[Martin Gleeson]

I have just carried out a detailed check of the 142 Squadron ORB (F540 and F541) for August 1940. I also used relevant sections from the Eastchurch (AIR 28/243) and Detling (AIR 28/192) ORBs, plus the Detling Appendices (AIR 28/193). There is still one set of Delting Appendices (AIR 28/195, mission narratives) that I would like to view but believe there is enough evidence to identify the individual letters for the two Battles lost on 23 August 1940. These are;

L5503 (Mid. Taylor), 'QT-L'
L5582 (Sgt. Pearce), 'QT-J'

All the missions and sorties for August 1940 are recorded in standard format on the F541 with aircraft serial, crew names, times, outcomes but no aircraft letter. There are also two non-standard F541 pages which duplicate several of the missions. These have the aircraft letter but no serial or crew names ! Although certain details in the narrative of each sortie vary slightly one can match the letters given in the non-standard F541 pages to those of the serials/crews in the standard format F541.

Hope this helps,

Martin.