Adrian Francis Laws Pilot Officer Adrian Francis Laws Early life . Laws was born in East Dereham , Norfolk and attended the County Primary School at Wells - next - the sea , Norfolk until the age of 14 . His parents ran a sweet shop on Staithe Street . His daughter , Susan Mary Laws , was born two weeks after his death . He learned to shoot using a . 410 shotgun to hunt rabbits in the fields around Wells - next - the - sea with his classmate Allan Tuck , who named his first son Adrian Francis in memory of his friend . Military career . Aged 19 , Laws enlisted with the RAF in 1931 as an Aircrafthand and trained as a Storekeeper . He applied and was accepted for pilot training and began flying at No . 4 Flight Training School at RAF Abu Sueir in July 1935 . He joined No . 64 Squadron RAF at Ismailia on 20 April 1936 , as a Sergeant - Pilot . Equipped with two - seater Demons they were to return to the UK in September 1936 . By late 1939 Laws was flying Blenheims out of RAF Church Fenton in the Leconfield sector . 64 Squadron was then converted to the new Spitfire Mark I which a nearly promoted Flight Sergeant Laws now flew . 12th June 1940 . Laws first success came on 12 June whilst participating in the hunt and destruction of what appeared to be a lone He 111 . The battle was still in its early days and this is reflected by the length and detail of the combat reports . Later on in the battle a more sanguine Laws is to comment " closed into attack and usual dog - fight ensued " . But here , both he and Gilbert describe every twist and turn of the engagement . The incident also shows the deadly effect of radar and observer tracking . The lone bomber trying to sneak out at zero feet was not allowed to escape . Laws and Gilbert , supposed to fly in section , actually left the ground ten minutes apart . So it was Gilbert who found the raider first and emptied his guns into the enemy aircraft . One engine was damaged and one gunner was killed or injured . A short time later the He 111 was to become the object of Laws ' attention . He hounded the damaged bomber to wave - top height with two passes . While two other Spitfires arrived to take shots at what was now a wallowing enemy , Laws emptied his guns and watched the bomber settle on the water . His reluctance to leave his first kill is evident as he describes circling the plane and seeing the crew inflating their dinghy . 29th July 1940 . By this time 64 Squadron were being led by Aeneas MacDonell , a man who would go on to have a distinguished RAF career . He had been heavily involved in the fighting over the convoys on 25 July . He had bagged a Ju 87 Stuka before he himself was badly shot up in combat with a Ju 88 off Dover . MacDonnell however was unhurt and managed to land safely . MacDonell , official head of the Glengarry clan , was to say about his squadron ' s pilots " . . . it ' s like holding a team of wild horses when there are Germans near " . On this day the pilots of 64 Squadron found their action amongst the German fighters when they engaged a flight of Me 109 s over St . Margaret ' s Bay at eight o ' clock in the morning and Laws downed an Me 109 . 11th August 1940 . The German ' s planned " Eagle Day " was cancelled for the second day running due to the cloudy weather that prevailed . In place of this operation the Luftwaffe mounted a " free chase " over Sussex . The formation consisted of more than 30 fighters and the German plan was to draw the RAF interceptors away from bombing raids going into Weymouth and Portland . Four squadrons took the bait and 64 Squadron were vectored to intercept the force as it started to make its way home . The rear section was the first to spot the enemy who had a height advantage . It seems the squadron had found about half the retreating force of Me 109 ' s . There then followed a strange processional attack by the Germans which overshot the 8 Spitfires of 64 Squadron who then pounced to their own attack . The Me 109 that Laws attacked was on the tail of Blue 1 . Assuming the Messerschmitt had some ammunition left , the pilot of Blue 1 had reason to be thankful . It was Pilot Officer Gilbert , who was destined to survive the war . There is almost an air of disappointment in the description of the enemy tactics in the last paragraph of the Squadron Combat Report . They may have been largely new pilots , drafted in to replace mounting Luftwaffe losses of more experienced fighters . Or maybe they had expended too much ammunition and fuel in previous engagements and were simply running for home . The cloudy conditions meant that none of the aircraft engaged could be confirmed as destroyed . 