[rafcommands]

8/10/40

Took off for a mission to Kiel. Experienced problems when switching fuel tanks over the Friesian Islands and turned back towards England in preperation for abandoning the aircraft. Just east of Groningen at 33,000 feet F/L Smalley heard a loud bang and the cockpit filled with smoke. Eyewitnesses on the ground saw the Spitfire attacked by another aircraft and observed white smoke from the radiator under the starboard wing. F/L Smalley was wounded in the right leg and lost conciousness. At 2,000 feet he recovered and found the aircraft in a flat spin so he abandoned. A local doctor tended to the pilots wounds received both in the air and on the ground after he had been pulled through two ditches while entangled in his parachute. The Germans found F/L Smalley at the doctor's house and took him prisoner. The Spitfire crashed into a front garden in Hoofdweg at Noordbroek, 15 km east of Groningen.

Regards
Ross