ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 227294
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| Date: | Wednesday 15 May 1940 |
| Time: | 11:00 LT |
| Type: |  Hawker Hurricane Mk 1 |
| Owner/operator: | 85 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | N2656 |
| MSN: | VY-E |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | S of Ath, Hainaut -
 Belgium
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | Lille/Seclin Airbase, France |
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I N2656 (VY-E) of 85 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (failed to return) for a combat air patrol 15 May 1940. The pilot survived, but was seriously injured with multiple burns. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/403): "Hurricane N2656 failed to return from an operational flight, 15 May 1940. Flying Officer T G Pace injured".
According to an autobiography of the pilot - Flight Lieutenant Thomas Gilbert Pace RAF 39243 - derived from his letters and personal papers, written at Park Prewitt Hospital in Basingstoke in November 1940, to a Canadian girl recounting his experiences while recovering from surgery:
Wednesday 15 May 1940 and the Netherlands fell to the German advance. Pace and his colleagues were in action again – after another late night when they returned from ‘the town’ at 02:30 to be up an hour later.
The town in question may have been Lille, about 10 kilometres (six miles) from Fretin where the officers of No. 85 Squadron were billeted. The squadron had moved from Lesquin – officers to a chateau, which had been owned by the Duke of Marlorough in 1708 with NCOs and men to billets in the village of Ennetierre – around 13 May when the squadron’s Officer Commanding, Squadron Leader J O W Oliver decided that Lesquin ‘was unhealthy due to the fact that there was a munitions factory in the village’.
Airborne that morning at 11:00 with two of the squadron’s other pilots (Pilot Officers Allen and Ashton), together they attacked a group of 15 German bombers. Pace set one on fire. Then he was too was attacked, possibly by a Messerschmidt Bf 110 escort as he describes being hit by 20 mm cannon shells.
His engine faltered, smoke came from under the dashboard. His aircraft had the oil pipe severed and cannon shells damaged the under wing radiator. Then his radio was shot out. Knowing how valuable his aircraft was – given the losses the squadron was experiencing – he decided to force-land in a field.
Unfortunately as he came in low, blinded by smoke he hit a tree with his right (starboard) wing. The force of the landing jammed the canopy (which he had previously opened in case he needed to parachute out) shut. The forward fuel tank behind the instrument panel exploded, showering his right thigh with burning fuel.
With the flames taking hold he heaved at the canopy and managed to open it. Then his parachute caught on his seat. Somehow he cleared it and threw himself out of the burning cockpit. But his troubles were far from over. He fell onto the port wing, landing on his shoulder in the burning port fuel tank
He rolled on the ground to put out the fire on his clothing and body. Picking himself up he walked half a mile until he met an Army motorcyclist who summoned an ambulance. He was eventually evacuated to England, arriving first at Exeter Hospital before coming to Prewett Hospital near Basingstoke in Hampshire. Sir Harold Gillies and his team had established their reconstructive surgery unit away from the main hospital buildings at Rooksdown House, a former private wing when the hospital was an asylum.
Pace had subsequent operations carried out on his eyelids and nose by the plastic surgeon, Sir Harold Gillies. For men like Thomas, there was the slow, painful and disfiguring process of recovery. Recover he did, and returned to service with a spitfire squadron but whether he was truly fit to fly one will never know. He was KIA 3 December 1941. He is commemorated on The Runnymede Memorial.
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft N1000-N9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1977 p 14)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/403: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502074
3. http://www.beaumont-union.co.uk/WW2.html
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1803727/pace,-thomas-gilbert/
5. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030011651
6. https://iwmvolunteerlondon.wordpress.com/2017/11/06/the-patient-flying-officer-thomas-gilbert-pace-no-85-squadron-raf/
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ath
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-Jul-2019 19:30 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 17-Jul-2019 19:31 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Narrative] |
| 18-Jul-2019 10:48 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator] |
| 26-Jun-2022 20:44 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location] |
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