I have the F.78 history card for P6616. It confirms what Stig has written above. The card has no indication of damage during 1940. P6616 was definitely flying with 16 (P) FTS from the second half of 1941.
The reference to the crash location at ‘Shrewton’ puzzled me at first when set against John Wray’s recollection of the incident as recorded in ‘THE OTHER FEW’. He noted there that he crash-landed the Battle ‘near Stockbridge’, but his telling of the event could have been many years later. 1 FTS was based at Netheravon at this time, but the unit appeared to use Shrewton as a satellite landing ground. There are many mentions of Shrewton in ‘THE BATTLE FILE’ in connection with 1 FTS accidents during 1940-1941 just in the P6600s and P6700s serial ranges.
The use of the serial P6616 for this incident is either a typo, or more likely in my opinion, an omission of the 1 FTS service from the F.78 (not unknown to happen). P6616 was the very first production Battle (T) trainer and 1 FTS certainly had some of these by July 1940.
Chris, Can you tell us please if the references to P6616, I FTS and Shrewton are in the Casualty Card or the John Wray logbook ? I have to admit I was unaware of these ‘Casualty Cards’ at AHB. Are they similar to the AIR 81 files or literally a card like the F.1180/F.1183s ? Are they very detailed and personnel related only ? Finally, do they have an AIR number ?
Thanks for starting a very interesting thread.
Martin Gleeson.
https://martinaviationpages.com/