The last surviving pilot of the Battle of Britain has died, severing the last living link to the few thousand young men who fought the Nazi air force to a standstill amid fears that Britain might be forced to capitulate during the early months of World War II.
John “Paddy’’ Hemingway, an Irish national who enlisted in the Royal Air Force before the war began, died Monday at his home in Dublin, the RAF said. He was 105.
Hemingway was just 20 years old when he and his comrades in the Royal Air Force took to the skies to fight off wave after wave of Nazi aircraft that sought to pound Britain into submission during the summer and autumn of 1940.
In August of that year, when German bombers were relentlessly targeting airfields in southern England and the outcome of the battle was still in doubt, Prime Minister Winston Churchill famously stood before the House of Commons to pay tribute to the young pilots who were defending Britain.
“The gratitude of every home in our island, in our empire, and indeed throughout the world, except in the abodes of the guilty, goes out to the British airmen who, undaunted by odds, unwearied in their constant challenge and mortal danger, are turning the tide of the world war by their prowess and by their devotion,” Churchill said. “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
Britain has ever since revered “the few” for saving the country during its moment of peril. The Battle of Britain Memorial on the English Channel coast lists the names 2,941 Allied airmen who took part in the battle.
During dogfights with German aircraft in August of 1940, Hemingway was twice forced to bail out of his Hurricane fighter, once landing in the sea off the east coast of England before returning to his squadron to resume the fight, the RAF said. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for gallantry in 1941.
But Hemingway dismissed suggestions of bravery and heroism, saying he was a pilot and had a job to do.
“The world was at war, and you couldn’t go somewhere and say, ‘I’m at peace and I don’t fight wars,’” he said in a 2020 interview with the BBC.
“The main skill was luck. You had to be lucky, no matter how good you were. For instance, my boss, Dickie Lee, was the best pilot I’ve every seen, but he was shot down and killed. So he had no luck. I had bags of luck.”
Born July 17, 1919, in the Rathmines area of Dublin, Hemingway enlisted in the RAF in 1938.
He first saw action during the Nazi invasion of France, when he flew fighter cover for retreating British forces.
Following the Battle of Britain he worked as a controller, helping to direct the RAF’s response to German attacks. At the end of the war, Hemingway served as commander of No. 43 Squadron, which flew Spitfires in northern Italy.
Hemingway remained in the RAF after the war and retired in 1969 after more than 30 years of service.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.