Few RAF pilots flew operationally from the beginning to the end of
the Second World War. Fewer still can claim to have taken part in
the Battle of France, Battle of Britain, El Alamein, and the D-Day
landings as well as bomber escort duties in the closing days of the
war. Peter Ayerst is one such man and his tale is, as yet, untold.
Illustrated with photographs, this is the previously unpublished
story of an RAF Second World War fighter pilot ace. Peter Ayerst
joined the RAF in 1938 on a short service commission and was
despatched as part of the Advanced Air Striking Force to France at
the beginning of September 1939, gaining his first kills. He became
the first RAF pilot to engage a Bf 109 in combat and survived a
confrontation with twenty-seven enemy aircraft, his Hurricane
riddled with bullets. With the fall of France, Peter was recalled
to England where he spent the Battle of Britain summer of 1940
instructing at No. 7 OTU Hawarden, shooting down a Heinkel He 111
bomber.
Peter was then posted to North Africa in 1942 where he was shot
down in the desrt and crash-landed in a minefield! He flew a
variety of missions, culminating in a strafing of Axis motor
targets 400 miles behind enemy lines, personally detroying a
Junkers Ju 52 and seventeen vehicles. Following a period of
instructing in South Africa, Peter returned to Britain in 1944,
flying high-altitude Spitfires on interception flights over France.
He took part in escort duties on D-Day and at the end of 1944 he
was awarded the DFC. Peter also flew bomber escort duties of the
Ruhr and escorted King George VI's personal flight. In the closing
months of the war he flew Spitfires in support of mass daylight
bomber raids deepinto Germany.
By the war's end, Peter had flown every operational mark of
Spitfire and Hurricane in the RAF's inventory. Alex Henshaw was
instrumental in choosing him as a test pilot for Vickers at Castle
Bromwich where he flew production Spitfire Mk XIs, XVIs and
22s.
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