[Andrei Demjanko]

Stig, thanks for your thoughts

Yes, MAW made reference to Axis report, which puzzled me. But while the force-landing of a Hurricane and capture of its pilot mentioned on 26 September, nothing was mentioned by Pz.Gr. Afrika neither on 2 nor on 3 October. Anyway, to lose two PR Hurricanes by force-landing on an Axis landing ground in the same area in the space of a week sounds a bit suspicious to me.

Hurricane fighters and Tac/R Hurricanes were not flying so far into the Axis territory. From memory, most advanced RAF landing grounds were in the Sidi Barrani area [400km from Derna] at the time.

The date of the award could be another clew, although not direct. The date of the award of DFC mentioned could be the date when award became effective, not when it was published. And F/Lt Brown could well have been awarded in recognition for his service prior to capture. This is just a suggestion (or call it speculation), but I found it plausible. The DFC Citation could clear this up.

I'm still not 100% sure it was F/Lt Brown's aircraft, that's why I started this thread. But currently I simply do not have other candidates