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Re: Hurricane Z 5265
According with Brian Cull’s “Hurricanes over Malta”, Pilot Officer Donald W. Lintern was lost on 30/09/41 while flying Hurricane Z 2514 (GL-B) while Squadron Leader Peter W.O. Mould died on the 1st of October while flying Hurricane Z 5265 (GL-T). Cull used Squadron’s ORBs, casualty records, logbooks, combat reports and Air-Britain Registers to compile his claims-losses lists. BTW Christopher Shores in “Malta the Hurricane Years 1940-41” – co-authored by Cull- reported that Lintern flew Z5265 while nothing was said about the plane of Mould.
Regarding the Italian claimers they all belonged by 9° Gruppo of 4° Stormo Caccia Terrestre then based in Comiso airfield in south-eastern Sicily.
On the 30th of September some minutes after 14.00, a reported formation of six Hurricanes (in fact five Hurribombers of 185 squadron covered by six fighters) attacked the airfield of Comiso. Three pilots of 97a Squadriglia : Tenente Luigi Tessari, Tenente Jacopo Frigerio and Sergente Maggiore Massimo Salvatore, scrambled on Macchi MC 202s and started in pursuit of the fleeing Hurricanes. Frigerio caught and hit one of them . He saw the Hurricane burning while the pilot bale out 15 kilometers south of Capo Scaramia. He was most probably Pilot Officer Lintern.
The day after a formation of seven MC 202s of 73a Squadriglia, commanded by Capitano Mario Pluda took off from Comiso for a covering patrol to protect indirectly two recon MC 200s. One of the Italian pilots was obliged to turn back because of the oxygen inhalator that didn’t work properly, while the other six proceeded.
At 8000 meters of height, halfway between Malta and the Sicily they saw a group of reportedly eight Hurricanes flying lower ( in fact eight planes of 185 Squadron) and attacked.
After the first pass the British formation broke off and its planes came back to Malta individually.
The Italians claimed three victories, one each for Capitano Carlos Ivaldi, Tenente Piero Bonfatti and Sergente Maggiore Enrico Dallari, two more Hurricanes were considered probably shot down by all the formation that comprised (apart from Pluda) also Sergente Maggiore Santo Gino and Tenente Giuseppe Oblach. The pilot shot down by Bonfatti was seen to jump with parachute. Ivaldi, pursued his intended target for a long distance before claiming it shot down but in doing so remained almost without fuel being obliged to belly land in a Sicilian beach (Pozzallo) while coming back. British sources claim that his plane was damaged in the main fuel tank (possibly due to the action of Sergeant Ernest Knight) and that he had to force land for this reason.
185 lost his Commander while another pilot (Flying officer Murch) suffered damage in the wings. It is not possible to ascertain who was responsible for the demise of Squadron Leader Mould but, considering that in the afternoon a Swordfish floatplane discovered a patch of oil with fluorescence in the middle of it in the area where his plane was presumed to have crashed it seems possible that he was able to bale out (was the fluorescence part of some special liquid use to help rescue operations?) and so it became possible that he fell victim of Bonfatti who saw his opponent bale out.l
Ludovico.
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