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Ken Wilkinson
| Flying Officer Ken Wilkinson (deceased) Battle of Britain pilot flying Hurricanes, he flew Spitfires with 611 Sqn and then 616 Sqn at Kirton-in-Lindsey and 19 Sqn at Fowlmere during 1940 and after a spell instructing returned to operations on Spitfires, with 234 and 165 Squadrons. After spending time with 53, 24 and 10 Operational Training Units, he left the RAF in November 1945 and served in the RAFVR. Ken said : From 1st September 1939 I wrote myself off. I thought, 'you've got no chance' lasting through whatever is going to be. It was quite obvious, in the way the Germans were moving, they were going to make a hell of a war out of it, so I was ready for war. I can remember saying 'we've got to stop this fellow Hitler'. When you think of all the thousands of citizens that were being killed by this absurd bombing. They had to pay for it didn't they. Yes, we lost people. Friends that didn't come back. I don't think we were the sort of people to brood over it, ever. You have to get into an attitude to make sure that you're as cold as a fish. Once someone has failed to return, that's it. Fortune smiled on me and not on some of the others. I can only say that whoever it was who popped off at me, wasn't a very good marksman. It transpired that we were doing something far more important than we thought. As far as we were concerned, it was just that there were some untidy creatures from over the other side of the channel, trying to bomb England and the United Kingdom. And we didn't want them to bomb us. After all, we never asked the Germans to start this nonsense, did we? But they did, and we had to stop them, and we did. It's our country. You die for you country. |
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| Text for the above items : |
Can Openers by David Pentland. Two Hawker Hurricane Mk.IID tank busters of No.6 Shiny Six Squadron about to attack retreating axis mechanised units, November 1942 at El Alamein. |
Channel Sweep by Richard Taylor. On 14th June 1940, the first German jackboots were heard on the streets of Paris. Within days France signed an armistice and Hitler could now turn his avaricious eyes north and across the grey waters of the Channel. The island of Britain stood alone and, faced with the threat of imminent invasion, few gave her much chance of survival. Before the all-conquering Panzers could invade, Germany needed to gain air superiority and Goering boasted that his Luftwaffe 'would quickly sweep the RAF from the skies' - how wrong he would be. The Battle of Britain began on 10th July 1940 and for the next eight weeks most front-line squadrons were often flying four missions a day. Totally outnumbered by the Luftwaffe the RAF was close to breaking point by early September, with some units reduced to a handful of pilots and aircraft. Then on 7th September, an over-confident Goering made a fatal error. Believing the RAF destroyed, he changed tactics and the Luftwaffe began bombing civilian targets in London. It was the respite that Fighter Command needed and the tide of battle was turned. Against overwhelming and seemingly impossible odds, a replenished RAF repelled the Luftwaffe and by the end of October it was over. Richard Taylor's stunning painting depicts Mk1 Spitfires from 92 Squadron undertaking a defensive sweep along the Kent coastline against a dramatic backdrop of the white cliffs of Dover, at the height of the battle in September 1940. |
Spitfire F Mk21 by Ivan Berryman. Pushing the concept of the Spitfire almost to the limit, the sleek F Mk212 represented the ultimate in fighter design at the end of the Second World War. Powered by the mighty Griffon 61 engine driving a five blade propeller, its armament consisted of four 20mm British Hispano Cannon, two in each wing. This example is LA200 (DL-E) of 91 Sqn in 1945. |
Hurricane Patrol by Graeme Lothian. After taking part in the Battle of France early in 1940, 85 Squadron moved to Croydon on the 19th August, where, led by renowned squadron leader Peter Townsend DSO DFC, the squadron played a notable part in the Battle of Britain. Thirty Hurricane squadrons participated in the Battle of Britain compared to only eighteen Spitfire squadrons, claiming 80 percent of the RAF victories. Sir Sidney Camms innovative design ensured the Hurricane became a classic fighter. Hurricane Patrol portrays Squadron Leader Peter Townsend leading 85 Squadron on a high altitude sortie during the long hot summer of 1940. |
Doe's Griffin by David Pentland. Portland, England, 30th September 1940. Already an accomplished Spitfire ace with at least 10 confirmed kills, Bob Doe had just transferred from 234 squadron to 238 Hurricane squadron when he intercepted and brought down a Heinkel He111P-2 from I/KG55 Griffin Geschwader. |
