[kaki3152]

In March 1943, the 3rd Photographic Recon Group sent a detachment of F-5As to Malta from Tunisia to join 683 SQ (PR Spitfires). As far as I can tell, the following pilots were sent to Malta. The information was derived from the recollection of a PR Spitfire pilot:
1) Lt. Robert Spencer
2) Lt. George F. German
3) Lt. Ike B. Web Jr., O-659207, KIA October 24,1943 by E/A
4) Lt. Arthur Earl Luthy
5) Lt. Joseph L. Sugg
6) Lt. Ed(Ward?) Berry
7) Lt. John MacLaughlin
8) Capt. Lewis H. Richardson, O-424678, KIA March 28, 1943.

I've enclosed the picture of the detachment, along with pilots of 683 Sq. The book is "Memoirs of WWII" by Laurie Philpott. The following is from this book:

"After the invasion of North Africa…brought a unit of USAAF photo-reco pilots to Algiers…[i]n time, Roosevelt [ Colonel Roosevelt]sent five pilots to Malta to be responsible to Warbie [W/C Warburton], while they attempted to aerial photograph all of Sicily using a special type of mapping camera mounted in a P-38.A Captain (I can't remember the idiot's name,Richards[sic], I think) who brought the pilots over immediately ignored Warbie. It was assumed that the captain got lost on his first flight and he plunked down, in cloudy weather, onto an aerodrome in Southeast Sicily, according to RT conversations picked up. The P-38, which the captain was flying carried secret equipment. At once, Warbie ordered Ed and me to try and find the P-38. After some roundabout, I found the P-38 in a pen on Gerbini airfield. A couple of Spitfires, which were fitted with bombs, dive bombed the P-38. Too late? We never knew."

In MAW3, the fate of Captain Richardson is reported as taking from Malta at 1340 hours to photograph the Mezzouna area and probably shot down by Uffz Fritz Werner of 4./JG-77 at 1412 hrs. When he did not return to base, he was reported missing at 1740 Hrs.
Captain Lewis H. Richardson Jr. is buried at Plot E Row 8 Grave 16 in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery.

If anyone can provide more information, it would be welcomed. In a pamphlet in my possession titled "Pictorial History 1943 Mediterranean Allied Photo Reconnaissance Wing" (published 1944) it has the following: 'To Malta, in March, went a part of the Third Photo Group charged with a most important mission –the mapping of Sicily on aerial photographs. Working with PRU Malta, the Americans flew several hundred sorties over the island."