Defected Allied Pilots?

[Graham Boak]

Thank you, Martin, for a fuller account. One point you don't mention is the story, reportedly from a fellow-pilot, that before the launch Walcott had said outright that he was not going to go to Malta. Another version of the story is that he had claimed undercarriage problems (I think this is in Cull's new book Spitfires Over Malta), as opposed to most versions which say engine problems. I do wonder where these bullet holes could have come from, as these were brand-new aircraft. Itinerant tribesmen?

I doubt that we will ever find the truth of this matter, but I feel that if he was at fault in 1942 then he redeemed himself later.

Either way, it was not a defection. Desertion, maybe.