Spitfire Ace of Aces: The Album

The Photographs of Johnnie Johnson

Dilip Sarkar MBE

• Publisher: Air World
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9781526791665
• eBook ISBN: 9781526791672
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

Air Vice-Marshal James Edgar ‘Johnnie’ Johnson CB, CBE, DSO & Two Bars, DFC & Bar, DL was a character literally from the pages of Boys’ Own: an individual who became the RAF’s top-scoring fighter pilot 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. In time, Johnnie came to command a Canadian wing in 1943, when the Spitfire Mk.IX at last outclassed the Fw 190, and participated in some of the most important battles of the defeat of Nazi Germany, including Operation Overlord and the D-Day landings in 1944, Operation Market Garden and the airborne assault at Arnhem, and the Rhine Crossings, throughout all of which Johnnie also commanded Canadian wings. Johnnie’s remarkable career is revealed through this unparalleled collection of archive photographs, the majority of which are drawn from his own personal album or from other members of the Johnson family. Many have not been published before. Between them, they present a fascinating insight into the man himself, the machines he flew, and the men he served alongside.

Alfred Edgar Johnson, Johnnie’s father, pictured whilst a sergeant in the Leicestershire Constabulary.

Johnnie with his mother, Beatrice.

Johnnie’s uncle, Charles Rossell, who won an MC in the Great War and inspired his eldest nephew with tales of derringdo. Recognising potential, Charles Rossell paid for Johnnie’s education at Loughborough Grammar School.

Johnnie, for once following behind, and brother Ross on a family outing.

Johnnie (centre) whilst playing rugby at Loughborough Grammar.

Off to war: September 1939. Sergeant J.E. Johnson of the RAF Volunteer Reserve reports to 1 Initial Training Wing at St John’s College, Cambridge.

Johnnie, extreme left, a member of No 1 Flight of 1 ITW; from left: ‘Mathieson, Fox, Booth, Roach, Poulton, West, Sage’, between them posted to Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands and Army Co-operation. Peter Fox flew Hurricanes with 56 Squadron in the Battle of Britain, surviving being shot down, and Bob Poulton flew Spitfires in ‘Sailor’ Malan’s 74 Squadron, winning a DFC; both were later prisoners of war.

A still ‘wingless’ Sergeant Johnson (second row, fifth from the right) at 5 Flying Training School, Sealand. The crosses indicate those who did not survive the process.

No 5 Course at Marshall’s Aerodrome, Cambridge, pilots’ accommodation.

Johnnie (centre) with other trainee pilots at Marshall’s. He loved the camaraderie of the service.

Johnnie (left) with two unknown pilots, wearing Sidcot flying overalls, at Marshall’s. A Fairey Battle light bomber stands behind them.

Johnnie (second right) at Marshall’s with Bob Poulton (extreme left), ‘Mathieson and Kendall’. John Kendall (extreme right) also flew Spitfires, with 66 Squadron, in the Battle of Britain, and wrote a chapter in the book Ten Fighter Boys by Dizzy Allen and Athol Forbes. Sadly, he lost his life flying a Hurricane over the freezing Atlantic with the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit – his last radio transmission was to report the location of downed enemy airmen.

Johnnie converted to Spitfires at 7 Operatio...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Introduction
• Chapter01
• Acknowledgements
• Bibliography