Date: 20th September 1940 (Friday)
Unit: No. 92 Squadron
Type: Spitfire I
Serial: X4417
Base: Biggin Hill
Location: West Hougham
Pilot: P/O. Howard Perry Hill 41847 R.A.F. Age 20. Killed
REASON FOR LOSS:
One of three brothers of a New Zealand family he applied in 1938 for a short service commission with the Royal Air Force, sailing for England on December 16th. His training completed he was posted to 92 Squadron in October 1939. On September 15th 1940 he was credited with 3 Do 17's destroyed and 3 days later he carried out an act of chivalry in that after sending down a Ju88 some 7 miles off shore he contacted a rescue launch - guiding it to the rescue of the crew.
On September 20th 1940 at around 10.30 am 92 Squadron took off from Biggin Hill to intercept a massive sweep by the Luftwaffe. Some 20 minutes later they were bounced by Bf109's of JG51. P/O. Hill was the first of two victims to fall to Oberst. Werner Mölders at 27,000 Ft off Dungeness. His Spitfire dropped out of formation, after the fight ended, fellow pilots saw his aircraft maintaining a steady descending course towards the base but all attempts to contact him over the R/T failed. X4417 then vanished into thin air - despite search patrols nothing was found the search was then terminated.
Then a month afterwards an Anson pilot reported a wreck of an aircraft partially hidden by dense foliage in the top of a wood. A recovery team set out, with the aid of ladders, found the Spitfire 40 ft. up on the tree tops. P/O. Hill was found dead in the cockpit, it was clear from the wounds that he had been hit in the head by a cannon shell he almost certainly died at the moment of the attack, many miles away over the South coast. His Spitfire returning to a strangely controlled landing on the tree tops! (This information has been disputed but we are unable to date to clarify this)
His younger brother was also killed whilst serving in the Royal Air Force see HERE.
(Information supplied by "Battle of Britain, Then and Now.")
P/O. Howard Perry Hill (A.R.S. Private collection)
Oberst. Werner Mölders of JG51 (A.R.S. Private collection)
Photo courtesy of C.W.G.C.
Burial details:
P/O. Howard Perry Hill Hawkinge Cemetery Plot O. Row 1. Grave 30.
Son of Jack Stanley and Dorothy Helen Hill, of Spring Creek, Marlborough, New Zealand.
Research by David King (Aircrew Remembrance Society. August 2009) With thanks to the following: The superb work of the C.W.G.C. "Fighter Command Losses" - Norman Franks.
