Kid had a pretty good run:
Flying Officer Derek Allen crammed more aviation heroics into eight days than many RAF comrades did in six years of World War II.
The 22-year-old flyer saw frenetic fighting almost every day in his short career and was credited with four outright and three shared enemy kills.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for bringing down a German bomber wreaking havoc on British armour during the Battle of France in May 1940.
In the same action his Hurricane plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, forcing him to bale out. He spent 24 hours walking through enemy territory to get back to his squadron.
Exhausted, he went into battle again two days later but his plane was hit and crashed on farmland in northern France, killing him.
I have to think that FO Allen wreaked havoc on German armor, though.
The other way doesn’t make much sense, from a DFC perspective.
The article goes on to state that Britain had 40,000 missing aviators. Which, speaking of perspective.
Actually Lex, it was the “German bomber wreaking havoc on British armor” that he shot down and for which he received the DFC.
The Luftwaffe in 1940 was acting as CAS / direct support in front of the German advance. The British and French troops on the ground were essentially defenseless. The mental agony of the attacking German planes wore on the British leadership. It also terrorized the refugees swanning around, making battlefield mobility for the Allies more difficult. The Germans were not bothered by refugees, as staffing attacks and machine-gunning the fleeing civilians cleared the way for the armored advance.
Stopping an attack on the British Army’s few tank battalions was notable for it’s importance and rarity.
There’s a more detailed account over on Theo’s site. His DFC citation says:
Allen’s citation for the DFC read: ‘After his aircraft had been severely damaged by anti-aircraft fire he didn’t hesitate to attack a Junkers 87 over enemy territory and shot it down.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2102088/Body-lost-airman-awarded-ace-status-71-years-shot-down.html#ixzz1mqaEteZM
The Luftwaffe in 1940 was acting as CAS / direct support in front of the German advance. The British and French troops on the ground were essentially defenseless. The mental agony of the attacking German planes wore on the British leadership. It also terrorized the refugees swanning around, making battlefield mobility for the Allies more difficult. The Germans were not bothered by refugees, as staffing attacks and machine-gunning the fleeing civilians cleared the way for the armored advance.
Stopping an attack on the British Army’s few tank battalions was notable for it’s importance and rarity.
Somethings wrong with my bloody keyboard today. Must be the monitor / CPU interface.
if not check these errors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_error
Thanks Peterk. A Level 8 error sound much more erudite than PEBKAC or ID-10-T Error.
Speaking of perspective, I’ve read that daily American casualties in the last year of WWII were running between 2000 and 3000 PER DAY.
We visited Nomrmandy and the French countryside several yrs ago. If I remember right, there is a memorial to Allied airmen that remain “known Only Unto God”, missing in action. A vast number of men.
These resting places are all over the place. 700 allied Commonwealth aircrew, mainly Canadian, Australian and New Zealanders, are `stood down` in a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery a mile from my previous home in Noth Yorkshire. The nice thing to know is that the sites are maintained in pristine condition and remembrance is given. Peace and blessings be upon them.
I had the occasion to visit the Verdun memorial back in my callow youth. You could actually view the bones of some unbelievable amount of unknown French and German soldiers. I think it was on the order of 100,000 or more. It still chills me to this day.
My Late-father-in law was a Tanker in Patton’s Third.
He said that the Germans had close air support down to a
fine art.Had we not gotten Air superiority over the
beachead thing would’ve not went as planned..
He really hated FW-190′s….
And 88′s..
and Tigers.
and Panthers..