early morning of may 13th, 1940
His radio was turned on, but it wouldn't be much use to him now. In the early part of 1940 fighter aircraft were still equipped with the monoband TR9D-radio. These had worked very well in Britain, but after the squadron arrived in France on the 10th of may, it became clear that above 14.000 ft only the oversees radio show of the BBC could be received on it - not a totally unwelcome discovery. Lacey was hoping for a news bulletin but he got some popular music instead.
The morning sky was clear and translucent. Below him there were only a few small, widely scattered clouds. Yes, there were some villages on fire down there, but he couldn't see any enemy movements. Where he expected troop movements, only empty roads showed. Disappointed because it looked like there was going to be nothing of importance that he could rapport, he turned in a wide arc, once again searching the heavens for his two other section members. There was not a sign of them.

And then, when he sat there whistling one of the sentimental songs the BBC played for him so obligingly, 9.000 ft below him a plane came into view. With horror he realised that he was looking down on a Heinkel-111 bomber. Horror - not because of the prospect of being shot at, but because he suddenly realised he had to make decisions on his own, something he was not trained to do. He was a twenty-three year old Sergeant Pilot with no combat experience. He longed for his flight commander, or any other experienced section leader. But there was nobody.

A few minutes passed while he ogled the Heinkel, flying unconcernedly below; it had not noticed him. What to do? Perhaps it was better not to rush the attack, he did not want to miss. Think it over. Moreover, the BBC were just at that moment playing 'Plenty of time', a very fitting song it seemed.

Then he discovered the Messerschmitt-109 between him and the Heinkel, that made him wish for his flight commander even more. Squadron 501 knew everything there was to know about the Me-109 - in theory. But none of the other pilots had ever seen one. The Me-109 was faster than the Hurricane; it climbed better and had a 3.000 ft higher ceiling. Official fighter theory prescribed a full throttle power dive attack. Lacey complied; and while going into a steep dive the BBC announced Jack Teagarden and his orchestra with 'Oh, Johnnie!". But - the man that had written the manual had himself never fought. His dive at full power made him overshoot his target. A fraction of a second he realised in amazement that he had had the Me-109 in his sights - but before he could fire, his sights were empty again. He had been so fast in passing that the German pilot had not even noticed him.
He banked, turned and started to climb back up for another try. Jack Teagarden and his men were still at it with 'Oh, Johnnie!'… He now started to stalk his victim warily, manoeuvring in position like he had to fly in formation with the German. He discovered something that annoyed him a great deal. His left foot was tapping incessantly. He saw that he had flown all this time with only his right foot on the rudder and his boot in the toestrap, tapping merrily. He looked down, saw the foot continue to tap and he could not control it.

At 250 yrds the Me-109 seemed still a long way off and too small to hit. Carefully he pushed open the throttle a bit more and edged in to 150 yrds. Still the Me-109 showed no signs of alarm. 100 yrds. To Lacey the distance still seemed too great to fire. At 50 yrds the Me-109 filled his sights like a double decker bus. Even a first-timer would not be able to miss it now. Lacey pushed the fire-button and his eight guns discharched bullets into the slim plane before him. The German fighter exploded instantly into a seething cloud of black smoke streaked with white and red flame. There was a thundering noise, the shock of air movement, and then he was through the cloud. He looked behind him to see only a few fluttering scraps of metal, all that was left of the Messerschmitt.

Full of self confidence Lacey dived for the Heinkel that seemed an easy prey now. That machine started to make some hopeful but ineffective evasive movements. He started to fire at 200 yrds, closing in to 20. A wing of the Heinkel ripped off and the machine spiralled steeply down with a tail of sparks and smoke behind it. At that point the dance band in his ear phones had reached the last bars of 'Oh, Johnnie'. It had only taken the length of a song to get bloodied twice. His left foot had stopped the nervous tapping. He put it back on the rudder and flew back to base.

(James H. Lacey)
Richard Townsend Bickers, Ginger Lacey - fighter pilot, 1964?

first time

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