[Laurent Rizzotti]

Another possibility for a single-engine aircraft loss is the Hurricane IIc HL589 of 1 Sqn that was lost in the night of 25-26 in a night Intruder sortie to Gilze Rijen (according to the book Fighter Command losses).

The pilot, Wt Off G Scott RCAF, was killed and has no known grave, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

According to the ORB of 1 Sqn he took off at 0015 hrs from Manston so could well have been in St Trond area at 0200 hrs. The airfield to which he was sent is not listed in the ORB. The other five pilots flying that night mainly flew over the Netherlands but one visited Antwerp and Turnhout in Belgium and another pushed into Germany towards Düsseldorf (the first time an intruder of the squadron flew over Germany). They reported no fight with German aircraft but saw several possible crashes. One returning pilot reported seiing an aircraft crash and burst into flames at 0215 hrs south of Turnhout (so from Turnhout in the direction of St Trond). It could have been the aircraft reported by the 18 Sqn crew.

Outside time and location, normally no German single-engine fighter would be used for night patrols at this stage of the war, while the Hurricane was there for attacking German aircraft, and so could have attacked the Blenheim by mistaking it for a German bomber. Hit by return fire, it exploded and that may explain why the body of Wt Off Scott was never found. Of course this is conjecture over conjecture, and Scott could just have crashed in the sea for whatever reason.