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This story has been entered onto the site by Philip Hawkins, age 14, on behalf of Billy Atkinson and they fully understand the conditions.

Billy Atkinson was an RAF pilot during world war two. He flew from Biggin Hill on regular sorties during the battle of Britain. He recounted his story to me:

“I was a typical young boy when I was your brother’s age (referring to my four year old brother) dreaming of being in the army. My father had fought in WWI and it just seemed natural for me to join the army, so the day after my 18th Birthday (1934) I enrolled in the Northumberland Brigadiers, but a year later I was forced to quit the army after a serious drill accident. So I joined the RAF and became a spitfire pilot. Although I was also trained to fly the Hawker Hurricane, the spitfire felt the most natural fighter plane for me.
I worked my way through the ranks at the RAF base in Northumberland, until I was the captain of my own squadron by the time that war broke out. I remember asking one of the elder pilots if he thought that we would be sent south, ready for any invasion from the Nazis. I was told to wait, and that is exactly what I did for four months. I was shifted down to Biggin Hill airfield in Kent and was given a brand new Spitfire to prepare for the air attacks from the ever growing ‘Nazi Empire’ as we called it. Then Hitler captured Northern France and the Battle of Britain, as you call it, began. We were put on instant alert, and within a few days, we were fighting against the Messerschmitt fighters, and although they were technically the same style of fighter as our spitfires, we were obviously better with our veteran tactically wise pilots.

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