Missing airman : RAF matricule 48949

[Andy Saunders]

Peter

I am waiting to hear the evidence on which the MOD hang their case that Allen was flying P2555 when lost on 18 May, but I must conclude (in the absence of any evidence to the contrary) that the MOD have deduced this serial number from the casualty report into Allen.

What has happened is that the Neuvilly case prompted the MOD to view this Neuvilly find as potentially Derek Allen. As a consequence of that it has seemingly resulted in an MOD/CWGC review of casualties buried as "unknown" who might be linked to Neuvilly. That, in turn, revealed the location of a grave elsewhere and which the MOD/CWGC discovered to be a body taken in 1940 from the wreck of Hurricane P2555. Until now there had been no linking of any specific casualty with P2555, but the MOD are now able to say that they have been able to confirm that upon reviewing their records they know that Allen was lost in P2555. This will result in a named headstone being provided to the grave in question.

Unfortunately, I cannot say at this stage exactly what documents the MOD have drawn upon. One has to just accept that they are 100% satisfied else they would not be notifying the family and instructing CWGC to replace the headstone.

Arnaud.

We know that Allen baled out on 15th and returned to 85 Sqn on 16th. I am satisfied from information from both ORB and the family that he survived the 15 May episode, returned to the squadron on 16 May and died between 0630 and 0700 on 18 May. However, another puzzle is that CWGC state his date of death to be 15 May 1940!

Also, would there be an "accident card" for the loss of P2701 on 15 May if this was a combat loss??