When a Spitfire pilot was stranded with his unserviceable aircraft on an airfield under enemy fire in Italy, an RAF engineer officer, not qualified as a pilot, knew there was only one solution; to ‘steal’ another Spitfire and fly it to that pilot’s aid. John Nichol relates the remarkable story
Spitfire IXs of 93 Squadron in Italy, 1944.
(PETER ARNOLD)
’Greggs’ Farish, the RAF Engineer Officer who broke all the rules in the book to save a Spitfire pilot and his aircraft.
The winter weather and defensive terrain had slowed the Allied advance to a crawl that eventually stalled at Monte Cassino, 100 miles south of Rome. The Allies, however, decided to outflank the Germans by launching a seaborne landing behind German lines, just south of the capital.
