Awakening is usually the moment we emerge from nightmares, rather than enter them.
But when 21-year-old Australian-born Richard Hillary regained consciousness on September 3, 1940, he found himself in freefall plummeting towards the North Sea.
Moments earlier, Hillary's Spitfire aircraft had become engulfed by flames during a Battle of Britain dogfight, and he had passed out before he could bail out.
