SIMON HUGHES,
Sir, - I very much enjoyed reading the article by Brian Madden (Features, July 9th) on Dubliner Brendan "Paddy" Finucane and his role in the RAF during the second World War.
My mother's brother, godfather to me, also from Dublin, flew with the RAF as a fighter pilot throughout the war. He was known as John "Paddy" Hemingway.
He joined the RAF in 1938 having been accepted for a short service commission. He was only 19. As a fighter pilot he flew the Hurricane, then the Spitfire. He survived the Battle of Britain, having served with the 43rd and 85th squadrons under the command of Peter Townsend.
He was shot down at least five times - once in the English Channel where survival time in the water was only minutes.
In the Italian campaign he was shot down behind enemy lines, where a local family aided his escape by giving him one of their children to walk through a German checkpoint and on to freedom.
Even though John never talked about the war, his closest sister often told us how on many occasions his squadron of maybe only seven Spitfires took off to engage 300 German bombers and their fighter escort on sorties over England. With such overwhelming odds against one's survival, there was no glamour in the task at hand. It was a deadly serious business with very ugly consequences.
Being an Irishman he was, of course, a volunteer, and likewise was awarded the DFC medal.
I am happy to say that John Hemingway is alive and well today and travels between Ireland and Canada. - Yours, etc.,
SIMON HUGHES, Kiltimon, Co Wicklow.