Last Survivor of Churchill’s Few Seeks Heroic Italian Girl Who Saved Him During WWII

by EH

In a heartfelt plea, the final living RAF fighter pilot from the iconic Battle of Britain, 104-year-old Group Captain John ‘Paddy’ Hemingway, is reaching out to the public in an effort to locate the courageous Italian woman who risked her life to rescue him during World War II.

“I would like to meet that little girl who saved me from the Germans,” expressed Hemingway, a Dublin native who found himself shot down in Copparo on April 23, 1945. Hemingway, on a mission to strike a German column near Ferrara, had to make an emergency landing after his Spitfire took ground fire.

Remarkably, this marked the fourth time Hemingway had been shot down and lived to tell the tale, a fortunate streak he humorously attributed to “the luck of the Irish.” Stranded behind enemy lines, Hemingway owed his survival to a local Italian family who rescued him before the Nazis could take him captive.

Guided by Italian partisans, the family harbored Hemingway despite facing grave threats from German troops searching for the downed pilot. Disguised in peasant clothing, Hemingway found an unexpected ally in a seven-year-old Italian girl who, hand in hand, led her “papà” to safety beyond the Gothic Line after navigating through the darkness for hours.

Nearly eight decades later, Hemingway remains deeply grateful for the bravery of the child who risked everything to save him. Reflecting on the ordeal, he admitted, “For all those hours, I was scared as hell, not for my life, I’m Irish, but I was terrified of becoming the cause of the death of that brave little girl.”

Now, Hemingway is determined to express his gratitude in person, launching an appeal to locate the woman, who would be approximately 85 years old if still alive. The plea has gained momentum on social media in Italy, with users sharing the story far and wide in the hopes of reuniting Hemingway with his wartime savior.