Hero who makes Biggles look like a wimp: He’s flown more planes than anyone else in history – and took 2,000 Nazis prisoner single-handed. And now, at 94, he’s telling his breathtaking story
Eric Brown must rank as the most extraordinary airman alive. Indeed, open his memoirs at any page and you are left asking a single question: how on earth did this modest Scotsman live to tell the tale? But Captain Eric ‘Winkle’ Brown RN is very much alive and in sparkling form as he pours me a glass of sherry at his West Sussex home and reflects on an astonishing life. This is the man who has flown more aircraft than anyone else in history. He was the first man to fly a jet on and off an aircraft carrier. He has set aviation records that will almost certainly never be broken and is revered as one of the greatest test pilots of all time.
Eric “Winkle” Brown, holder of the AFC, DSC, MBE, and OBE (Air Force Cross, Distinguished Service Cross, Member of the Order of the British Empire, and Officer of the Order of the British Empire). He apparently took 2000 prisoners at Belsen concentration camp with only one pistol and without firing a shot… (Commando comic do daring if ever you heard it). He later picked up a Kings Commendation for Brave Conduct (Similar to a mention in dispatches: acknowledged brave acts by civilians and members of the military in non-warlike circumstances during a time of war or in peacetime where the action would not otherwise be recognised by an existing award.) and lastly the Queen conferred a CBE on this brave man in 1970 in recognition of his service as her Aide Du Camp. I look forward to more information coming out about this man and his incredible story!
History for dessert...... 