Spirit of the blue - Hugh Thomas

Few RAF pilots flew operationally from the beginning to the end of the Second World War. Fewer still can claim to have experienced action from Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain, El Alamein and the D-Day landings, to bomber escort duty in the closing days of the war in Europe. Peter Ayerst is one such man and his tale is, as yet, untold. Peter joined the RAF in 1938 on a short service commission and was despatched to France at the outbreak of war. He survived a confrontation with 27 enemy Messerschmitt Me109s but with his Spitfire riddled with bullets. During the Battle of Britain he shot down the first of his eight 'kills', a Heinkel He111. After serving with legendary fighter ace Douglas Bader, Peter was posted to North Africa in 1942 where he was forced to crash-land his Hurricane in a mine field. He later led repeated attacks on enemy motor transport, personally destroying a Junkers Ju52 and 17 vehicles. Peter flew Spitfires on intruder sorties over France before and during D-Day, on bomber escort duty against V-weapons sites and in support of mass daylight raids deep into Germany. Awarded the DFC in December 1944, he also flew as fighter escort to King George VI's Dakota. By th