73 Sqn Loss 7 April 1940

[Martin Gleeson]

Hallo,
.
This incident has caused problems because it has always been assumed that F/O Brotchie baled out. In fact he did not. The 73 Squadron ORB records the following concerning Brotchie on 7 April 1940;
“Another bullet caused a leak in the glycol, but not sufficient to prevent the wounded pilot bringing his a/c home”. Later on the same page we find; “At about 14.30 hours a shower of propaganda leaflets in French was seen to be falling though no a/c had been heard. Some of them were picked up on the aerodrome, within a few yards of F/O Brotchie’s machine……”
Brotchie was flying Hurricane TP-X and had landed back at 12.05 a.m. (All from the 73 Squadron ORB)
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Steve was right to highlight ‘landed’, but the book left it open to interpretation.
I believe Chis is correctto assign P2542 to this incident.
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AIR 35/196 (Aircraft Casualties, BAFF) at Kew lists one Hurricane casualty for 73 Squadron on 7 April 1940 and identifies it as P2542.
The few details record that the pilot was slightly wounded and his aircraft suffered Category 2 damage. The location was given as Boulay, SE of Metz. In the column noting the damage was caused by an enemy aircraft it also indicates the Hurricane crashed (‘Cr.’) but this must be an error based on the known evidence.
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The Form 78 for P2542 records that it went to '2 Sal. Sect.' on 17-4-40 (sic), then to 21 AD on 16-4-40 (sic) and finally to 73 Sqn. on 18-6-40 (suggesting - if the date is correct -that they must have picked it up at Nantes before departing France. This is confirmed in Don Minterne’s book. P2542 continued in service with 73 Squadron up to 14 September 1940 when it was definitively shot down and lost.
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Regards,
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Martin Gleeson.