[Peter Cornwell]

This case is a good indication of the parlous state of existing records for RAF units operating in France in the period May – June 1940 and the potential minefield this creates for latter-day researchers.
The No.114 Squadron ORB (AIR27/882) records six crews were sent to Plivot for operations with No.139 Squadron on 14 May 1940. The same source shows one machine (R3703 – a No.53 Squadron machine?) returning damaged after a morning recce and three more aircraft (L9464 , N6230, & P4827) being lost during the afternoon attack on troop concentrations between Givonne and Bouillon, with L9466 (another No.53 Squadron machine?) returning damaged from the same mission. P4827 is recorded as that shot down by Bf109s south-west of Sedan crewed by Sgt BRADY (114), Sgt WILLSHER (114), and LAC MADDOX (139) both Sergeants baling out unhurt near Sauville. CWGC records show LAC MADDOX buried at La Cassine.
The No.139 Squadron ORB (AIR27/958) records that six of their aircraft manned by No.114 Squadron crews took part in an attack on enemy convoys between Sedan and Givonne on 14 May 1940 from which three failed to return. The No.114 Squadron ORB provides the serials N9179 (sic), & P6902 as being two of them with Halley’s RAF Serials also giving N6223 as recorded ‘missing’ by No.139 Squadron on 14 May 1940.
So much for primary sources. Franks in his Valiant Wings (1988) is faithful to the respective Squadron ORBs (though he corrects the more obvious errors) while Chorley’s RAF Bomber Command Losses (1992) offers interesting alternatives with N6223 instead of N6230 (for the NEWBERRY machine) which is itself transposed with P6902 (that flown by the POWER crew). But both authors show P4827 as the BRADY aircraft consistent with details extracted from the No.114 Squadron ORB. Arnaud Gillet’s Rupture Sur La Meuse (2004) mirrors Chorley’s version of events with the additional information that in 1941 the serial number N6230 was apparently found on wreckage at Remilly-Aillicourt confirming the identity of POWER’s machine beyond reasonable dispute. But he too gives P4827 as the aircraft flown by the BRADY crew.
My own interpretation of events as published in BoFrT&N (2007) followed my usual path of trusting the primary sources unless there was good cause to do otherwise. However, on reflection, I accept that I could have given more weight to Gillet’s evidence regarding N6230 being POWER’s aircraft. And photo evidence received post-publication now shows P4827 to be the No.139 Squadron aircraft XD*P later abandoned in France so evidently not that flown by the BRADY crew despite what the ORB says. It would seem, therefore, that N6230 (not P6902) was that flown by the POWER crew, making N6223 (not N6230) that flown by the NEWBERRY crew, and P6902 (not P4827) possibly that flown by the BRADY crew ? P4827 may not have even been involved in the attack on 14 May 1940.