding officer was not prepared to admit that he had given the order to attack the hurricanes and tried to make out that he had ordered the Spitfires to return to RAF Hornchurch.
He was found to be lying and P/O Freeborn was released and returned to his squadron.
🙂 a bit of information for anyone who may be interested 🙂
By: Pilot Officer Prune - 18th October 2005 at 21:26
The person ‘Spitfire pilot’ refers to as John Freeborn’s Commanding Officer, was his Flight Commander in this incident, who was Sailor Malan.Malan denied giving the order to attack, and instead of sticking up for the rest of his flight, appeared for the prosecution against them.Malan was called a lier by John’s defence and John was cleared.Not suprisingly, relations between John and Malan were never the same during their time together on 74 Sqn.
By: Flood - 18th October 2005 at 20:13
The Spitfire pilot, P/O John Freeborn, was court-marshalled because his commanding officer was not prepared to admit that he had given the order to attack the hurricanes and tried to make out that he had ordered the Spitfires to return to RAF Hornchurch.
He was found to be lying and P/O Freeborn was released and returned to his squadron.
Just out of interest, any idea what happened to the CO?
Flood
By: Pilot Officer Prune - 18th October 2005 at 18:26
I met John Freeborn recently at Duxford.In his book he makes it quite clear what he thought of one of my all time heroes,Sailor Malan.But there’s always 2 sides to a story, and while I don’t doubt John’s re-call of events, its a shame Malan isn’t around to give his side.
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October 18, 2005 at 5:32 pm