Unearthed: story of the WW2 pilot who saved the Palace

Veteran relives moment he flew into Nazi bomber as dig begins to excavate his Hurricane

It was an astonishing act of bravery which many believe saved Buckingham Palace from a direct hit by a German bomber. Fighter pilot Ray Holmes, out of ammunition after downing another plane from the skies, took the decision to fly his Hurricane directly into an enemy aircraft over central London at the tail end of the Battle of Britain.

It was an astonishing act of bravery which many believe saved Buckingham Palace from a direct hit by a German bomber. Fighter pilot Ray Holmes, out of ammunition after downing another plane from the skies, took the decision to fly his Hurricane directly into an enemy aircraft over central London at the tail end of the Battle of Britain.

Disabled by the impact, the German Dornier bomber ploughed into Victoria Station while Mr Holmes's plane crashed into a nearby street, burrowing into the ground. Mr Holmes bailed out shortly after impact and is still alive today. Now the shell of the Hurricane, buried beneath the road ever since, may be hauled from its tomb during a live excavation for Channel Five later this month.

Mr Holmes's extraordinary act of courage occurred on 15 September 1940 as Britain was besieged by German aircraft and his 504 Squadron was scrambled from Hendon to intercept 17 Dorniers on a bombing run over London.

In an interview accompanying the dig, Mr Holmes, aged 89, said: "I saw three Dorniers on their own. I shot one of them down. The other two turned round and I gave chase after them.

"All the other aircraft had disappeared. I discovered that I was heading for this Dornier. When I fired, my guns didn't operate; my ammunition was used. So I carried on and took his tailplane off with my wing. His tail came off and he went nose down. But I found out that it had damaged my aerodynamics. I had to get out."

As the Dornier plummeted to the forecourt of Victoria Station, Mr Holmes bailed out with his plane landing in Buckingham Palace Road.

"My boots had fallen off with the jerk of the parachute. I was heading for the electric rails of Victoria Station. Luckily I missed those and headed towards the roof of a three-storey house. I ended up dangling just off the ground with my feet in a dustbin."

It has long been assumed the Dornier was heading for the palace, as the building had come under fire just days earlier. Chris Bennett, who is leading the excavation team, said: "We don't know for sure that the palace was the target but that was one obvious target."

The project to find the Hurricane has been a 12-year labour of love for Mr Bennett, an aviation archaeologist, whose dig will partially paralyse a busy area of the city.

Mr Bennett said: "There is that thrill of being the first to hold the control column after all this time. It sounds a bit of a cliché, but it is like shaking hands with history."

Jimmy Earley, 80, witnessed the incident as he played football nearby. He told The Independent on Sunday: "All of sudden there was a terrific ratatatat. We looked up and saw these planes, a small one chasing a larger one. It crashed into the bigger plane and fell from the sky and landed just 20 yards from us. It frightened us a bit, you know."

He ran to see the spot where Mr Holmes had landed. "He was still smiling. What a bloody hero - to smash into a plane all that way up. We shook his hand and there were crowds of women all holding him and kissing him."

The same rapturous reception did not greet the German pilot who was beaten by a mob when he landed in Kennington and died the following day.

The dig team hopes to unearth the Hurricane during Fighter Plane Dig ... Live on 30 May. Normally metal detectors and ground-penetrating radar would be used to find the exact spot, but the amount of debris in London's streets and the depth have made that impossible. "We're 80 per cent sure we're right but we really won't know until we dig," Mr Bennett said. "When we find it, it won't look much like an aircraft. It hit the ground at something like 350 miles an hour."