Air Vice-Marshal James Edgar Johnson (9 March 1915 – 30 January 2001), nicknamed "Johnnie", was an English Royal Air Force (RAF) pilot and flying ace who flew and fought during the Second World War.
Johnson grew up and was educated in the East Midlands, where he qualified as an engineer. A sportsman, Johnson broke his collarbone while playing rugby, an injury that later complicated his ambitions of becoming a fighter pilot. Johnson had been interested in aviation since his youth and applied to join the RAF. He was initially rejected, first on social, and then on medical grounds; he was eventually accepted in August 1939. The injury problems, however, returned during his early training and flying career, resulting in his missing the Battle of France and the Battle of Britain between May and October 1940.
In 1940 Johnson had an operation to reset his collarbone, and began flying regularly. He took part in the offensive sweeps over German-occupied Europe from 1941 to 1944, almost without rest. Johnson was involved in heavy aerial fighting during this period. His combat tour included participation in the Dieppe Raid, Combined Bomber Offensive, Battle of Normandy, Operation Market Garden, the Battle of the Bulge and the Western Allied invasion of Germany. Johnson progressed to the rank of group captain by the end of the war.
Johnson was credited with 34 individual victories over enemy aircraft, as well as seven shared victories, three shared probable, ten damaged, three shared damaged and one destroyed on the ground. Johnson flew 700 operational sorties and engaged enemy aircraft on 57 occasions. Included in his list of individual victories were 14 Messerschmitt Bf 109s and 20 Focke-Wulf Fw 190s destroyed making him the most successful RAF ace against the Fw 190. This score made him the highest scoring Western Allied fighter ace against the German Luftwaffe.
Johnson continued his career in the RAF after the war, and served in the Korean War before retiring in 1966 with the rank of air vice marshal. He maintained an interest in aviation and did public speaking on the subject as well as entering into the business of aviation art. Johnnie Johnson remained active until his death from cancer in 2001.
Johnson was born 9 March 1915 in Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, to Alfred Johnson and Beatrice May Johnson. He lived and was brought up in Melton Mowbray, where his father was a policeman. Alfred Johnson was an inspector by the mid-1930s. One evening Oswald Mosley, the leader of the British Union of Fascists, held a meeting in the town. The licence for the meeting expired at 10 p.m. at which time Alfred Johnson went alone and ejected the Fascists from the building.
Johnson was educated at Camden Street Junior School and Loughborough Grammar School. Johnson's uncle, Edgar Charles Rossell, who had won the Military Cross with the Royal Fusiliers in 1916, paid for Johnson's education at Loughborough. According to his brother Ross, during his time there, Johnson was nearly expelled after refusing punishment for a misdemeanour, believing it to be unjustified: "he was very principled and simply dug his heels in". Among Johnson's hobbies and interests were shooting and sports; he shot rabbits and birds in the local countryside.
Johnson attended the University College Nottingham (later the University of Nottingham), where he qualified as a civil engineer, aged 22. Johnson became a surveyor at Melton Mowbray Urban District Council before progressing to assistant engineer with Chigwell Urban District Council at Loughton. In 1938, Johnson broke his collarbone playing rugby for Chingford Rugby Club; the injury was wrongly set and did not heal properly, which later caused him difficulty at the start of his flying career.
Johnson started taking flying lessons at his own expense. He applied to join the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF) but encountered some of the social problems that were rife in British society. Johnson felt he was rejected on the grounds of his class status. Johnson's fortunes were to improve. The prospect of war increased in the aftermath of the Munich Crisis, and the criteria for applicants changed as the RAF expanded and brought in men from ordinary social backgrounds. Johnson re-applied to the AAF. He was informed that sufficient pilots were already available but there were some vacancies in the balloon squadrons. Johnson rejected the offer.
Inspired by some Chingford friends who had joined, Johnson applied again to join the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve (RAFVR). The RAFVR was a means to enter the RAF for young men with ordinary backgrounds. All volunteer aircrew were made sergeant on joining with the possibility of a commission. Once again he was rejected, this time on the grounds that there were too many applicants for vacancies and his injury made him unsuitable for flight operations. His ambition frustrated, Johnson joined the Leicestershire Yeomanry, where the injury was not a bar to recruitment. He joined the Territorial Army unit because, though he was in a reserved occupation, if war came, he had "no intention of seeing out the duration building air raid shelters or supervising decontamination squads". Johnson was content in the Yeomanry. One day while riding through Burghley, near Stamford, on annual camp Johnson took a detour to RAF Wittering nearby (now in Cambridgeshire.) Upon seeing a line of Hawker Hurricane fighters Johnson remarked "If I've got to fight Hitler I'd sooner fight him in one of those than on a bloody great horse!".
In August 1939, Johnson was finally accepted by the RAFVR and began training at weekends at the airfield at Stapleford Tawney, a satellite airfield of RAF North Weald. There he received ground instruction on airmanship. Taught by retired service pilots of 21 Elementary & Reserve Flying Training School, Johnson trained on the de Havilland Tiger Moth biplane. Upon the outbreak of war in September 1939, with the rank of sergeant, Johnson entrained for Cambridge. He arrived at the 2nd Initial Training Wing to begin flight instruction. He was interviewed by senior officers in which he said his profession and knowledge of topography, surveying and mapping would make him more useful in a reconnaissance role. The wing commander agreed, but nonetheless, Johnson was selected for fighter pilot training and given the service number 754750 with the rank of sergeant. While assigned here Johnson learned basic military drill, sometimes given the slang name "square bashing".
By December 1939, Johnson began his initial training at 22 EFTS (Elementary Flying Training School), Cambridge. He flew only three times in December 1939 and eight in January 1940, all as second pilot. On 29 February 1940, Johnson flew solo for the first time in Tiger Moth N6635. On 15 March and 24 April, he passed a 50-minute flight test followed by two night flights the following day. The chief flying instructor passed him on 6 May. He then moved to 5 FTS at Sealand before completing training at 7 OTU (Operational Training Unit) – RAF Hawarden in Wales. He he flew the Miles Master N7454 and earned his instrument, navigation, night-flying ratings and practised forced landings. After his training was complete on 7 August 1940, Johnson received his "wings" and was inducted into the General Duties Branch of the RAF as a pilot officer with 55 hours and 5 minutes solo flying.
On 19 August 1940, Johnson flew a Spitfire for the first time. Over the next weeks he practised handling, formation flying, attacks, battle climbs, aerobatics and dogfighting. During his training flights, he stalled and crashed a Spitfire. Johnson had his harness straps on too loose, and wrenched his shoulders – revealing that his earlier rugby injury had not healed properly. The Spitfire did a ground loop, ripping off one of the undercarriage legs and forcing the other up through the port main plane. The commanding officer (CO) excused Johnson, for the short airfield was difficult to land on for an inexperienced pilot. Johnson got the impression, however, that he would be watched closely, and felt that if he made another mistake, he would be "certainly washed out". Johnson tried to pack the injured shoulder with wool, held in place by adhesive tape. He also tightened the straps to reduce vibrations while flying. The measures proved useless and Johnson found he had lost feeling in his right hand. When he dived the pressure aggravated his shoulder. He often tried to fly using his left hand only, but Spitfires had to be handled with both hands during anything other than simple manoeuvres. Despite the difficulties with his injuries, on 28 August 1940, the course was complete. Johnson had 205.25 hours on operational types including 23.50 on the Spitfire.