I was recently sent this image by a follower of my Facebook page with a little information. On digging a little deeper I found this rather remarkable account in one of my books and thought some of you would be interested in it. I suspect he would have got a gong if he wasn't captured! Sunday, 12th May 1940. 12 Squadron, Amifontaine. Fairey Battle L5241. Petrol tank set alight in attack by Fw Sawallisch of 2./JG27 during sortie to bomb the Vroenhoven bridge over the Albert Canal at 0935hrs. Forced landed at St-Germains-les-Mons. Pilot Officer T D H Davy unhurt. Sergeant G D Mansell baled out North East of Maastricht, returning unhurt. AC1 G N Patterson also baled out but hit the tail and slightly injured, landing outside the Hospital des Anglais in Liege where he was later captured. Aircraft PH-G later burned to prevent capture. AC1 Gordon Patterson describes what happened in Norman Franks Valiant Wings: Gordon Patterson noticed a number of abandoned gliders on the ground. Later he was told these were the gliders used by German troops when they flew behind the Dutch lines during the night of 9th/10th May, to capture the bridges. Then he looked up and saw three fighters. At first he thought they were their promised fighter escort, of which these two Battles had seen nothing. However, as the fighters closed in behind, Patterson gave them a warning burst, then, as the fighters began firing too, he recognised them as Me109s: "My first reaction to the firing was to dive under the armoured plating. I had just bent down when I felt a terrific blow on the left side of my head. I put my hand up there, thinking my ear was shot off. It was only the ear piece of my headset, mounted in my leather flying helmet. While I know it sounds stupid finding I was not wounded was such a relief, I sighted my machine gun on the leading aircraft, aiming for the cockpit and fired a continuous burst about ten to fifteen rounds. The fighter immediately caught fire and slanted down in a vertical dive. The other two fighters had broken off to come in again. I had been continually advising Davy where the fighters were and what they were doing. The second fighter came in nearly level. I had had a chance to reload before his attack. Again I fired directly at the cockpit. This aircraft banked slightly then fell into a dive. I never saw anyone bale out. The last came in and I had only fired one short burst when my gun seized up. I re-cocked the handle, but the gun wouldn't fire. With the VGO there was only one stoppage - a defective bullet locking itself in the pan. I pulled the gun down under the armour plating, removed the defective ammunition pan, and put a new one on, cocking the gun ready to fire. When I came up ready to fire, the fighter was only 100 feet away, but not firing. I think to this day, that the fighter pilot had finished me as he must have seen me going down into my cockpit, and he was coming in for a close shot to finish us off. I shot first - I have never missed at 100 feet - and saw my bullets push his goggles off his head. It was a scene that haunted me for a long, long while. His plane was still coming in towards us, on a collision course. I practically screamed at my pilot who, looking back, turned and climbed the plane so that the Me109 passed directly under us, probably not more than 10 feet away. The fight was over. It was then I saw the damage to our aircraft. I had indirectly heard the bullets striking in to the fuselage. I had been hit myself three times plus the smash on the ear, but the Perspex canopy was broken in pieces and the wings were full of holes, leaking fuel like it was vapour trails. On reporting all this, the pilot ordered the observer and myself to bale out. He probably thought the aircraft would catch fire at any instant and, as we were over Belgium, friendly territory, his order was fully justified. I tried to climb over the side but was unable to as I had no protection from the slipstream due to the shattered canopy. I pulled up my seat, stood on it but bending down, and, with my hand tightly holding the D Ring of the rip chord, I threw myself sideways over the side. Here, hindsight must be called in as I do not know exactly what happened. However, my flying suit must have caught on the small retractable step on the fuselage side, and prevented a clean fall. In any case, I was dragged back into the tail assembly. Considerable damage was done to the tail - the leading edge of the empennage was dented in, as was the rudder post. Somehow my parachute opened, and I floated down, unconscious, onto a cement surfaced courtyard between two wings of the Hospital des Anglais in Liege, Belgium, breaking the arched bone in my left foot. I recovered consciousness in a hospital bed, about four hours later after baling out." Tom Davy with his machine streaming smoke and flame, headed down, and ordered his crew to bale out. Davy then managed to nurse his aircraft back, but finally had to crash land at St Germaincourt. Mansell came down safely and got back on a bicycle but Gordon Patterson was later taken prisoner. From Fort Eden Emael by Tim Saunders Flying Officer Thomas (Posted his aircraft pictures a few days ago on the 26th March) dived down to the Vroenhoven Bridge and hit one end of the structure with one of his bombs, but his aircraft was badly hit and he made a forced landing. Thomas and his crew all survived the crash but were all captured by German troops. Pilot Officer Thomas Davy, following in on the attack, bombed short of the target and was hit in the wing: ordering his crew to bale out, he struggled to save his burning aircraft, but cash landed a few miles from their airfield. The aircraft was written off but Davy survived the cashed landing and his crew that had baled out were captured. On 31st May 1940 Pilot Officer Davy was informed that he had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his part in the action earlier in the month. Sadly Thomas Davy would not survive the war and was killed in 1942 at the age of 22. http://www.cwgc.org/…/24…/DAVY,%20THOMAS%20DANIEL%20HUMPHREY
