- Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
 
 - Flt Lt William Louis Buchanan "Bill/Johnnie" WALKER died yesterday aged 99. During the Battle of Britain he flew Hurricanes with 616. Sqn "South Yorkshire" squadron.
 
 RIP.
 
- howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
 
 - when you think that the likelihood of him being killed in his 20's he certainly deserved to live to such an age.
 
 r.i.p
 
- Guest 683- Registered: 11 Feb 2009
- Posts: 1,052
 
 - HIGH FLIGHT
 
 Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth
 And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
 Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
 of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things
 You have not dreamed of—wheeled and soared and swung
 High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
 I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
 My eager craft through footless halls of air....
 Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
 I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
 Where never lark nor even eagle flew—
 And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
 The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
 Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.
 
 John Gillespie Magee
 
 
 RIP and thank you.
 
- Guest 693- Registered: 12 Nov 2009
- Posts: 1,266
 
 - Thank you, Mark.  That's one of my favourite poems, a wonderful tribute to the few. - True friends stab you in the front. 
- Guest 653- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,540
 
 - Very sad and doubly so at 99, just missing out on the 100.
 
 All those who flew in the Battle of Britain were very brave men.
 
 RIP indeed.
 
 
 
 Roger
 
- Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
 
 - I have just read somewhere that he was shot down over the Channel during the battle by the famous German ace Werner Molders.   Thankfully surviving to carry on the battle. 
- Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
 
 - Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing. 
- Guest 710- Registered: 28 Feb 2011
- Posts: 6,950
 
 - Ignorance is bliss, bliss is happiness, I am happy...to draw your attention to the possible connectivity in the foregoing.