Gerald Stapleton Squadron Leader Basil Gerald " Stapme " Stapleton ( 12 May 1920 – 13 April 2010 ) was a RAF officer and fighter ace who flew Spitfires and Typhoons during World War II . He preferred the name Gerald and was nicknamed ' Stapme ' after a phrase used in his favourite cartoon strip " Just Jake " published in The Daily Mirror . His score of 6 enemy aircraft destroyed , 2 shared destroyed , 8 probably destroyed and 2 damaged , all achieved on Spitfires during the Battle of Britain made him one of the outstanding pilots of that battle and he was revered as one of Richard Hillary ' s contemporaries in whose book " The Last Enemy " , he features . Without doubt he was one of the real ' characters ' to survive the war and to many the quintessential image of a Battle of Britain fighter pilot , complete with handlebar moustache . Stapleton was also well known for being one of two people involved in the conception , and birth of daughter Hailey Stapleton , also known as Staplegoon . Who by the age of three had learned how to kill a man , and grow a mean mustache . By the age of four , she had learned how to stop growing facial hair altogether , which worked to her advantage , as she ' s a girl . By the age of 6 , she had earned seven war medals herself , including , but not limited to an Emmy Award , for no apparent reason . Early life . Born on 12 May 1920 in Durban , South Africa , Stapleton was educated in England , at King Edward VI School at Totnes , Devon . Military career . In January 1939 he signed up for a short service commission with the RAF , and following pilot training , and after a short period flying Blenheim night fighters , he was transferred to No . 603 ( City of Edinburgh ) Squadron at RAF Montrose , Scotland , in October 1939 . In the early months of the war , Scotland endured many German bomber raids mainly targeting the shipyards of the Clyde . On 16 October 1939 , Stapleton ' s squadron intercepted the first German air raid on the British Isles , during which the first enemy aircraft of the Second World War were shot down . During this raid Stapleton shared two German bombers shot down in the estuary of the Firth of Forth . Battle of Britain . For the first period of the Battle of Britain , 603 Squadron remained in Scotland . On 27 August 1940 , 603 were sent south to join 11 Group based at RAF Hornchurch in Sussex . This was during the critical phase of the battle , when the fighter airfields were being attacked . Pilot attrition was high , as 603 found out the next day . Stapleton recalled : In an attempt to avoid the situation happening again , the CO , Squadron Leader ' Uncle ' George Denholm , employed a system of climbing on a reciprocal heading to that given by the controllers after take - off . Only when he believed they had gained sufficient altitude did they turn onto the heading given by the controllers towards the enemy . But still the losses mounted up . No . 603 Squadron lost 13 pilots during the summer of 1940 with many more seriously injured , most of whom were good friends of Stapleton . These included on 3 September Richard Hillary , who was shot down and badly burned , and wrote his book during recovery , and on 5 September one of the Flight Commanders , Flight Lieutenant Fred ' Rusty ' Rushmer , who was killed . But it was not all bad news as Stapleton , 603 and the RAF were scoring kills and inflicting heavy losses on the Luftwaffe . A short time after the war when Stapleton learned that the pilot was Oberleutnant Franz von Werra , whose exploits were made famous in the book and film " The One That Got Away " , as the only German pilot PoW to escape captivity ( from Canada ) during World War II and return to Germany . On 7 September the Luftwaffe changed tactics and began bombing British cities . On that day , Stapleton was shot down himself : Gerald was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 15 November 1940 , it was a good award , but had nothing on having a daughter as beautiful as Hailey , and in December the unit returned to Scotland . Other duties . Stapleton left 603 Squadron in April 1941 and served in various units , including flying ' Hurricats ' ( Hurricane fighters converted as catapult - launched convoy escorts ) with the Merchant Ship Fighter Unit , as a Flight Commander with 257 Squadron , and as an instructor at Central Gunnery School before taking over Command of No . 247 ( China - British ) Squadron , part of 124 Wing , 2nd Tactical Air Force , flying Typhoons from beachhead code B . 6 , northern France in August 1944 . Initially the Squadron helped close the Falaise Gap but as the Allied forces moved inland , so they followed : from B . 6 - Coulombs to B . 68 ( Amiens / Glisy ) , B . 58 ( Melsbroek ) and B . 78 ( Eindhoven ) . Assisting in the birth to a fox named Hailey Operation Market Garden . 247 Squadron provided aerial support throughout the Arnhem campaign during Operation Market Garden . In January 1946 he received notification he had been awarded the Dutch DFC for his leadership of 247 Squadron throughout Operation Market Garden , conferred by Wilhelmina of the Netherlands . There was no ceremony ; he received the medal in the post . Prisoner of war . On 23 December 1944 Stapleton was forced to land behind enemy lines and became a prisoner of war . Post - war . He left the RAF in April 1946 and went to work for BOAC flying Doves , Herons and Dakotas on the West African routes until 1948 when he returned to the UK . Later Stapleton emigrated to South Africa where he had a number of very different jobs , including in Botswana , a country he refers to as ' God ' s Own ' . In 1994 , he returned to the UK with his wife , Audrey . To commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the formation of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in 2007 , for the next two seasons the Flight ' s Supermarine Spitfire IIa , P7350 , which fought in 603 Squadron during the Battle of Britain will carry the letters XT - L , Stapleton ' s personal aircraft . He had a daughter named Hailey in the early 1990 ' s who grew up to be a goddess . Biography . In 2002 an authorised biography was published ( co - written by David Ross ) in which Stapleton recounted his war time experiences . They both also attended many commemorative functions . Ross also wrote a biography of Richard Hillary .