[ajcrou]

Hello,

Sorry for my late response, I am not at home and my internet access is very poor.

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

May I just state what Air Britain (through Jim Halley) says in the RAF Aircraft booklets.
L2035 17Sq/601Sq No further trace 13.5.1940; presumed lost in France.
P2580 615Sq Lost in France May 1940

Thank you for this information, which seems to confirm the identification of the Hurricane, as P2580.

Originally Posted by Peter Cornwell

details of the loss of MURTON-NEALE as published in my BoFrT&N (2007) were based entirely upon Brian CULL’s earlier work on the subject, Twelve Days In May (1995). His original sources are not known to me. CWGC records did at least confirm that MURTON-NEALE came down near Courrière, south-east of Namur, & it was documented that MARCHFELDER (plus two un-named pilots of II./ZG1) filed claim(s) for ‘Spitfire(s)’ on 13 May 1940 - but with no time nor location specified as far as I am aware. Significantly maybe, MARCHFELDER’s unpublished personal account ‘Pilots, Saints, & Sinners’ made no mention of the claim and in retrospect perhaps I should have given this more credence.

Thank you for the clarification. Indeed, I had difficulty tracing another source (other than Brian Cull's book) related to this claim. It is true that my documentation on the Luftwaffe, and more specifically the Bf 110, is limited. I mainly use the book : Zerstorer: Messerschmitt 110 and Its Units in 1940.
And, I was curious to know if there were other sources confirming this hypothesis or not.

Originally Posted by ClinA-78

I remember the crashsite of his Hurricane is shown in a "Bataille aérienne" dedicated to Hurricane ops in May '40 by fellow J-L Roba.

Yes, there is a photograph of the probable Hawker Hurricane of Murton-Neale. Available online here (photo in the right column, first page) : http://www.avions-bateaux.com/upload...739dd678bc.pdf

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

We also know that during the dark days in France in 1940 lots of things did happen which neither found its way into the ORB and certainly not were entered on the record cards, so the details are not foolproof.

Indeed, I try for a few months to reconstruct the activity of No.615 Squadron during the fighting in May 1940, quite complicated given the limited documentation available.
But, unfortunately, each new information (for me) brings more questions / questions than answers.


Thanks,
Alexis