Fly for Your Life

Wing Commander Robert Stanford Tuck, DSO, DFC & 2 bars, was one of the leading Battle of Britain pilots with a score of 29 victories to his credit during this period. In early May 1940 he was transferred to 92 Squadron, flying Spitfires, where he became a flight commander. Within a few weeks when Roger Bushell, the Squadron CO, was shot down Tuck was given command. Later he was given command of a Hurricane squadron - No. 257. He had more than his share of hair-raising escapes when he survived two air collisions, several crash landings and ditched in the English Channel. On a number of occasions enemy fire set his aircraft ablaze and shattered his windscreen - on one occasion tearing his oxygen mask from his face in the process.