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Re: Trying to find 249 Sqn Hurricane code.
There's a BoB story (squadron unspecified) of a visiting Hurricane Mk.II prototype having the squadron code numbers added whilst the pilot was having a cup of tea and chatting. There's another photo of a battle-damaged Spitfire with neither unit nor individual codes. So it may be possible that a previous unit's codes were retained for three days, but I doubt that it is "safe".
Similar but probably unverifiable stories: in 20 Days in May Brian Cull refers to a 607 Sq Hurricane as AF.C although it had only been taken over from a previous unit the day before. Now whatever may happen on a English airfield at the height of the BoB, I don't think it would have happened on a French airfield, and that not 607's original base, in frantic days of the early Battle of France. In Malta: The Spitfire Year, Christopher Shores (et al) refer to Beurling's 249 Sq Spitfire BR301 as UF.S, it having been left behind on Malta when 601 Sq left for the Western Desert. As this was in a quiet period, I suspect that here code retention would be unlikely.
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