The Greatest Day by Robert Taylor. Sunday 15 September 1940 and Luftwaffe supremo Hermann Goering believed victory over the RAF was at hand. Today, he decreed, would be the day that his 'glorious' Luftwaffe would finally break the back of Fighter Command's stubborn resistance. Or so he believed. In response to a massed formation of enemy aircraft detected heading for London, Air Vice Marshal Keith Park commanding 11 Group scrambled his squadrons. He also requested that 12 Group bring Douglas Bader's 'Big Wing' down from Duxford. Every available pilot and machine was committed. Prime Minister Winston Churchill turned to Park and asked "What other reserves have we" "There are none", Park replied. Bader now had five squadrons racing south, meeting what remained of the enemy on the outskirts of London. With a successful morning behind them the RAF fighters raced back to re-fuel and re-arm. Just after 14.00 hrs another enemy battle group was observed and this time the formations were even larger. Bader's Wing was scrambled once more. |
Hurricane Mk.IIC by Ivan Berryman. Hurricane Mk.IIC Z3971 of 253 Sqn, closing on a Heinkel 111. |
Fields of Glory by Richard Taylor. September 1940 and they came in their hundreds, the black crosses under their wings clearly visible to those on the ground who listened in silence as the menacing drone of a thousand engines filled the clear blue summer sky. As Goering's Luftwaffe attempted to deal the killer blow to British defences, huge formations of Heinkel, Dornier and Junker bombers lumbered over sleepy English fields towards London. Surrounding them were their escorts, the formidable Messerschmitt Bf109 fighters. Diving our of the sun, 11 Group's fighter squadrons pounced, with the Spitfires going for the Bf109s while the Hurricanes fell on the slower moving bombers. Looking up on the swirling melee above, onlookers below could only watch in awe as the sky was filled with criss-cross patterns of creamy white vapour and spiralling trails of ominous, darker smoke. A parachute here and there caught the eye as the white silk drifted slowly down to the fields below. Hugely outnumbered, the men of RAF Fighter Command were supported by volunteer airmen from fifteen nations, and as more squadrons joined the fray the battle raged towards the capital until the Bf109s turned for home. The Few were finally turning the tide of the Battle of Britain. |
Tribute to Pilot Officer Ted Shipman by Ivan Berryman. Flying as Leader of B Flight, 41 Sqn, on 15th August 1940, Pilot Officer Ted Shipman and the rest of his flight found themselves among a mass of Messerschmitt Bf.110s that had been detailed to escort a bomber force of Heinkel He111s on a raid on the North of England. Having made one head-on attack on one of the Bf.110s, Shipman manoeuvred his Spitfire Mk.1 onto the tail of another and fired a long burst into it. This was M8+CH of Oberleutnant Hans-Ulrich Kettling of 1./ZG76 and rear Gunner / Radio Operator O/ Gefr Volk, whose starboard engine burst into flames and disappeared into the dense cloudbase. Shipman claimed this initially as a probable, but it was later confirmed as a victory when the aircraft was found to have crash landed at Streatham Nr Barnard Castle. Spitfire K9805 (EB-L) is depicted breaking off the attack as Kettling's stricken Bf.110 begins to burn. Ted Shipman would go on to serve with the Royal Air Force until December 1959 retiring as a Wing Commander. Ted would also go onto become friends with Hans-Ulrich Kettling, the pilot he shot down. |
High Patrol by Ivan Berryman. Hawker Hurricane Mk 1s of No 242 Sqn patrol a glorious September sky as the Battle of Britain reaches its climax in the Summer of 1940. The nearest aircraft is that of Sqn Ldr Douglas Bader, flying V7467 in which he claimed four victories, plus two probables and one destroyed. P/O W L McKnight (LE-A) and P/O D W Crowley-Milling (LE-M) are in close attendance. |
Tribute to Air Vice Marshal James Edgar 'Johnnie' Johnson by Ivan Berryman. Pictured above the beaches of Normandy shortly after D-Day in June 1944, Spitfire Mk IX MK392 was the personal aircraft of Wing Commander Johnnie Johnson, carrying his initials JE-J instead of the usual squadron codes. He went on to become Britain's highest scoring ace against the Luftwaffe with 34 claimed victories with many other probable victories. |
High in the Sunlit Silence by Michael Rondot. A solo Spitfire flies high over the aerial battlefield of the Battle of Britain. |
