During the Second World War, Britain and the wider Commonwealth fought valiantly to fend off the global threat presented by the Axis alliance of Germany, Italy, Japan and others. Join us as we highlight three flying aces that served in the air during this unprecedented period.
‘… we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air …’
Winston Churchill
Laddie Lucas
Destined for a life of sport, Percy Belgrave Lucas was born on 2 September 1915 in the old clubhouse at Prince’s Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent, in England. ‘Laddie’, as he came to be known, was the son of the club’s co-founder, Percy Montagu Lucas, and it didn’t take long for him to catch the golfing bug.
By the time he made it to college, Laddie was captain of the golf team and ranked as the top amateur in the 1935 Open Championship. Considered by many to be one of the finest left-handed players in the world at just 19 years old, Laddie also worked as a sportswriter for the Sunday Express, further illustrating his sporting mind.
The outbreak of the Second World War saw the promising sportsman swap the golf course for the cockpit, with Lucas joining the Royal Air Force (RAF) in June 1940. After completing his training in Canada in 1941, he quickly rose up the ranks and commanded the No. 249 Squadron during the Siege of Malta, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross for a daring attack on a formation of enemy bombers and their fighter escort.
Leading from the front and in command of several squadrons in the years that followed, Lucas was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) in 1944 and was subsequently awarded a Bar to his DSO in late 1945, which brought his military career to a close.
After the war, he became a Member of Parliament (MP) and represented the Conservative Party for more than a decade. He went on to resume working for the Daily Express and became an author, penning several books on both golf and the military.
Returning to his first love, Lucas represented Great Britain and Ireland in the Walker Cup in both 1947 and 1949, serving as captain in the 1949 tournament, and helped found the professional tour in Europe in the early 1970s.
In 1981, he became a Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in 1984, he was honoured on the television programme This Is Your Life, four years before he passed away in 1998.
Johnny Checketts
Prior to the Second World War, John Milne Checketts was a mechanic by trade in his native New Zealand. However, his keen interest in aviation led him to enrol in the Civil Reserve for the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) in August 1939 at the age of 27.
Called up in October 1940, he underwent flight training and was finally commissioned as a pilot officer in June 1941. Posted to Britain, Checketts excelled and is credited with the destruction of 14 and a half enemy aircraft during his time with the British RAF, in addition to downing two V1 flying bombs and damaging eight other aircraft. As a result, he is rightfully considered a flying ace in New Zealand’s history.
His storied wartime career saw him not only shot down over occupied France but also evade capture to be repatriated by the French Resistance; he also provided support for raids into Germany and flew in air support of the Normandy landings.
Following the war, Checketts returned to New Zealand a decorated war hero with numerous medals and awards to his name. He remained in the RNZAF as wing commander, in which role he served as the station commander at Taieri Station, before settling back into civilian life in 1954. He passed away in 2006 at the age of 94.
Edward Barnes Sismore
Born in Kettering, England, on 23 June 1921, Edward Sismore was a decorated bomber pilot in the RAF from 1939 to 1976. Entering the service as an airman before being given an emergency commission as a General Duties Branch pilot officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR) in 1942.
Sismore joined No. 105 Squadron and alongside pilot squadron leader Reginald Reynolds, conducted some of the most daring targeted raids of the war. Considered to be the RAF’s finest low-level navigator of the Second World War, he also helped facilitate notable strikes on Berlin on 30 January 1943. During the raids, which were timed to disrupt high-profile speeches commemorating the tenth anniversary of Hitler’s appointment as German Chancellor, three aircraft from Mosquito Squadrons 105 and 139 (Jamaica) disrupted Luftwaffe Commander Hermann Goering’s oration in the morning and Nazi minister of propaganda Joseph Goebbels’ speech in the afternoon.
Targeting such fundamental resources as power stations, steelworks, factories and railway assets, Sismore was part of the 140 Wing RAF deployment that successfully disrupted the Nazi’s feared security police, staging a raid on the Gestapo in Aarhus, Denmark, as navigator to Reynolds in October 1944. A few months later, in March 1945, Squadron Leader Sismore was the navigator in the leading aircraft of a large formation detailed to attack the Gestapo HQ in Copenhagen. Sismore and 140 Wing successfully destroyed their target, allowing some prisoners to escape as a result.
Throughout his career with the RAF, Sismore received several promotions that led to him becoming Director of the Air Defence Environment Team; he was also awarded numerous medals, including the Distinguished Service Order and Denmark’s Order of Dannebrog. For his part in the Berlin raid, Sismore was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), earning two bars to his DFC for the raids on Gestapo HQ buildings in Denmark.
As we celebrate these extraordinary acts, we remember and pay tribute to the service given by those during the war through their personal stories and experiences through the Stories of the Second World War 2025 UK Coin.
MARKING HISTORIC MOMENTS
Imperial War Museums records and tells the stories of those who have lived,
fought and died in conflict since 1914. © IWM
With thanks to Imperial War Museums for their assistance in this project.
