A pilot who flew the first mission from Fairlop aerodrome in the Second World War and survived being held captive in prisoner of war camps for three-and-a-half years has died.
Harold Bennett was only 20 when he was shot down over the English Channel and marked his 21st birthday in the Stalag VII A camp, near Moosburg, Germany.
His son Michael and friend David Martin spoke to the Recorder to pay tribute to his remarkable life.
Harold, born on July 26 1921 in Bermondsey, enlisted in July 1940.
He joined 603 Squadron and flew the first Fairlop mission on November 15 1941.
But he was captured after his Spitfire was shot down while flying off Boulogne on December 8.
David, chairman of the Fairlop Heritage Group, said Harold passed out and woke to find a German man approaching with a knife. But the man cut off his uniform and rubbed him with a blanket to warm him up.
Harold, one of thousands of prisoners forced to endure the “Long March” in early 1945, later had a run-in with the Russians.
The 24-year-old and his friends had ignored orders from Allied soldiers not to leave the camp.
“They were sitting in a kitchen when the Russians burst in with rifles,” said Michael, 62. “And he said they just beat the hell out of this elderly couple.
“They were really petrified – he thought this was it.”
The Russians eventually accepted the men were English and told them to return to the camp.
Harold also experienced lighter moments during the war, damaging his boss’s plane after borrowing it and giving German guards cigarettes in exchange for items such as a camera.
After the war, Harold, who married Eileen in 1947, trained as an engineer, eventually lecturing at a college in Kent.
But he visited Fairlop several times.
David said: “It has been an honour to know him, someone to whom we owe so much and who sacrificed a great deal.
“He will be sadly missed.”
Michael added: “He was a firm disciplinarian, but fair. He kept his mischievousness right up until the time he lost consciousness.”
Harold died aged 92. He leaves behind Michael, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
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