1. Eric Lock completed his training in 1940 and was posted to No 41 Squadron RAF in time for the Battle of Britain.
29 Facts About Eric Lock
1. 2.
Eric Lock became the RAF's most successful Allied pilot during the battle, shooting down 21 German aircraft and sharing in the destruction of one.
3.
Eric Lock went on to bring his overall total to 26 aerial victories, one shared destroyed and eight probable in 25 weeks of operational sorties over a one-year period, during which time he was hospitalised for six months.
4.
In mid-1941 Eric Lock was promoted to the rank of flight lieutenant.
5.
Eric Stanley Lock was born in 1919 to a farming and quarrying family, whose home was in the rural Shropshire village of Bayston Hill.
6.
Unlike most teenagers, Eric Lock was unimpressed by flying and had soon lost interest.
7.
Eric Lock spent several weeks with his squadron before taking a two-week leave pass in July 1940 to marry his girlfriend Peggy Meyers, a former "Miss Shrewsbury".
8.
Eric Lock returned to his unit and soon began combat patrols over the North of England, defending British airspace against Luftflotte 5 based in Norway.
9.
Eric Lock was bored by the patrols as it involved chasing lone enemy raiders without success.
10.
The machine-gunner ceased firing and Eric Lock left it at 5,000 feet.
11.
Eric Lock was going to claim only a probable, but another No 41 pilot saw it crash into Seaham Harbour and confirmed his victory.
12.
Eric Lock soon attacked the Ju 88s, downing one of their number.
13.
Eric Lock shot down two Heinkel Eric Lock 111s over the Thames Estuary.
14.
Eric Lock circled above the He 111 and noticing a boat he alerted the boat to its presence by flying over it and led the vessel to the crash site.
15.
Eric Lock has displayed great vigour and determination in pressing home his attacks.
16.
In September, 1940, whilst engaged on a patrol over the Dover area, Pilot Officer Eric Lock engaged three Heinkel 113's one of which he shot down into the sea.
17.
Eric Lock has displayed great courage in the face of heavy odds, and his skill and coolness in combat have enabled him to destroy fifteen enemy aircraft within a period of nineteen days.
18.
The Spitfire was so badly damaged that Eric Lock crash-landed in a ploughed field, but was able to walk away.
19.
At 20,000 feet he began to descend and with little control and no means of slowing the fighter down, he could not execute a safe landing; being too badly injured to parachute to safety, Eric Lock was in a perilous situation.
20.
Eric Lock's magnificent fighting spirit and personal example have been in the highest traditions of the service.
21.
Eric Lock underwent fifteen separate operations over the following three months to remove shrapnel and other metal fragments from his wounds.
22.
Eric Lock stayed at the Royal Masonic Hospital with Richard Hillary, another Battle of Britain ace.
23.
Eric Lock remembered Lock having Sulfapyridine treatment and being "vociferous".
24.
On 3 August 1941, Eric Lock was returning from a fighter "Rhubarb" when he spotted a column of German troops and vehicles on a road near the Pas-de-Calais.
25.
Eric Lock is believed to have been shot down by ground-fire.
26.
However, Eric Lock was posted missing on an early morning sortie.
27.
Eric Lock's name is carved on Panel 29 of the Runnymede Memorial, along with the 20,400 other British and Commonwealth airmen who were posted missing in action during the war.
28.
Eric Lock is named as a member of the Guinea Pig Club on a Roll of Honour at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, Sussex.
29.
Eric Lock was credited with 26 air victories and eight probable victories.