[Martin Gleeson]

Part 3 of 3.

To support my argument about the second 5 'lost' Battles which I believe returned damaged to Auberieve I draw your attention to the fate of the crews of aircraft lost on May 11th (4), 12th (2) and 14th (the first known 5). Only 2 men from one crew returned unhurt, the other 27 became casualties. If another 5 Battles had been lost on May 14th - all or most with a 2-man crew - then we would have up to 10 or 12 more KIA/WIA/POWs. Nowhere has any evidence surfaced to support any extra casualties for 218 Squadron on May 14th.

In five days from May 10th to 14th 218 Squadron carried out 22 sorties. They lost 11 Battles and abandoned or wrote-off another 6. Worse, they lost the equivalent of 11 crews. With only 22 sorties to contend with one can relatively easily account for all of the squadron aircraft. Again from checking The Battle File - and trusting the details are all present and correct - one finds the following.

218 Squadron had 18 Battles on hand on May 10th;
K9251, K9273, K9323, K9325, K9353, L5192, L5232, L5235, L5237, L5402, L5422, P2183, P2189, P2192, P2203, P2249, P2324 and P2326.
They received another 4 as replacements between May 10th and 18th inclusive; L5514, L5579, P2315 and P2360.
On May 21st they transferred their remaining 5 operational Battles to 103 Squadron (L5514 and P2315) and to 150 Squadron (K9323, L5237 and L5579). These transfers are confirmed by various entries on pages 65-74 of The Battle File.

This I believe accounts for all of their aircraft proving, I hope, that only 5 Battles were lost in action away from their airfield on May 14th, though 10 in total were effectively lost as a result of the mission that day.

It would be very interesting if someone could tell us the source for the story of the '10 lost Battles'.

Unfortunately Malcolm, if I am correct, the 3 crew members you referred to at the beginning of this thread could therefore be from any of the 6 returning Battles. Sorry if that throws a spanner in your work !

Regards,

Martin.