Luxembourg The Netherlands Belgium France Britain 1941–1943 1944–1945 Germany Strategic campaigns The Battle of Barking Creek was a friendly fire incident over the East Coast of England in the earliest days of the Second World War.

At 6:15 a.m. on 6 September 1939, a radar fault led to a false alarm that unidentified aircraft were approaching from the east at high altitude over West Mersea, on the Essex coast.

[1] Misleading back-signals giving a reciprocal bearing was obviated by relay sensors but early in the war this back cut-off failed.

Fired upon by John Freeborn, he had been hit in the back of the head and was dead before his Hurricane crashed at Manor Farm, Hintlesham, Suffolk, about 5 mi (8.0 km) west of Ipswich.

[4] The court martial of John Freeborn and Paddy Byrne was heard in camera at Bentley Priory, the headquarters of Fighter Command.

Malan gave evidence against his pilots, stating that Freeborn had been irresponsible, impetuous and had not taken proper heed of vital communications.

[10] In 1990, Hough and Richards wrote, This tragic shambles, hushed up at the time, was dubbed in the RAF 'the Battle of Barking Creek' – a place several miles from the shooting-down but one which, like Wigan Pier, was a standing joke in the music halls.

[8]In 2003, Patrick Bishop wrote that the incident exposed the inadequacies of RAF radar and identification procedures, leading to their being greatly improved by the time of the Battle of Britain, a view echoed in a 2012 publication by Philip Kaplan.

[20] Malan went on to be one of the most successful Allied fighter pilots of the war, shooting down 27 Luftwaffe aircraft and rising to group captain.