"Bullets or cannon shells hit my Spitfire, he told Richard during his research. There were flames in the cockpit when the petrol tank was hit right in front of me. I opened the canopy to get out which only made things worse by forcing a draft and pushing flames further into the cockpit. It felt like being in front of a builder's blow-torch."
"Jack remembered a hurried scramble as the Luftwaffe swarmed in and he did not have time to put on gloves. I had to put my bare hands into the flames to reach the control column to flip the plane on its side so I could just drop out. I could see sheets of skin just peeling off my hand like tissue paper."
"He was rushed with severe burns to his hands and face to Leeds Castle near Maidstone, which was being used as an emergency wartime hospital and was actually listed missing in action while recovering before returning to operational duties."
"Jack was credited with destroying four enemy Messerschmitt planes and badly damaging another that day in 1940. Eight more German fighter planes destroyed or damaged were also attributed to him later in the war before he was shot down again, this time over the Channel, where he was eventually rescued."
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