The second landing

Text: Jan Bobek

Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

Cat. No. 84199

British fighter pilot “Johnnie” Johnson is one of the most significant figures in the history of air warfare. With 41 victories (34 solo and 7 in cooperation), he became the most successful Allied airman fighting the Luftwaffe in Western Europe. However, his journey to the cockpit of the Spitfire was by no means straightforward. He faced a number of rejections along the way and had to overcome the side effects of a pre-war rugby injury. From the end of 1940, he became fully involved in the combat activities of No. 616 Squadron RAF, and within its ranks in 1941, he scored 6.5 individual aerial victories and received a DFC .

In July 1942 he was appointed commander of No. 610 Squadron RAF and led it into combat over the Allied landings at Dieppe in August 1942. During this operation he was credited with shooting down an Fw 190, as well as 1/3 of a Bf 109 and shared damaging another Fw 190.

In March 1943, he became commander of the Canadian Wing at Kenley (later redesignated No. 127 Wing RCAF). While in command of the Wing, he scored 14 solo victories and five more in cooperation by the autumn of that year. He took the helm of the No. 144 Wing RCAF in March 1944 as Allied forces prepared for the Normandy landings. By that time, the Allies had already conducted a number of successful landing operations in the Pacific, Africa, Sicily, and Italy.

The Western Allied forces, backed by American industry, which had become the proverbial “Arsenal of democracy”, were able to execute the Normandy landings in June 1944, as well as the Saipan landings, accompanied by a naval and air battle in the Philippine Sea. On the Eastern Front, the Soviets launched Operation Bagration in late June 1944, during which they inflicted the greatest defeat in German military history on Nazi forces in the territory of Belarus. This success would not have been possible without the massive material assistance of the Western Allies.

Johnson was the most successful fighter pilot in the UK on active service in the spring of 1944. At the time of the Normandy landings, his No. 144 Wing was one of the finest units of the 2nd Tactical Air Force, and Johnson's squadrons were the first units to operate from liberated territory in France. This gave them an advantage over their colleagues who were still based in England, allowing the experienced Canadians to engage the enemy far more frequently. They duly took advantage of these opportunities. Thus, Johnson supported a second landing in France, but this time without retreat.

During that period, Johnson added nine more individual victories to his account. He scored the first kill of the streak on June 16 after 9 p.m. northwest of Villers-Bocage. However, this encounter was proof that the German adversaries were far from defeated. Although their fighter units had been weakened by the systematic Allied campaign directed at them in the first half of 1944, there were still experienced leaders and wingmen in their ranks. It was only in the following months of fighting over Normandy that exceptionally heavy losses were inflicted on these units.

 A  typical mission of the fightings in June 1944 was assigned to a formation of eight Fw 190 A-8s from I./JG 1 in the evening of that day. The pilots were tasked with flying to the area near Valognes, where their objective was the free pursuit and attack of enemy ground columns. Upon their return, they encountered Johnson's formation in the Vire-Falaise area and successfully shot down four Spitfires of No. 443 Squadron RCAF. Only one of the airmen survived, and among the deceased were Squadron Leader J. D. Hall and Mexican pilot F/O Luis Perez-Gomez. The German airmen claimed six victories, with Lt. Anton Piffer claiming his 34th and 35th victories, while their 6th victories were claimed by Uffz. Dobrat and Uffz. Rathofer. Piffer was killed in action the following day.

Johnson, in one of his books, recalls this fight with respect for his opponents. Johnson struck his adversary low above the ground, recording it with gun camera, causing him to crash without a chance to bail out. The pilot, Fw. Alois Wenke of 2./JG 1, remained missing along with his Fw 190 A-8 “Black 2”. The other German pilot, Uffz. Fritz Hofmann of 3./JG 1, was wounded but saved by parachuting from his “Yellow 6”. However, it is not clear whether his aircraft may have been hit by one of the downed pilots of No 443 Squadron RCAF or by S/L H. W. McLeod, who scored a Bf 109 in that area that evening.