218 Squadron - HA-R - FRANCE - 1940

[Iain Torrance]

Like Martin Gleeson suggested on another thread I have also had concern over the ‘HA-R’ photo in T&N p272. Ex Shack suggested QUOTE “a possibility arising out of the relatively poor photos? K9273 is a clear profile view and unambiguous. The other photo is not so clear and shows the a/c tangled in trees. The lower part of the HA is lost by the curve of the fuselage and shadow. Could the other be a B, with the lower part similarly lost. The style of the lettering ,which seems to "square off" the curved parts of both letters could make the upper section of R and B appear very alike and with the truncation make part of the lower B look similar to the R . The lower R is far less angled on the a/c than we are typing it here and would write it by hand and have tried to figure it out before. “

Perhaps Peter could take a second close look at the original to see if he agrees there is a possibility of it not being HA-R?

Approaching the problem logically (with the clear reservation that the primary sources can not be fully trusted).

Firstly to look at all the possibilities if it is HA-R. The ‘other’ HA-R (K9273) arrived at 218 Squ on 11 Oct 1938 and was abandoned at Auberive. So this doesn’t look like phoney war HA-R loss. So the simple alternative would be a loss in 218 operations from Rheges of one of the planes that were transferred in and was could have been given new HA-R codes, but no bale-outs or casualties for 218 Squadron are recorded or known for that period. Another possibility I considered is that it was one of the planes taken over by another squadron but operated under unchanged 218 Squ codes and then lost. By my reckoning L5514 to 103 Squ is the only possibility from the records but that was reported as ‘seen to go down in a field in the target area’ with the pilot a POW, on 26 May.

Now assume it is not HA-R but say HA-B…but there is only one known 218 Squ loss ‘not accounted for’ …it is very, very, speculative but that is P2360 the Buttery plane, 14 May, lost without trace, no known crash site, no known graves…!!!

Either way a mystery.

Anybody got other photos, info or thoughts on this?