[Martin Gleeson]

Part 1 of 3 - due to connection problems.

Hallo Malcolm,

This is a fascinating puzzle, but one where the answer may be in front of us. I put forward the following for discussion.

Please bear with me while I first outline the well-known background which is vital to my argument. On re-reading the relevant entries for 218 Squadron in The Battle File, Valiant Wings, Peter Cornwell's The Battle of France T&N and other sources one can determine the following.

May 10th: 218 flew 4 sorties this day.
All 4 Battles were damaged, but returned to base.
One was later abandoned as D.B.R. (L5402).
One crew member was KIA, the other 11 returned safely.

May 11th: 218 flew 4 sorties this day.
All 4 aircraft were lost ( K9325, P2203, P2249 HA-U and P2326 ).
Of the crewmen 4 were KIA and 8 became POWs.

May 12th: 218 flew 3 sorties this day.
2 aircraft lost (K9353 and P2183), one returnrd to base.
Of the crewmen 4 were KIA, 2 evaded and 3 returned safely.

May 13th: 218 flew no sorties this day.

May 14th: 218 flew 11 sorties this day.
5 aircraft were lost (L5232, L5235 HA-W, L5422, P2324 and P2360).
In the above 5 Battles there were 11 crewmen on board; of whom 6 were KIA, 4 became POWs and one was wounded but returned.

This leaves 6 Battles to account for. It is my contention that the second 5 aircraft reputed to have been lost this day were in fact all badly damaged but returned to their airfield. The following day (May 15th), as per Peter Cornwell's book, these 5 Battles were abandoned at Auberieve when the squadron moved to a new base.

To be continued....

Martin Gleeson.