[Andy Saunders]

Nicolson was not the only RAF pilot shot at whilst descending and there quite a good many others who were others who were "roughed-up" or abused when mistaken for Germans. (One was even locked up by the Police until his unit could vouch for who he was) One such case of mistaken nationality was John Ellacombe, shot down over Essex on 31 August 1940. As he descended a Home Guardsman, George Emberson, fired two rounds at him but thankfully missed. In Ellacombe's own words: "I informed him in very fruity language that I was English. When he discovered I was RAF he was kindness itself but when two Police officers arrived they were very hostile and aggresive and Mr Emberson had to restrain them". The point is, of course, that since we have known instances of such occurrences involving RAF/allied airmen over the UK who were mistaken for Germans then it is, in a sense, merely confirmation that this was certainly the kind of treatment sometimes handed out to Luftwaffe aircrew. In fact, I believe that such events could well have been rather more frequent than one might suppose. The concept of who the "Good Guys" and the "Bad Guys" were might have been surprisingly skewed at times. That said, for every distasteful deed there was surely an equal number of chivalrous, compassionate and humane acts from both sides.