HOW WAS W.E. JOHNS SHOT
DOWN?
W. E. Johns was shot down
on Monday 16th September 1918
whilst on a bombing raid in
a DH4 aircraft.
W.
E. Johns gave at least five accounts about how he was shot down and his rear
gunner, Second Lieutenant Alfred Edward Amey, killed.
The
first account was given to Amey’s family.
More information about what Johns said here can be gathered from the
sale of Amey’s medals.
Amey’s
medals were first sold at Christie’s on 21st October 1991 for
£1320. You can see the information as to
the sale here:-
With
the medals was a letter from W. E. Johns to Amey’s family. This was probably Johns first written account
of what happened. There is the following
quote from the letter explaining how Johns was able to send the family Amey’s
silk scarf. He wrote “I enclose the
scarf. It is simply the piece of silk
most flying men wear around their necks to prevent chafing at altitudes. I took it at first to cover the poor boy’s
face and afterwards as I could not get a bandage to tie up my own face which
was bleeding badly. The Huns of course
took everything else he had. I have
carried the piece of silk ever since thinking you would probably like to have
it”.
The
medals were later sold again on 14th September 2005 by Bosleys, the
specialist military auctioneers. This
time the auction refers to two separate letters written by Johns. You can see the information as to this second
sale here:-
I
would love to read Johns account to Amey’s family, if anybody has it, please
contact me. Some hints as to what Johns
said are given here. In Johns’ letter to
the family he suggests “I believe he sent two Huns to their proper place before
he was shot”. I assume that Johns
account here cannot be relied on as being entirely accurate and it would have
been written to bring comfort to a grieving family, where one would tend to say
things like “he was killed instantly” when perhaps he wasn’t. In fact, in the article accompanying the
sale, it does say that Johns stated to the family that Amey had died instantly
with a bullet to the head and several to the body.
Johns
first published account of what happened first appeared in a magazine called
“Modern Boy”, issue 158, dated 14th February 1931, in an article
called
“Shot
Down from 20,000 Feet!”
The
second, more detailed account, appeared in a magazine Johns edited called
“Popular Flying”, dated June 1932, in an article called
“My
Most Thrilling Flight”. The article was
reprinted (word for word) in the book “Thrilling Flights” in June 1936.
Johns
third published account appeared in a magazine called “Answers”, dated 11th
August 1934, in an article called “Why I Am Still Alive!”
On
11th March 1955, W. E. Johns has a letter published in the Radio
Times where he claimed that it was German Air Ace Ernst Udet who shot him down.
I
also have a private letter (which can be seen below) in my collection where Johns
writes to a correspondent and gives a detailed account of being shot down.
The
separate page of the letter is headed “How I met Ernst Udet”. Johns had convinced himself he was shot down
by Udet, but in fact he wasn’t.
Subsequent research by World War I aviation experts has shown that
credit for shooting down Johns was given to Leutnant Georg Weiner. Johns D.H.4, shot down on 16th
September 1918, was the seventh of nine aircraft that Weiner shot down during
the First World War.
Click here to read an
EXCELLENT online article about Johns last flight by DAVID TATTERSFIELD.
It was called “BIGGLES’
LAST FLIGHT: CAPTAIN W. E. JOHNS AND 55 SQUADRON R.A.F”