Battle of Barking Creek

The Battle of Barking Creek was a friendly fire incident over England on 6 September 1939, resulting in the first death of a British fighter pilot in the Second World War.

At 6:15 am on 6 September 1939, a radar fault led to a false alarm that unidentified aircraft were approaching from the east at high altitude over West Mersea, on the Essex coast. In response, No. 11 Group ordered six Hurricanes to be scrambled from 56 Squadron, based at North Weald Airfield in Essex. The sector controller, Group Captain David Frederick Lucking, sent up the entire unit of 14 aircraft. In addition to these and unbeknown to the rest of the pilots, two Pilot Officers took up a pair of reserve aircraft and followed at a distance.

Hurricanes from 151 Squadron (also from North Weald), and Spitfires from 54, 65 and 74 Squadrons based at Hornchurch Airfield scrambled. With the war only three days old, none of the Royal Air Force pilots had seen combat and few had seen a German aircraft. Communication between the pilots and command centres was poor and there was no procedure for pilots to distinguish between British and Luftwaffe aircraft. Identification friend or foe (IFF) sets were still being developed and not had been installed in many RAF aircraft.

With everyone in the air expecting to see enemy aircraft and no experience of having done so, 'A' Flight of 74 Squadron saw what they believed were German aeroplanes and their commander, Adolph "Sailor" Malan, allegedly gave a clear and definite order to engage. Two of the three, Flying Officer Vincent 'Paddy' Byrne and Pilot Officer John Freeborn, opened fire. Malan later claimed to have given a last minute call of "friendly aircraft – break away!" but whether this was true, the call was not heard by the attacking pilots. Richard Hough and Denis Richards wrote that further losses were prevented by the 151 Squadron commanding officer, Squadron Leader Edward Donaldson, who alerted his pilots that the attacking aircraft were British and gave the order not to retaliate.

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