Michael was keen to join in the Battle of Britain and on turning 18, he enlisted in the RAF, receiving call-up papers in February 1943. After kitting and initial training, he started his journey from Greenock, Scotland in September 1943. This was a long journey via the Atlantic (to dodge the U-Boats), arriving in Gibraltar 8 days later, and continuing through the Mediterranean, finally docking at Suez in Egypt. Michael endured several more months of travelling through the African continent, via desert to Durban in South Africa and up to Bulawayo in Southern Rhodesia. Flying training continued and he received his service wings on the 3rd November 1944. He received a few hours training on Hurricanes before graduating to Spitfires during time with 71 Operational Training Unit (OUT) in Ismailia Egypt.
In early April 1945 he joined 601 (County of London) Squadron, who were based at Bellaria in north-east Italy. With the war entering its final phase the Germans were entrenched on the banks of the River Senio and British troops needed strong air support to help drive the Germans back across the River Po and out of Italy.
The mission was to cut off the supply line of ammunition to the German front, by bombing and blowing up bridges across the River Po, and destroying any potential ferries or transporting vehicles. The breakout across the Senio began on April 9th 1945, the Wing flew 121 sorties that afternoon in an uncompromising bombardment on the German targets. For eighteen days the attacks, with two or three sorties continued relentlessly, day in, day out, from dusk till dawn. At the beginning of the mission, they started with almost 100 aircraft. However by the end of the mission, anti-aircraft fire had claimed 55 aircraft, and another 41 were so badly damaged that they couldn’t be repaired by ground crew. Nine pilots had been killed, and three were missing, one of whom was a Prisoner of War. Three more were injured and several bailed out behind enemy lines and were able to return.
OC 601 Sqn perceived the last four to six months of the war in Italy to be the most dangerous and terrifying period of the war, the Germans were now extremely accurate in their ground-to-air firing and faulty detonators on a consignment of bombs used by us had resulted in at least two of our pilots being blown to smithereens in bomb dives.
Michael’s role in the assault, ended abruptly on 20 April 1945, the day before his 21st birthday. He was on a sortie to bomb a position northeast of Bologna on a stretch of road that was entrenched with heavy German guns. Dive-bombing from 6000 feet down to 2000 feet, they found one of the German guns, but on the second run in, Michael felt his aircraft being hit and buffeted around. His plane was pouring out smoke and oil, so, he was instructed to put down in a field. The field looked perfect with beautiful lush grass and he didn’t anticipate any problems, other than those normally associated with ‘crash-landing’ a fighter plane! However, the grass hid deep irrigation channels and on approach to land, one of the a/c wheel legs that was hanging loose, caught in one of the channels. The starboard wing was torn off as the aircraft somersaulted ten times, breaking into three portions, before coming to a standstill, cockpit uppermost with Michael unconscious in the seat.
Michael’s fellow pilots circled above in the sky until help arrived from the nearby Welsh Regiment to take him to a farmhouse and then onto the Army hospital at Rimini. He was not expected to recover from head injuries and left for 8 weeks, unconscious, in a foetal position. A lack of medical knowledge in those days meant that the head injury was left to heal by itself and as the nurses were so busy with other patients, he was often left hungry. With both arms in plaster he was unable to feed himself and over time his weight dropped to five stone.
In July 1945 he was flown back to Shenley Hospital in northeast London before being transferred to No.1 RAF Hospital at Halton. This was a miserable time for Michael; his head injury had caused paralysis down one side of his body; he had little memory; and was unable to read. A minor speech impediment that he had had before the accident had developed into a serious stammer; and the head injury had stimulated bone growth on his elbows and required an operation once the plaster had been removed. Michael only recovered 75% of movement and was left with severe arthritis in both wrists. Following rehabilitation at Chessington, in July 1946 he was invalided out of the RAF with 100% disablement. It took many more years for recovery, it was a long, slow, difficult path throughout his life.
Michael died on 29th February 2012 and is survived by his wife Sylvia.