Spitfire Ace of Aces: The Wartime Story of Johnnie Johnson

Notes Includes bibliographical references and index.

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Found at these bookshops Searching - please wait We were unable to find this edition in any bookshop we are able to search. These online bookshops told us they have this item: Tags What are tags? Public Private login e. Add a tag Cancel Be the first to add a tag for this edition. Description Johnnie Johnson is a character literally straight out of the pages of ' Boys Own'.

One of his most impressive achievements was that, despite participating in over 1, combat missions, he was never shot down. His Spitfire was damaged once, and on his return to base he apologised to his fitter, saying, 'I was surrounded by six of them. The book is infused with breathtaking firsthand accounts from Johnnie himself and many of his fellow Spitfire pilots, also interviewed by the author, and profusely illustrated with photographs from Johnson's personal albums.

The Best Books of Check out the top books of the year on our page Best Books of Looking for beautiful books? Visit our Beautiful Books page and find lovely books for kids, photography lovers and more. Unfortunately, while the tactic had been successful in avoiding a surprise attack, the break was mistimed. It left some Bf s still behind the Spitfires. Dundas was able to nurse his crippled fighter back to base and crash-land. One month later, Johnson gained his first air victory. On 26 June Johnson participated in Circus Crossing the coast near Gravelines, Bader warned of 24 Bf s nearby, southeast, in front of the Wing.

The Bf s saw the British and turned to attack the lower No. While watching three Bf s above him dive to port, Johnson lost sight of his wing commander at 15, feet. Immediately a Bf E flew in front of him and turned slightly to port at a range of yards. After receiving hits, the Bf 's hood was jettisoned and the pilot baled out. He had expended rounds from P's guns. The Bf was one of five lost by Jagdgeschwader 2 Fighter Wing 2 that day. A flurry of action followed. On 1 July he expended 89 rounds and damaged a Bf E.

Bader's section was attacked and Johnson out-turned his assailant. Firing, he saw glycol streaming behind it. Losing sight of the squadron, Johnson and his wingman proceeded inland at 3, feet after spotting three aircraft. Turning in behind them, he identified them as Bf Fs. Johnson dived so as to come up and underneath into the enemy's blind spot.

Closing to 15 yards, he gave the trailing Bf a two-second burst. The tail was blown off and his windshield was covered in oil from the Messerschmitt. Johnson saw the other Bf s spinning down out of control. Having also lost his wingman, Johnson disengaged. Climbing and crossing the coast at Etaples, Johnson bounced a Bf E. Giving chase in a dive to 2, feet and firing at yards, he observed something flying off the Bf 's starboard wing. Johnson could not see any more owing to the oil-covered windscreen and did not make a claim.

His second victory was probably Unteroffizier Corporal R. Johnson's wingman disappeared during the battle. Sergeant Mabbet was mortally wounded but made a wheels-up landing near St Omer. Impressed with his skilful flying while badly wounded, the Germans buried him with full honours.

Spitfire Ace of Aces : The Wartime Story of Johnnie Johnson by Dilip Sarkar (2014, Paperback)

On 23 July, Johnson damaged another Bf During this battle Adolf Galland , Geschwaderkommodore Wing Commander of JG 26 was wounded; his life was saved by a recently installed armour plate behind his head. Johnson took part in the 9 August mission in which Bader was lost over France. On that day Douglas Bader had been without his usual wingman Sir Alan Smith who was unable to fly due to having a head cold. During the sortie, Johnson destroyed a solitary Messerschmitt Bf As the Wing crossed the coast, around 70 Bf s were reported in the area, the Luftwaffe aircraft outnumbering Bader's Wing by 3: Spotting a group of Bf s 1, feet below them, Bader led a bounce on a lower group.

The formations fell apart and the air battle became a mass of twisting aircraft;.

Spitfire Ace of Aces : The Wartime Story of Johnnie Johnson

It seemed to me the biggest danger was a collision rather than being shot down, that's how close we all were. We got the s we were bouncing then Squadron Leader Holden came down with his section, so there were a lot of aeroplanes Johnson exited the mass of aircraft and was immediately attacked by three Bf s. The closest was yards away. Maintaining a steep, tight, spiralling turn, he dived into cloud and immediately headed for Dover. Coming out of the cloud, Johnson saw a lone Bf Suspecting it to be one of the three that had chased him, he searched for the other two.

Seeing nothing, Johnson attacked and shot it down. It was his fourth victory. But it had been a bad day and month for the Wing. The much loathed Circus and Rhubarb raids had cost Fighter Command fighters. The Germans lost just Johnson's last certain victories of the year were achieved on 21 September Escorting Bristol Blenheims to Gosnay, the top cover wings failed to rendezvous with the bombers. Near Le Touquet at Johnson broke and turned in and behind a Bf F. Approaching from a quarter astern and slightly below, Johnson fired closing from to 70 yards. Pilot Officer Smith of Johnson's section observed the pilot bail out.

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Pursued by several enemy aircraft, Johnson dived to ground level. About 10 miles off Le Touquet, other Bf s attacked. Allowing the Germans to close within range, Johnson turned into a steep left-hand turn. It took him onto the tail of a Bf Johnson fired and broke away at 50 yards. The Bf was hit, stalled and crashed into the sea. Johnson was pursued until 10 miles south of Dover.

