World War II
He was over 40 when World War II began, and with No. 57 Squadron RAF, he moved to Metz as part of the Air Component of the British Expeditionary Force, equipped with the Bristol Blenheim light bomber. He volunteered to carry out the squadron's first operational mission, a flight from Metz to reconnoitre Hamm-Hannover-Soest on 13 October 1939. His Blenheim was however shot down by a Me109 flown by Uffz. Stephan Lutjens, of 11./JG 53, near Birkenfeld. Day managed to bail out, suffering burns to his face and hands, but otherwise landed safely by parachute. He was immediately captured by the Germans and placed in the custody of Luftwaffe doctor Hermann Gauch. His two crew-mates, Sgt E.B. Hillier and AC1 F.G. Moller were both killed.
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Famous quotes containing the words world war, world and/or war:
“Fifty million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.”
—Anonymous. Popular saying.
Dating from World War I—when it was used by U.S. soldiers—or before, the saying was associated with nightclub hostess Texas Quinan in the 1920s. It was the title of a song recorded by Sophie Tucker in 1927, and of a Cole Porter musical in 1929.
“The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied ... but written off as trash. The twentieth-century consumer economy has produced the first culture for which a beggar is a reminder of nothing.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“Newspaperman: That was a magnificent work. There were these mass columns of Apaches in their war paint and feather bonnets. And here was Thursday leading his men in that heroic charge.
Capt. York: Correct in every detail.
Newspaperman: He’s become almost a legend already. He’s the hero of every schoolboy in America.”
—Frank S. Nugent (1908–1965)