This guy was in the thick of it:
May 11, 1940: Crash lands in the Netherlands; walks for three days back to base.
August 18, 1940: Hit off the Essex coast and rescued from the sea.
August 26, 1940: Plummets 10,000ft before parachuting onto Essex marshland.
May 13, 1941: Parachute fails to open properly — he lands in a dung heap in the garden of the poet Walter de la Mare.
July 29, 1942: Heading to London to receive his DFC from the King, his RAF bomber crashes during take-off.
April 23, 1945: Bails out over enemy territory in Italy, chased and shot at by Germans, but led to safety by a six-year-old girl.
Hate to be a spoilsport but he got shot down 5 times? Was that normal? Or was he not very good at dogfighting?