Percy Burton Hurricane ramming Messerschmitt Bf 110

Out of ammunition and mortally wounded after a lengthy treetop chase and exchanges of gunfire, 249 Squadron Hurricane pilot Percy Burton suddenly veers across and smashes off the tail of a Messerschmitt Bf110, losing his fighter's wingtip and sending both aircraft tumbling uncontrollably into the ground. They came down in fields just outside Hailsham in East Sussex.

Burton and both the Luftwaffe crew - pilot Hauptmann Horst Liensberger, Gruppen Kommandeur of V./LG 1, and his rear gunner, Unteroffizier Albert Kopge - were killed outright.

We will never know whether the ramming on 27 September 1940 was intentional, although that is how it appeared to witnesses. His fellow pilots believed that Burton was so badly wounded he knew he would not survive anyway. But calls for his gallantry to be recognised officially were answered, eventually, only with a "mention in despatches".

My bird's eye depiction was commissioned for the RAF Memorial Flight Club's 2020 Yearbook.