[Chris Thomas]

Hi. I'm afraid I do not have photos of any of the aircraft you quote , except 5V-H MN603, but this shows the port side and no trace of a name. Do you have any means of dating the photo of 'Hep-cat'?
Any stripes visible? Trees or buildings in the background?

You don't mention whether Burgess recorded serials or codes or both in his log. Most pilots recorded one or the other, regrettably few records both. 439 Sqn's ORB records serials for all operational flights so if he recorded codes you can match the two although there are pitfalls in this as ORBs can be unreliable one these details. For example, of the 15 or so Typhoons lost or seriously damaged on 439 Sqn in July to September 1944, five had an incorrect serial number recorded.

Of the Typhoons you mention, MN516 details are correct. it was written off after its crash-landing on 24 May 44. You say Burgess flew it until 22 June - I assume this is a typo for May.

MN665 details fit with the records OK. It was damaged on 2 August 44 and after repair it may well have gone to 440 Sqn - it was certainly with them on 24 Dec 44 as I8-K when it was shot down.

MP135. Burgess certainly was not flying it from June 3rd as you state (or is that an error as the dates are the same as the aircraft above?) as it was not delivered to the RAF until 18 July. It is then recorded with 438 Sqn on 18 July 44 and was F3-G when lost on 7 Oct 44. 438 Sqn did use MP134 (5V-Z) and MP136 - 5 and 6 can often be mistaken in hand-written logs. Please check the dates too.
CT