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

[Flying10uk]

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.