k. wooder 92 squadron

[Peter Cornwell]

92 SQUADRON, HORNCHURCH

Spitfire P9370. Shot down in combat with Bf109s of I./JG27 during offensive patrol and crashed and burned out on beach near Cap Gris-Nez 11.30 a.m. Possibly that claimed by Oberlt Gerhart Framm (Staffelkapitän) of 2./JG27. Pilot Officer Patrick Alexander George Learmond missing. Aircraft a write-off.

Spitfire P9373. Shot down in combat with Bf110s of II./ZG76 during offensive patrol and crashed vertically at Wierre-Effroy 6.05 p.m. Believed one of those claimed by Fw Werner Hahn of 6./ZG76. Sergeant Paul Henry Klipsch killed. Aircraft a write-off.
Subject of major recovery filmed for the Channel 4 ‘Time Team’ television programme in June 1999 and broadcast on UK television in February 2000.

Spitfire N3290. Damaged in combat with Bf110s of II./ZG76 during offensive patrol and belly-landed near Saint-Martin-Boulogne and burned out 6.07 p.m. Possibly one of those claimed by Uffz Karl Huber of 6./ZG76. Flying Officer John Gillies captured. Aircraft QJ*U a write-off.

Spitfire N3194. Damaged in combat with Bf110s of II./ZG76 during offensive patrol and belly-landed near Ambleteuse, north of Boulogne, 6.20 p.m. Possibly one of those claimed by Fw Karl Langenberg of 5./ZG76. Squadron Leader Roger Joyce Bushell captured unhurt. Aircraft QJ*Z a write-off.
Bushell became a key member of the escape committee at Dulag Luft and an inveterate escaper. Later, as ‘Big X’ at Stalag Luft 3 Sagan, he master-minded the ‘Great Escape’ of 76 prisoners on the night of 24 March 1944 but was one of 50 escapers murdered after recapture. He was killed by the Gestapo while en-route from Saarbrücken to Mannheim on March 29, 1944, and cremated at Neue Bremm concentration camp.

Spitfire N3167. Forced-landed at Hawkinge badly damaged in combat with Bf110s of II./ZG76 and possibly that claimed by Hptmn Erich Groth (Gruppenkommandeur) near Calais 6.25 p.m. Flight Lieutenant Charles Patrick Green badly wounded in thigh, admitted to Shorncliffe Hospital. Aircraft damaged but repairable.