Walter Johnston joined the pre-war VR on 7/7/39

 

Posted to 152 Squadron on 20 February 1941

 

Joined 92 as a Sgt Pilot  on 8th July 1941,  

 

He had two successful combats for which he submitted combat reports for, one on July 24th (as part of the diversion sweeps for Operation Sunrise the 100 Bomber raid on Brest) claiming two Me 109's probably destroyed and the other on Sept 27th claiming one Me 109 as a probable and another as damaged although he was later led to believe that at some point all the claims were confirmed as destroyed.

 

Johnston was promoted to Flt/Sgt and commissioned as a P/O 25th November 1941, 

 

Left 92 on 15 December 1941 to go to 61 OTU Heston.

 

Subsequent posting to 234 Squadron in 1943/44

 

An account of Johnston’s service with 92 Squadron can be found in 3 books by Peter Caygill, “The Darlington Spitfire”, “Spitfire Mk V in action” and “The Biggin Hill Wing 1941”.

 

An account of his service with No152 can be found on the 152 Hyderbad Sqn website and for his tour with 234 Sqn details can be found in “Dragons Rampant”. 

 

Walter Johnston and Don Kingaby were room mates and close friends untill Don’s death in 1990.

 

Walter Johnston died in 2009, just after No 92 was reformed at Waddington.