Nothing to say about this one, really… [:p]
Image source: Wildcat Aces of World War 2 by Barrett Tillman
Here’s the caption which accompanied the photo:
This truly remarkable photograph, borrowed from Capt Brown’s own private scrapbook, shows him leading his section in a rather unorthodox fashion whilst undertaking an interception over the Atlantic in September 1941. The shot itself was taken by the pilot of a Pan American Boeing 314, nicknamed ‘Dixie Clipper’, which was flying a routine passenger run between the Azores and Lisbon, in Portugal.
At the time the US was still neutral, and the skipper of the flying boat took serious umbrage to being intercepted at close quarters by the trio of No 802 Sqn fighters. He duly sent his photographic handiwork to the American Embassy in Lisbon, who in turn forwarded it to the London consulate. From there, it finally reached the Admiralty, who instructed a young Sub-Lt Brown’s commanding officer to reprimand him. ‘Winkle’ duly lost three months seniority in rank for, as his boss wryly told him, ‘a lapse of concentration in the duty that you were supposed to be fulfilling’. Eric’s section mates on this patrol were, to starboard, Sub-Lt Graham ‘Fletch’ Fletcher and, to port, Sub-Lt Bertie Williams.
Fade to Black…
