Hero WWII pilot takes to the skies again to celebrate 101st birthday

07 April 2023 , 19:20

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Bernard Gardiner in the Hawker Hurricane (Image: Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group/CMA)

A Second World War fighter ace has taken to the skies again to celebrate his 101st birthday.

Captain Bernard Gardiner, who flew 71 combat missions, was scrambled once more in the world’s only two-seat Hawker Hurricane.

The dad of one flew Hurricanes and Typhoons more than 80 years ago.

And he took to the air last Sunday as an early surprise present for his 101st birthday on Thursday.

The flight from Duxford Aerodrome, Cambs, was organised by the Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group.

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It is raising £6.5million to rebuild and fly the only airworthy Hawker Typhoon.

Bernard said: “That was wonderful, like being back at home. You’ve made an old man very happy. But I really don’t feel like I deserve all this. I was just doing my job. The real heroes are the ones who didn’t come home.

Bernard and the pilot flying in the Hurricane (Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group/CMA)

“I urge everyone to support this project and donate.”

During the war, Bernard flew raids over Holland, targeting railway lines supplying V1 and V2 flying bombs.

He later became the founding pilot of Jersey Airlines and a few years ago he fulfilled a lifetime ambition by flying in a Spitfire.

Bernard before take-off at Duxford (Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group/CMA)

Bernard was born on April 6, 1922, in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada, where his father ran a cattle ranch.

The family returned to England when he was four and by the time war broke out 14 years later he was working for a photographer in Gloucestershire.

Bernard won a flight with a Flying Circus and by the age of 18 he had signed up with the RAF before joining 193 Squadron.

Bernard flew Hurricanes and Typhoons more than 80 years ago (Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group/CMA)

He said: “The instructor took me up to do aerobatics. What he didn’t know is I’d been practising. He said, ‘We’re going to do a loop together’.

“He then said, ‘OK, you do one’, and I did a perfect loop. He said, ‘Do that again’, which I did. And he said, ‘Right, you’re for fighters!’”

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The grandad-of-two married the late Jean in 1944 and they had son John, who was born in Scotland in 1948 before they moved to Jersey in 1949.

Stephen White