A Falmouth volunteer pilot, who destroyed an enemy aircraft before crash landing into the sea off of North Cornwall 70 years ago on Thursday, was remembered this week.

Pilot Officer Albert Brenton “Len” Harvey was forced to ditch his black-painted Beaufighter seven miles off of Trevose Head, enduring five hours in the freezing night-time waters before he and his observer made it back to safety.

The Beaufighter – a type of long-range heavy fighter used by the British during World War Two - had been crippled by a dogfight with an enemy Junkers Ju 88, but despite heavy damage pilot Harvey pressed home his attack and successfully brought down the German bomber.

Shuddering and spewing oil, the stricken Beaufighter dropped an engine and cartwheeled into the Atlantic, taking Harvey and his observer, Bernard Wicksteed, with it.

Miraculously, the pair survived the impact and with only a single one-man emergency dinghy between them, struggled back to shore.

Harvey swam a great chunk of the distance and when Wicksteed could go no further, the pilot swam alongside the inflatable – steering it to shore while the observer collapsed on board from exhaustion.

Once ashore, at what is believed to be Bassett’s Cove, Harvey managed to scale the sheer cliffs near Hell’s Mouth and went to fetch help from a local farmhouse.

For his efforts he was immediately awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) by King George VI, which recognises valour under fire and is second only to the Victoria Cross as a military decoration.

Harvey died long after the war had ended, on February 28, 1981 at home in Falmouth.

His son, Peter Harvey, now lives in Penryn and is rightly proud of his hero father – who worked in a tobacco and gun shop on Market Strand during the day and would cycle the 18 miles to Predannack Airfield every evening to fight the Luftwaffe.

Peter said: “My father was very secretive. He never said anything about it – his medals were in the boxes and they were never on display.

“He and his navigator were the first two to ever survive a crash in a Beaufighter. Within a week he was awarded an immediate DSO and the navigator a DSC [Distinguished Service Cross].”

Pilot Officer Harvey was also made a member of the “Goldfish Club” – a worldwide association of people who have crashed over water and owe their lives to a life jacket, dinghy or other inflatable device.