Night Reaper, 4th May 1942 by David Pentland. Hawker Hurricane IIc of top Czech ace Flt. Lt. K.M. Kuttlewascher, No.1 Fighter Squadron on a night intruder sortie from RAF Tangmere. On this mission he destroyed three Heinkel IIIs over their own airfield, St. Andre, in occupied France. |
Normandy Fighter Sweep by Nicolas Trudgian. Johnnie Johnson leads his Canadian Wing Spitfires over the Normandy beaches on D-Day, 1944. |
Return From the Fray by Richard Taylor. They came from every corner of Britain. And mostly they were young. These fresh faced fighter pilots, joined by an ever-growing band of volunteer airmen from the British Commonwealth and those who had managed to escape from the occupied countries of Europe would, over the summer of 1940, not only hold the world's most powerful air force at bay, they would defeat it. Richard Taylor's stunning piece graphically conveys the conflicting realities of those deadly aerial encounters over southern England during 1940. As the sound of Merlin engines briefly interrupts the tranquility of a sleepy English village, its residents are determined to carry on with everyday life. In the skies overhead the bitter battle will shortly be reaching its crescendo but, for today at least, the fighting is over as Flight Sergeant George 'Grumpy' Unwin, one of the Battle of Britain's top Aces, and the Spitfire pilots of 19 Squadron return from yet another encounter with Goering's much-vaunted Luftwaffe. |
The Fledgling by Ivan Berryman. Under the watchful eye of his more experienced tutor a trainee pilot gets his first taste of the Spitfire Mk.IIa, airborne from Tangmere early in 1941. The nearest aircraft is P7856 (YT-C) which enjoyed a long career, surviving until 1945. |
A Day for Heroes by Ivan Berryman. The afternoon of 25th July 1940 was a desperate one for the already exhausted fighter pilots of the RAF defending the South coast of England. As convoy CW8 made its way through the English Channel, sixty JU.87 Stukas and forty JU.88 bombers launched a brutal attack on the ships below, backed up by fighter cover of over 50 Messerscmitt Bf.109s. Eight Spitfires of 64 Sqn (Kenley) were scrambled, together with twelve Spitfires of 54 Sqn (Hornchurch) and Hurricanes of 111 Sqn from Croydon. The British pilots found themselves massively outnumbered, but nevertheless put up a spirited fight against the teeming enemy. This painting shows Spitfires of 54 Sqn entering the fray, the pilots scattering as they choose their targets and go after the JU.87s. To the right of this, Bf.109Es of JG.26 are roaring in to join battle, whilst Adolf Galland's aircraft engages a Hurricane of 111 Sqn. |
Spitfire! by David Pentland. Sussex Coast, England, 16th August 1940. For Donald MacDonald, Squadron leader of 64 Squadron, this particular day was fairly eventful. Catching the JG54 fighters and III/KG55 bombers on the coast, he personally accounted for one Me109E destroyed, another damaged, and a third probable. Continuing his attack he shared in the destruction of a He111P-2, and heavily damaged a second. |
Ground Force by Ivan Berryman. Routine, though essential, maintenance is carried out on a 501 Sqn Hurricane at the height of the Battle of Britain during the Summer of 1940. Hurricane P3059 SD-N in the background is the aircraft of Group Captain Byron Duckenfield. |
Valiant Response by Robert Taylor. The Spitfires of 54 Squadron, quickly scrambled from nearby Hornchurch, clash with the Me109s from 1./JG51 over Kent. Below, Me110s from KPRG210 are about to receive unwelcome attention as the rest of the Spitfires hurtle down upon them and in the distance, a group of Hurricanes rip through a dense formation of Do17s from KG76 as they struggle back to France. What clouds there are will be unlikely to give much sanctuary and, for the onlookers on the ground far below, the skies will soon be filled with weaving trails of smoke and debris. For nearly a week the Luftwaffe had thrown everything they had into the attack on southern England in order to annihilate RAF Fighter Command, in preparation for Operation Sealion, the invasion of Britain. And, heavily outnumbered, the young RAF Spitfire and Hurricane pilots of Fighter Command had so far repelled them, at a cost. But on Sunday 18 August 1940, the Germans launched the heaviest formations of aircraft seen in the battle so far. This was to be a grinding day of relentless assaults on the airfields of southern England, the hardest day of the Battle of Britain. |
Merlin Roar by Anthony Saunders. The Hawker Hurricane powered by the powerful Rolls Royce Merlin engine is shown in combat with Luftwaffe aircraft during the Battle of Britain. The Hurricane played a major role in the aerial victory along with its companion the Spitfire. |
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