The two victories made Johnson's total to six destroyed, which now meant he was an official flying ace. In winter , Johnson and Squadron moved to training duties. The odd convoy patrol was flown but it was an idle period for the Squadron which had now concluded its "Tangmere tour". After an uneventful few months, RAF Fighter Command resumed its offensive policy in April when the weather cleared for large-scale operations. Johnnie flew seven sweeps that month. But the situation had now changed. It was faster at all altitudes below 25, feet, possessed a faster roll rate, was more heavily armed and could out-dive and out-climb the Spitfire.

Only in the turn could the Spitfire outperform the Fw The introduction of this new enemy fighter resulted in heavier casualty rates among the Spitfire squadrons until a new mark of Spitfire could be produced. Johnson claimed a damaged Fw on 15 April but he witnessed the Fw s get the better of the British pilots consistently throughout most of Yes, the was causing us real problems at this time. We could out-turn it, but you couldn't turn all day.

As the number of s increased, so the depth of our penetrations deceased. They drove us back to the coast really.

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On 25 May, Johnson experienced an unusual mission. His section engaged a Dornier Do carrying British markings, four miles west of his base. Johnson allowed the three inexperienced pilots to attack it, but they only managed to damage the bomber. More welcome news was received late in the month as the first Spitfire Mk. IXs began reaching RAF units. On 10 July , Johnson was promoted to the rank of squadron leader , effective as of the 13 July, and given command of Squadron.

In "rhubarb" operations over France, Johnson's wing commander, Patrick Jameson , insisted that the line-astern formation be used which caused Johnson to question why tactics such as the finger-four had not been universally adopted. Johnson criticised the lack of tactical consistency and when his squadron flew top cover, he often changed to the finger-four as soon as they reached the French coast, hoping his wing leader would not notice.

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By August , preparations were begun for a major operation, Jubilee , at Dieppe. The Dieppe raid took place on 19 August Johnson took off at Running into around 50 Bf s and Fw s in fours, pairs and singly. In a climbing attack Johnson shot down one Fw which crashed into the sea and shared in the destruction of a Bf F. While heading back to base, Johnson attacked an alert Fw which met his attack head on.

The dogfight descended from 8, to zero feet. Flying over Dieppe, Johnson dived towards a destroyer in the hope its fire would drive off the Fw , now on his tail.

Johnnie Johnson – Wikipedia, wolna encyklopedia

Johnson took command of No. After gaining a probable against a Fw in February , Johnnie selected Spitfire EN after a minute test flight on 22 March Being a wing commander now meant his initials could be painted on the machine. His Spitfires now carried JE-J. He was also allotted the call sign "Greycap".

Johnson set about changing the wing's tactical approach. He quickly forced the wing to abandon the line-astern tactics for the finger-four formation which offered much more safety in combat; enabling multiple pilots to participate in scanning the skies for enemy aircraft so as to avoid an attack, and also being better able to spot and position their unit for a surprise attack upon the enemy. Johnson made another alteration to his units operations.

He loathed ground-attack missions which highly trained fighter pilots were forced to participate in. He abandoned ground attack missions whenever he could. On a fighter sweep, Ramrod 49, Johnson destroyed an Fw for his eighth victory. Unteroffizier Hans Hiess from 6 Staffel bailed out, but his parachute failed to open. The spring proved to be a busy one; Johnson claimed three Fw s damaged two days later.

On the 11 and 13 May he destroyed an Fw to reach 10 individual air victories while sharing in the destruction of another on the later date and a Bf on 1 June. Two were claimed on the 15 June. He shot down Unteroffizier Gunther Freitag, 8. On 24 June he claimed one destroyed and one damaged on and another victory on the 27th to bring his total to Johnson scored more success in July. Escorting American bombers, Johnson destroyed three Bf s and damaged another, the last being shot down on 30 July; his tally stood at It earned Wing the nickname "Wolfpack".

The tactics proved successful in the Canadian Wing. Johnson scored his 19—21 victories on 23 and 26 August, whilst claiming yet another Fw on 4 September In the lead up to the Battle of Normandy and the D-Day landings Johnson continued to score regularly. His 22—23rd victories were achieved on 25 April and Johnson became the highest scoring ace still on operations. These victories were followed by another Fw on the 5 May no. The mission in which Johnson recorded his 26th victory on 22 June was particularly eventful; four more Fw s fell to his wing. Five days later, Johnson destroyed two Fw s to reach his 30—31st air victories.

Johnson's wing was the first to be stationed on French soil following the invasion. With their radius of action now far extended compared to the squadrons still in Britain, the wing scored heavily through the summer. Johnson bounced a formation of Focke-Wulf Fw s, shooting down two, which were recorded on the cine camera. The fighters were actually Messerschmitt Bf s. Johnson escaped by doing a series of steep climbs, during which he nearly stalled and blacked out.

He eventually evaded the Messerschmitts, which had been trying to flank him on either side, while two more stuck to his tail.