Thomas Percy Gleave began his RAF career in 1930, three years later
becoming a member of the RAF aerobatic team. He joined Bomber Command on
1 January 1939, but at the outbreak of war Gleave requested a return to
Fighter Command. He took command of 253 Squadron just in time for the
start of the Battle of Britain, acquiring fame for claiming five
Messerschmitt Bf 109s in a single day.
Tom Gleave, however, is remembered more for the misfortune which befell
him on 31 August 1940. On that day he was shot down and badly burned
when his Hurricane caught fire. In his memoir Tom Gleave tells of the
early days of his encounters with the German aircraft in dramatic detail
and, particularly of that dreadful day when he escaped his dying
aircraft with severe burns to much of his body and his face.
After being taken to Orpington Hospital, Gleave was transferred to Queen
Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead where he was one of the first pilots
to undergo plastic surgery by Archie, later Sir Archibald, Mclndoe and
his brilliant colleague, Percy Jayes.
Gleave received leg and facial grafts, and his nose was reconstructed.
The Guinea Pig Club was formed at Queen Victoria Hospital on 20 July
1941, with Mclndoe as President and Gleave as Vice-President and a
Founder Member, being the club's first and only Chief Guinea Pig until
his death in 1993.
Originally written in 1941, this moving and graphic story is not one of
despair but of overcoming adversity with cheerful determination not to
allow circumstances of the past to determine the future. For, despite
his terrible wounds, Tom Cleave returned to duty, becoming station
commander of RAF Northolt and later RAF Manston. Above all, I Had a Row
With a German is a ripping yarn of the cut and thrust of the Battle of
Britain by one of Churchill's memorable 'Few'.
