RAF
Medals Of RAF Vet That Vanquished Record Number Of V1 Bombs Sold
The medals of an RAF hero who saved countless lives by destroying 61 of Hitler's V1 flying bombs have sold for £21,000.
Squadron Leader Joseph Berry shot down a record number of the unmanned missiles before he was killed in action with the final stoic words: "I've had it chaps, you go on."
The airman put his life on the line by flying after the deadly "doodlebugs" that landed on indiscriminate targets during the Second World War.
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Because the V1s travelled at 400mph, pilots had to dive from 5,000ft to build up enough speed before closing in on them at a range of just 200 yards to shoot them out of the sky. Often, debris from the flying bombs shattered through the fuselage of the Hawker Tempest planes.
Sqn Ldr Berry - a tax inspector before the war - claimed more than twice the number of V1s than the next most successful pilot in the RAF's Fighter Interception Unit.
Sqn Ldr Joseph Berry was killed while on a raid to destroy a rail yard in northern Germany, from where V1s were being transported to launch sites.
He was struck by groundfire, causing him to slump over the controls. His comrades radioed him to pull out of a nosedive - only for the fatally-injured Squadron Leader to reply: 'I've had it chaps, you go on'. He was 24.
German soldiers prepare a V1 flying bomb for launch.
Photos provided courtesy of Anderson & Garland/BNPS and Wikimedia Commons.
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