To my shame I cannot put a name to any of these guys I photographed and spoke with a few years back (2001? 2? 3? )bar the one on the far right, Group Captain Billy Drake DSO, DFC & Bar. These half a dozen men you see were members of ‘The Few’. Battle of Britain pilots all. I’m hoping someone can help me with their names please! Andy Saunders came up with some…
Billy Drake, Tony Pickering, Bill Green, ??, then looks like Jocelyn Millard. In wheelchair? Possibly John Freeborn???
By: Lincoln 7 - 11th March 2013 at 09:52
Just as a matter of interest, anyone know how many of the enemy these heroes shot down between them ?.
Jim.
Lincoln .7
By: Arabella-Cox - 11th March 2013 at 09:17
Tony Pickering and Bill Green are still with us. All of them were true gentlemen, fascinating individuals, modest to a fault and were/are a joy to know or to have known.
By: Snapper - 11th March 2013 at 08:15
Thanks ever so much guys, really appreciated! I think it was Jocelyn I was chatting with on the way back to the main part of the show, all the other media, job done, just disappeared (no insult to them, it’s not their passion) but I felt obliged to walk at the same pace of the guys who I’d walked out there for as they’d walked out here for us. Anyway, Jocelyn (I think) stopped halfway back and turned around, looking back at the assorted Spits and Hurris and after a few moments I asked if he was okay…
“We did things in those they were never designed for.” he told me. I was ill-prepared for this, had no idea what he might mean, was thinking horseplay and other adolescent tomfoolery. I remember to this day his reply to my “really?”
“Yes. You do when you’ve got a 109 on your **** trying to shoot you down and you’re tyring to get on his.”
That was the day I really began to appreciate that summer of 1940 properly.
By: Foray - 10th March 2013 at 23:29
L to R
Jocelyn Millard, Ken Wilkinson, Bill Green, Tony Pickering, Billy Drake. Bob Innes seated.
By: Rob68 - 10th March 2013 at 23:14
Standing on the right is Billy Drake i think (looking on small screen phone). To his left it looks like tony Pickering
By: posart - 10th March 2013 at 23:01
Looks like Ken Wilkinson second left with his trademark mop of white hair!
By: Arabella-Cox - 10th March 2013 at 22:52
Where are you, Gerry Burke?!
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March 10, 2013 at 10:49 pm