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Flying Officer Ken Wilkinson
Battle of Britain pilot flying Hurricanes, he flew Spitfires with 611 Sqn and then 616 Sqn at Kirton-in-Lindsey and 19 Sqn at Fowlmere during 1940 and after a spell instructing returned to operations on Spitfires, with 234 and 165 Squadrons. After spending time with 53, 24 and 10 Operational Training Units, he left the RAF in November 1945 and served in the RAFVR.
Ken said :
From 1st September 1939 I wrote myself off. I thought, 'you've got no chance' lasting through whatever is going to be. It was quite obvious, in the way the Germans were moving, they were going to make a hell of a war out of it, so I was ready for war. I can remember saying 'we've got to stop this fellow Hitler'. When you think of all the thousands of citizens that were being killed by this absurd bombing. They had to pay for it didn't they. Yes, we lost people. Friends that didn't come back. I don't think we were the sort of people to brood over it, ever. You have to get into an attitude to make sure that you're as cold as a fish. Once someone has failed to return, that's it. Fortune smiled on me and not on some of the others. I can only say that whoever it was who popped off at me, wasn't a very good marksman. It transpired that we were doing something far more important than we thought. As far as we were concerned, it was just that there were some untidy creatures from over the other side of the channel, trying to bomb England and the United Kingdom. And we didn't want them to bomb us. After all, we never asked the Germans to start this nonsense, did we? But they did, and we had to stop them, and we did. It's our country. You die for you country.
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| Flying Officer Ken Wilkinson - Signed Aviation Art Prints, Paintings and Drawings Military and Aviation Signatures |
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| Text for the above items : |
Night Reaper, 4th May 1942 by David Pentland. Hawker Hurricane IIc of top Czech ace Flt. Lt. K.M. Kuttlewascher, No.1 Fighter Squadron on a night intruder sortie from RAF Tangmere. On this mission he destroyed three Heinkel IIIs over their own airfield, St. Andre, in occupied France. |
Doe's Griffin by David Pentland. Portland, England, 30th September 1940. Already an accomplished Spitfire ace with at least 10 confirmed kills, Bob Doe had just transferred from 234 squadron to 238 Hurricane squadron when he intercepted and brought down a Heinkel He111P-2 from I/KG55 Griffin Geschwader. |
Spitfire! by David Pentland. Sussex Coast, England, 16th August 1940. For Donald MacDonald, Squadron leader of 64 Squadron, this particular day was fairly eventful. Catching the JG54 fighters and III/KG55 bombers on the coast, he personally accounted for one Me109E destroyed, another damaged, and a third probable. Continuing his attack he shared in the destruction of a He111P-2, and heavily damaged a second. |
Can Openers by David Pentland. Two Hawker Hurricane Mk.IID tank busters of No.6 Shiny Six Squadron about to attack retreating axis mechanised units, November 1942 at El Alamein. |
| Flying Officer Ken Wilkinson Aircraft details |
 Hurricane Manufacturer : Hawker Built : 14533 | Hurricane Royal Air Force Fighter, the Hawker Hurricane had a top speed of 320mph, at 18,200 feet and 340mph at 17,500, ceiling of 34,200 and a range of 935 miles. The Hurricane was armed with eight fixed wing mounted .303 browning machine guns in the Mark I and twelve .303 browning's in the MKIIB in the Hurricane MKIIC it had four 20mm cannon. All time classic fighter the Hurricane was designed in 1933-1934, the first prototype flew in June 1936 and a contract for 600 for the Royal Air Force was placed. The first production model flew ion the 12th October 1937 and 111 squadron of the Royal Air Force received the first Hurricanes in January 1938. By the outbreak of World war two the Royal Air Force had 18 operational squadrons of Hurricanes. During the Battle of Britain a total of 1715 Hurricanes took part, (which was more than the rest of the aircraft of the Royal air force put together) and almost 75% of the Victories during the Battle of Britain went to hurricane pilots. The Hawker Hurricane was used in all theatres during World war two, and in many roles. in total 14,533 Hurricanes were built. |
| Flying Officer Ken Wilkinson Squadron details |
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Contact Details |
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