spitfire and Hurricane sqdns over Ostend 18.05.40

[Pieter H]

This is one of those eternal puzzles.
What I have as facts:

• On May 18 the Blenheim L9395 of No 235 Sqn was lost on a patrol along the coast.
• On May 18 at 6.45 p.m. Hurricanes of both No 111 and No 17 squadrons leave Lille-Marcq to fly back to the UK (Nordholt and Hawkinge, respectively), landing around 8.00 p.m. No 111 claims having attacked and shot down one Do17 on the way, although this is usually interpreted as a Do17P of 4(F)/11 that crashed into the ground near Ypres.

Then the less factual stuff:

• The eye witness account of A/C Mir of GC II/8 is in all sources I know off listed under May 17. However, on that day there are no reported losses of Blenheims over Ostend. Only Arnaud Gillet in Victoires de la Chasse Francaise 2 gives the date as May 18. I can not prove which of the two dates is correct according the official sources.
• On May 17, however, I have no reported losses of Blenheims around 7.00 p.m. in this area. In fact no Blenheim activities at all along the Belgian coast. (Is this correct?).
• On May 18 the 235 Sqn Blenheim was lost, but timing is not clear to me. It is always mentioned as 7.10 p.m., but this is as far as I can see probably based on the story of A/C Mir. What was the flight time of the patrol according the ORB? A/C Mir talks about three Blemheims coming out of the clouds; should be easy to verify this patrol in the ORB to get confirmation of the aproximate time of the action.
• Idem on flight times of GC I/4 patrols during the afternoon of May 18.

All in all it is tempting to combine this all into the combined action on May 18 (Blenheim of 235 Sqn shot down by Hawk of GC I/4, being witnessed by Bloch of GC II/8), but I don't see hard proof, and it seems dates and/or times have to be manipulated to make it fit.
It might be, but then some independent proof of the different flight times of the three units presumably involved would help.

Regards, Pieter