Bacon Victoria - Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer: An RAF Officers Memoir of the Battle of France 1940

W ritten by my grandfather, Alastair Dyson Panton, Six Weeks of Blenheim Summer is a dramatic account of flying Bristol Blenheims as an RAF reconnaissance pilot in France and the Low Countries during the summer of 1940. I found the memoir in an old brown envelope, nestled in a box among some of my fathers wartime model aeroplanes, stored in his garage, shortly after he died in August 2012. There is much pain and sadness in BlenheimSummer, which I think is why my father hid it away. However, after reading it I felt compelled to take it further, both to remember Alastair, and as a mark of gratitude to the many brave and courageous men who served with him. I think Alastair would have wanted those who died to be remembered.

The memoir starts on 11 May 1940, and takes the reader through the following six weeks, a part of World War Two now known to history as the Battle of France. The battle actually started one day before, when Germany began its invasions into the Netherlands and Belgium. Grandfathers six weeks finish on 18 June, a few days before the battle ended with the successful occupation of France by Germany.

In those six weeks, Alastair was shot down three times. First, after being shot at, he crash-landed his burning aircraft in enemy territory and, while evading capture, brought his injured crew back to Allied lines (only to learn of the rapidly worsening military situation). Second, when an unexploded shell penetrated his cockpit and destroyed his steering column, leaving him no option but to coax his Blenheim back to English airspace and bale out of his burning aircraft (only to find his parachute was on fire). Third, while reluctantly following orders to fly low over the Dunkirk beaches in order to encourage the retreating British soldiers, his Blenheim was shot down by friendly fire. He was forced to crash-land on the beach, jump from his port wing and race away from the exploding remains of his aircraft (finding himself next to a surprised Roman Catholic padre who, moments earlier, had been celebrating Mass on the seashore), before joining the miraculous exodus from Dunkirk by boat.

However, the Boys Own quality of some of his deeds cannot hide the dreadful and painful reality. Only the day before he departed from Nantes, the troopship Lancastria, crammed with RAF troops as well as civilian women and children, had been bombed and sunk by German aircraft near the port of St Nazaire some 40 miles away. Over 3,000 lives were lost, including members of Alastairs unit who were also returning to England.

The memoir brings to life the fear, loneliness, physical pain and terrible sadness that Alastair, and so many of his comrades, came to live with. It also draws on the bravery, camaraderie and humanity that made these unpredictable days more bearable. It is the story of a pilot and his plane. He captained a Bristol Blenheim throughout this time, sometimes taking to the skies as many as five times a day. He came to see the Blenheim as his hero it was the vehicle from which he and his crew were able to spot enemy tanks and subsequently save lives. As Alastair writes: The affection and trust I had quickly developed for my Blenheim under normal conditions became wondering admiration as it triumphed over shocking abuse. Even in the terrifying adversity, Alastair describes how his poor, gallant, blazing Blenheim allowed him to make a safe crash-landing and thus dramatically rescue his two crew members.