Nicholas Gresham Cooke

[3] Following this, he became an aeronautical engineer and learned to fly with Air Service Training Limited gaining a Civil Pilot's Licence (No.

23 Group RAF based at Grantham, Lincolnshire, as personal assistant to the commander, Air Vice Marshal Lawrence Pattinson, and was promoted to flying officer on 27 August 1940.

[5] An unusual fighter for its era, the Defiant had a single engine and was armed with four Browning .303 Mark II machine-guns, in a rear turret operated by an air gunner but had no fixed forward firing guns.

264 Squadron, Cooke teamed up with 348039 Acting Corporal Albert Lippett, a married 37-year-old RAF veteran originally from Great Yarmouth, who lived at Dunfermline.

On 12 May 1940, operating over the Dutch coast, Cooke and Lippett shot down a Heinkel He 111 bomber and on 27 May 1940 they joined several other Defiants to destroy another over Dunkirk.

[17][18] During the afternoon, they joined in the destruction of two Junkers Ju 88 bombers, which brought their score to nine victories and three shared.

A pair of 264 Squadron Defiants.
Defiant Mk 1