Today In History:  06 September  [1939]   --  Battle of Barking Creek, an RAF friendly fire incident

The Battle of Barking Creek was a friendly fire incident, due to the misidentification as hostile of an incoming team of eleven Hurricanes, two aircraft are shot down and Pilot Officer Montague Hulton-Harrop was killed, becoing the the first British fighter pilot killed duringhg the war. Hulton-Harrop's Hurricane was the first aircraft shot down by a Spitfire.

PHOTO: A flight of Hawker Hurricane Mark Is of No. 151 Squadron RAF take off from North Weald, Essex, while beneath them, Hurricanes of 56 Squadron RAF taxy to the northern end of the main runway. Behind them can be seen the wireless masts of the GPO radio station at Weald Gullet.

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Photo Attribution:  Public Domain  via Wikimedia. Hensser H, Royal Air Force official photographer