UNSUNG HERO
German pilot was fighting for a filthy regime which caused this war. He probably believed in it. Damn the stupid fool for being taken in by lies and corruption poured into his ears. God! If only I had some ammunition.”
Lane, from Harrogate, North Yorks, was barely 19 and working as a lightbulb factory foreman when he signed up in 1936. He quickly became a Flying Officer and was handed the responsibility of flying Spitfires. By the war he had a reputation as a fearless and skilled pilot – attributes which earned him the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery during the Dunkirk evacuations in May 1940.
Lane was promoted again to Leader of the heroic No 19 Squadron, based at RAF Duxford, Cambs. Flying day and night, RAF pilots crammed into hot, fume-filled cockpits and engaged in close combat with German planes. Lane’s account, inevitably, talks about the loss of colleagues – their names removed by official censors.
MODEST
While the book was under the name of BJ Ellan, there are snaps of Lane and his fellow heroes. In one picture he holds the DFC and in others he and fellow pilots relax after missions. But they are never named and their fates are unknown to the reader.
As the book closes, Lane remains modest about his contribution. He writes: “I know of many who could tell you a far, far better tale than I, beside whose experiences mine are nothing.
“It isn’t too easy writing a book in these times. Time is the great enemy and I have to write in spare moments between flights and after the squadron has been released in the evening.” And just as he signs off the telephone rings and his crew – he is now with 167 Squadron at RAF Ludham, Norfolk – are scrambled.
“Thirty plus over the Channel. Good show. Do you want us off right away? OK cheerio. OK boys, we’re off.”
It was to be a desperately poignant epitaph. Last seen pursuing German fighters during a patrol operation on December 13 1942, Lane, 25, never returned home. No crash was recorded and his body never recovered.
His name would later join 20,275 on the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey – a moving tribute to RAF pilots and crew who have no known grave.
But Brian Lane’s legacy would last long after his untimely death. The modest heroism of dashing BJ Ellan, a hero of the Battle of Britain, immortalised for generations in a book written in snatched moments on the airfields of England. The true fighting spirit of The Few.