John Freeborn's Spitfire over Headingley

Headingley's Battle of Britain pilot John Freeborn married his wife Rita during the war. They were together until her death in 1980.

Bob Cossey's biography of John, A Tiger's Tale, tells of John's 1941 mock attacks over Leeds to impress Rita and his parents in a Spitfire.

That John decided to come from Manchester airfield to Hawarden (south-west of Manchester near Chester) via Leeds (considerably north-east of Manchester) says much about the cocky grammar-school boy's attitude:

Rita had been engaged to John's cousin, but that relationship came to an end once she had seen a photo of John in the Yorkshire Post which she cut out and kept. The love affair began when John took a Master and colleague down to Ringway (Manchester) where a pupil had landed a Spitfire with a problem and the aircraft needed collecting and flying back to Hawarden [airfield near Chester where John was training pilots].

John's return in the Spitfire was via Headingley where he put on something of an aerobatic display over his parents' home - he was remembering stories he had read of World War One German aces who would be prone to aerobatting to entertain those on the ground!

A low level pass over the rooftops of Headingley as a farewell gesture had people diving for cover - was this the Luftwaffe on a bombing run?

John regularly announced by beating up Rita's house then landing at Yeadon when he came home for a weekend's leave. She always knew when he was about! But his unauthorised antics were inevitably brought to the attention of AOC Training Command - John was on the carpet once again!