Lefty
Well-known member
Thought I'd post this from something I subscribe to as I know there are quite a few interested in history and particularly WW2.
'18 August 1940, 80 years ago yesterday, was a brutal day for William Pelham Hopkin. He was the youngest of three brothers. The oldest had joined the Indian Army before the war and the middle brother, Alan, the RAF. The latter flew low over the family home in the late 30s and William was sold, nothing would stop him following his older sibling into the Air Force. Alan took him up for his first flight.
Aged 19 he completed training just in time to be sent to France where his unit was decimated during the Battle of France. In July his beloved brother was killed returning from Cherbourg. Hopkin’s 54 Squadron was in the thickest of the fighting for the whole of July and August.
On 18 August he took to the skies an extraordinary six times. On the last occasion he encountered, his laconic log book entry tells us, ‘350 bombers.’ His scrapbook is full of pictures of smiling young pilots with ‘RIP’ written neatly beneath their names.
William broke down in 1941 and was sent to convalesce in a hospital on the coast. While he was there it was deliberately targeted by a Luftwaffe raid which killed dozens of recovering aircrew and medical staff. He survived that but died just before turning 50.
His family told me that he was done in by his wartime experiences. The victory that he contributed to would prove decisive in the course of the Second World War. A struggle fought by just a tiny fraction of those who would clash later on the Eastern Front but no less important for all that.
It is always a mistake in war to mistake scale for impact, and sacrifice and effort of Hopkin, all of ‘The Few,’ and their comrades in Bomber Command and on the ground, would break Hitler’s ambition as surely as the iron hard infantrymen on the Russian steppe. '
'18 August 1940, 80 years ago yesterday, was a brutal day for William Pelham Hopkin. He was the youngest of three brothers. The oldest had joined the Indian Army before the war and the middle brother, Alan, the RAF. The latter flew low over the family home in the late 30s and William was sold, nothing would stop him following his older sibling into the Air Force. Alan took him up for his first flight.
Aged 19 he completed training just in time to be sent to France where his unit was decimated during the Battle of France. In July his beloved brother was killed returning from Cherbourg. Hopkin’s 54 Squadron was in the thickest of the fighting for the whole of July and August.
On 18 August he took to the skies an extraordinary six times. On the last occasion he encountered, his laconic log book entry tells us, ‘350 bombers.’ His scrapbook is full of pictures of smiling young pilots with ‘RIP’ written neatly beneath their names.
William broke down in 1941 and was sent to convalesce in a hospital on the coast. While he was there it was deliberately targeted by a Luftwaffe raid which killed dozens of recovering aircrew and medical staff. He survived that but died just before turning 50.
His family told me that he was done in by his wartime experiences. The victory that he contributed to would prove decisive in the course of the Second World War. A struggle fought by just a tiny fraction of those who would clash later on the Eastern Front but no less important for all that.
It is always a mistake in war to mistake scale for impact, and sacrifice and effort of Hopkin, all of ‘The Few,’ and their comrades in Bomber Command and on the ground, would break Hitler’s ambition as surely as the iron hard infantrymen on the Russian steppe. '
