Defiant Aces

The story of Sergeants Thorn and Barker

Transcript of narrative:

When used purely as a bomber destroyer, the role for which it was originally designed, the Defiant could be an effective aircraft. This was even truer when it was in skilled hands. Flight Sergeants Ted Thorn and Fred Barker were credited with shooting down 12 enemy aircraft during the evacuation of Dunkirk and the Battle of Britain.

Even aircrew like this could have bad days. After an encounter with a Messerschmitt Bf 109 in August 1940, Ted and Fred were forced to bale out of their stricken aircraft. Reputedly, they had to walk to the nearest railway station and wait for a train to take back to their home base. It is said that when Fred’s wife saw him some time afterwards, wounded and dishevelled, he said to her that he had ‘fallen off the back of the lorry’. Ted supposedly corroborated his story.