Air Vice-Marshal 'Johnnie' Johnson was a character literally from the
pages of Boys' Own: an individual who became the RAF's top-scoring
fighter pilot and wing leader par excellence of the Second World War. A
one-time household name synonymous with the superlative Spitfire,
Johnnie's aerial combat successes inspired schoolboys for generations.
As a 'lowly Pilot Officer', Johnnie Johnson learned his fighter pilot's
craft as a protégé of the legless Tangmere Wing Leader, Douglas Bader.
After Bader was brought down over France and captured on 9 August 1941,
Johnnie remained a member of 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron, in which he
became a flight commander and was awarded the DFC a month after Bader's
devastating loss.
By the beginning of 1942, when Johnnie's diary begins, Fighter Command
was pursuing an offensive policy during daylight hours, 'reaching out'
and taking the war to the Germans in France. It was also a period in
which the Focke-Wulf Fw outclassed the Spitfire Mk.V. In Johnnie's
words, the Fw 190 'drove us back to the coast and, for the first time,
pilots lost confidence in the Spitfire'. As well as his participation in
Rhubarb and Circus sorties, Johnnie was also involved in Operation
Jubilee on 19 August 1942. The air operations involved with the Dieppe
Raid saw the greatest aerial battles since the Battle of Britain and it
is therefore unsurprising that Johnnie's squadron was 'heavily engaged
by over 100 190s and 109s', as he observed in his diary.
In this diary, published here for the first time, we get a glimpse of
the real Johnnie, and what it was really like to live and breathe
air-fighting during one of the European air war's most interesting
years: 1942. Presented on a day-by-day basis, each of Johnnie's entries
is supported by an informative narrative written by the renowned
aviation historian Dilip Sarkar, drawing upon official documents and his
interviews and correspondence with the great man.
As would be expected, Johnnie's diary also includes numerous personal
references. On 14 November 1942, for example, he married Paul Ingate,
and much about the young couple's relationship is documented. This
diary, therefore, is a unique insight into how fighter pilots lived,
loved - and died.
