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Gardner was from the 49th Pursuit Group. One of his mates was future ace George Preddy, whose diary entry confirms that Gardner's plane was hit by ack ack over Darwin. Preddy later crashlanded a P-51D after being fatally wounded by a .50 caliber bullet fired by the U.S. 12th Anti-Aircraft Group, December 1944.
The Beaufort was A9-225, not A9-224.
Don't know the exact date when the Kittyhawks were damaged by AA fire at Port Moresby.
The number of RAF planes shot down in error during the Battle of Britain (36) was quoted by Stephen Bungay who was interviewed in a TV documentary series called SPITFIRE ACE. I recorded this program and watched it again today.
There is no doubt that some friendly fire mistakes were covered up. One of the RAF pilots interviewed was Iain Hutchinson of 222 Squadron, who said that he was shot down by another Spitfire and then bailed out with burns. The official version of the story, as far as I can ascertain, was that Hutchinson's Spitfire (R6772) crashed after combat with an Me 109 on September 18th, 1940.
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