Flight Lieutenant Robert William Foster(left) chats with 49239 Flying Officer Michael Charles Hughes as he climbs out of the cockpit of his Spitfire Mk Vc following a Japanese raid over Darwin, Australia, on 22 June 1943. Both pilots had 'kills' during the raid.
The two pilots were serving with No. 54 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF), which had joined No.1 Wing (Spitfire Wing) of the Royal Australian Air Force in mid-1942. The unit was responsible for the air defence of the Darwin area following the initially Japanese bombing of the city on 19 February 1942, weeks after their entry into the conflict through the surprise attack on US forces at Pearl Harbour in December.
No. 54 Squadron arrived in Australia on 7 September 1942 and was initially based at Richmond, New South Wales, before moving north to Nightcliff, Darwin, on 17 January 1943.
Foster got the squadron's first victory on 6 February, a Japanese Mitsubishi Dinah. Between 15 March and 6 July 1943 he destroyed four Mitsubishi Bettys, probably destroyed two others and damaged a Betty and a Zeke. He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), gazetted on 13 August 1943.
He returned to England in early 1944 to take up various roles, and was released from the RAF in February 1947 after which time he resumed his pre-war career with Shell and BP. In 2009, he became Chairman of the Battle of Britain Fighter Association.
Foster died on 30th July 2014 after several months of illness. His funeral in Hastings was overflown by Hurricane R4118, which he had flown in action in the Battle of Britain.
Michael Hughes remains much more of an enigma. He survived the war and a notice in the London Gazette in 1959 suggests he had remained in the RAF until that time, at which point he relinquished his commission.
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