Battle of Britain V.C and The Bar to the V.C

Here is a brief description of the only Victoria Cross won during the Battle of Britain and goes to show what the pilot endured to win it.
To give you some idea in the book "Guinea Pig" fighter pilot Geofrey Page described what it was like to be in the cockpit of his Hurricane when a cannon shell went into his gravity tank and he was very badly burned.

"The shell came through and hit the tank behind the instrument panel and the temperature went from about 3 degrees to 350 degrees in about 3 seconds". He remembered of the incident the skin melting from his hands but thanked god he had his goggles down.

Nicolsons case went one step beyond this ~ Flight Lieutenant James Brindley NICOLSON V.C.
Twenty three year old Flight Lieutenant James Nicolson won the only V.C. of the Battle of Britain on 16th August 1940. His aircraft was set on fire during an action with the enemy near Southampton, he was about to bale out when he saw an Me 109 and settled back into the burning cockpit to shoot it down:
Flight Lieutenant James Brindley NICOLSON (39329) No. 249 Squadron.
During an engagement with the enemy near Southampton on 16th August, 1940, Flight Lieutenant Nicolson’s aircraft was hit by four cannon shells, two of which wounded him whilst another set fire to the gravity tank. When about to abandon his aircraft owing to flames in the cockpit he sighted an enemy fighter. This he attacked and shot down, although as a result of staying in his burning aircraft he sustained serious burns to his hands, face, neck and legs.
Flight Lieutenant Nicolson has always displayed great enthusiasm for air fighting and this incident shows that he possesses courage and determination of a high order. By continuing to engage the enemy after he had been wounded and his aircraft set on fire, he displayed exceptional gallantry and disregard for the safety of his own life.

In Nicolson's words he said he got so mad at the "Hun"for shooting him down that he climbed back into the burning cockpit to teach the "Hun some manners" and shot the plane down. And when he finally exited the aircraft the perspex on the canopy had burnt away leaving only the iron frame work.

I have read many acts of heroism from all wars from allot of the Allied and Commonwealth armed services but this I think ranks above the very best.

The only others to equal or rise higher are the winners of the Bar to the Victoria Cross which is hard enough to win once let alone twice. There are only 3 people that have achieved this feat; Noel Godfrey Chavasse, Arthur Martin-Leake, Charles Upham very uncommon valour.

Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed this small snippet.

ALBERT JACKA from Australia should have been the fourth. Only Some high ranking officers didn't like him.

Tom Derrick is another australian who could have been awarded two.

James Cowey is worth looking up, not a VC recipient but he fought as an enlisted man at both gallipoli and kokoda.
for the non australians out there, gollipoli and kokoda and THE two battles most tied up in the mythology of australians at war, for my generation someone having served at either equals instant respect. having fought at both is just mind boggling.

I had the privilege of meeting on a few occasions through a friend "Diver" Derrick's CO and best man, Lt M Farqhuar, later Chief Stipendiary Magistrate of NSW, a most interesting person, now sadly deceased. Met with very controversial circumstances towards the end of his career.

During the war at one of the houses my family was living in near Clacton on sea, Essex a Spitfire was attempting to crash-land in a nearby field after being badly damaged in a dogfight overhead. The aircraft was heading straight for my family's house but the Czech pilot just managed to pull the aircraft up to avoid hitting the house by a few feet and crash land on fire in a nearby field. My father and an older friend tried to get to the aircraft to see if they could help the pilot but this proved impossible because of the fire and the exploding ammunition and so, sadly, the pilot was killed. I will always be grateful to this Czech pilot whoever he was for doing his best to avoid hitting my family's home and so probably saving their lives.

Yes there is a picture of him (Derrick) talking to Reg Saunders who had a book on him written called "The Embarrassing Australian" the story of an indigenous soldier who rose through the ranks to Captain level I think my book is buried in the shelves so running from memory.

In regards to my Nicolson post we were in our P-2 gear with B/A sets training then put in a room which had a fire in it the room temp was 280 degrees and believe me it was rather warm and we were in well made fire fighting kit not woolen jackets and trousers.

The Battle of Britain is still considered one of the dramatic "victories" in western history. When one considers the odds: outnumbered 2 to 1 (about 4000 German planes to about 2000 British planes), Churchill was certainly correct to say so much was owed to so few. The heroism of the British, aided by Canadian, American, Czech, Australian, French and other pilots, was incredible. About 20% of all the RAF was comprised on pilots from other countries.

I seem to recall that by the end of September, 1940, when Hitler and Goering realized they could not win, they had lost half of their air force. But, if I recall correctly, at the rate of attrition, Britain could have lasted only another couple of weeks before it had run out of pilots and planes. That's the power of resolve -- Hitler figured (wrongly) that Britain could be brought into submission in 4 weeks, then he could romp over Russian equally quickly. Glad the monster goofed; glad we had heroes to protect us from monsters.

Classic line...
Battle of Britain 1969 - English Farmer confronts a shot down pilot - You boche bastard - YouTube

It's easy, today, to forget that even if the Royal Air Force had lost the Battle of Britain any German invading force would have to contend with the Royal Navy, the most powerful navy in Europe. In 1940 while there was an invasion threat the Royal Navy kept significant numbers of major warships such as Battle Ships, Cruisers and Destroyers dotted around the U.K.. Also of significance is the fact that Germany was totally unprepared to mount a seaborne invasion of the U.K.. I have heard it suggested elsewhere that it would have taken over 2 weeks for them just to land the first wave; ample time for the Royal Navy to intervene.