13th August 1940 - Eagle Day . Bomber attacks were directed towards British airfields on this day but a combination of fighter resistance and thick clouds served to foil them . Also it seems that the bomber crews were suffering from frayed nerves . Laws was a member of " Flight B " when they spotted a formation that they identified as Dornier 215 s . The enemy , set on a north - easterly course , needed no more persuasion than the sight of Spitfires to turn and run for home . Once on the run the formation opted simply for speed and wasted no energy on evasion . However , when Laws latched onto his tail one German pilot decided to fight for his life . He led Laws into a series of steep diving turns that challenged both Laws and his Spitfire to keep up . The German , with his rear gunner disabled from the initial attack , may have believed he ' d done enough to lose his Law ' s Spitfire and straightened up to dive for cloud . He reached the cloud , but took more hits to the fuselage . 15th August 1940 - The coining of " The Few " . The results of the engagements that took place on the 15th can be seen as a victory for the escorting German fighters in as much as they held back the intercepting British fighters and the bombers pressed home their attack . It also symbolises the courage of the newly christened " Few " as Churchill was to describe them . . Eighty - eight Dornier 17 ' s approached Deal escorted by more than 130 Me 109s . At least 60 more Me 109s crossed the Kent coast at Dover . Three airborne squadrons were sent to intercept - 36 British fighters against 278 enemy planes , odds of more than 7 - 1 , fighter - to - fighter odds of 5 - 1 . It was the 60 Messerschmitts over Dover that were to meet 64 Squadron . The Squadron Combat Report well conveys the swift and dangerous environment of the ensuing battle that raged back across the Channel towards the French coast . MacDonnell waded into four Me 109s , destroying one before being forced to evade the attack of two more . Gilbert knocked an Me 109 off the tail of a Spitfire with a devastating five second burst before himself being hit . Laws bagged his second confirmed Me 109 with a beam attack as the enemy slowed slightly at the top of a turn . Two more three second bursts into the tail of the diving enemy set the Me 109 ablaze . 18th August 1940 - The Hardest Day . On this day a low level flight of Dorniers from the Luftwaffe ' s 9th Staffel and another force of Junkers 88s , combined with a higher level bombing group of more Dorniers to completely fox the defences and deal out severe damage to RAF Kenley ' s airfield . Adrian Laws and Flight Sergeant Gilbert seem to have administered a coup de grace to an unfortunate bomber and added insult to the injury by claiming an He 111 . Laws went on from the engagement with the Heinkel to save an unknown Hurricane pilot by sho0ting down a Me 110 from his tail . It was to prove to be Law ' s last ' kill ' . Death . Laws fatal accident was witnessed by American pilot Art Donahue . His diaries , later published as " Tally - Ho ! - A Yankee in a Spitfire " noted : Later , Donahue writes : The accident . The character described as " Nels " in Donahue ' s account was in fact Sgt . Frederick Fenton Vinyard . This 24 year old from Birmingham had joined 64 Squadron on 15 September . Laws was flying Spitfire P9564 and Vinyard piloted K9805 . Both were acting as a target formation for a section of Spitfires who were carrying out practise fighter attacks . Who the other pilots were is not recorded , but it is known that Sgt . Hopgood , Sgt . Limpenny and Pilot Officer Stanley were new arrivals at 64 Squadron at the end of September . They may well have made up the " attacking section " . Laws and Vinyard were flying at an altitude of when the accident occurred at 10 . 45 . The following is from an Air Ministry and sources quoted by the Ministry were the RAF Casualty index and the P file held in archive at Hayes : Exactly how the accident happened is unknown . The following is from another Air Ministry letter written to the author . Vinyard ' s other two section members on that day were Flying Officer A . J . A . Laing and Pilot Officer Arthur Gerald Donahue .