After being accepted into the RAF, he began training in Brough, Yorkshire, in January 1939. Having completed flight training school, Pilot Officer Hemingway was posted to No. 85 Squadron in Debden, flying Hurricanes. When war broke out, his squadron was sent to Rouen in northern France to provide air support for the British Expeditionary Force.
Hemingway was on the frontline during the Battle of Britain, a campaign which decimated No. 85 Squadron. He was shot down twice in August 1940. The first instance was while intercepting Junkers Ju 88s about 32km off Clacton-on-Sea in Essex. He was in the water for almost two hours before a rowing boat rescued him.
By September 1940, No. 85 Squadron had lost 11 pilots in action and had to be withdrawn. Hemingway was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in July 1941, but the battle had taken its toll on the young pilot. His commanding officer, Peter Townsend, famed for his later romance with Britain’s Princess Margaret, and described by Hemingway as a “first-class wartime leader in a fighter squadron”, was also good at recognising the signs of battle fatigue.
At the time German forces were retreating, and “we were helping them with their retreat”, Hemingway added. It was during this campaign he was shot down for the fourth and final time. During a strafing attack on a German motorised column near Ravenna, his Spitfire was hit by ground fire and he bailed behind enemy lines. After being cared for by Italian partisans, a young girl from the locality guided Hemingway, disguised in peasant clothing, past German positions to the safety of Allied lines.
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