16th April 1943 - Mediterranean Spit losses

[Chris Goss]

33237 Wg Cdr John 'Jackie' Darwen was CO 244 Wg from Apr-Jun 42 then 243 Wg and back to 244 Wg until Mar 43. KIA 7 Oct 43 with 239 Wg

[CENTURION]

Hello Adriano,

It seems that at about 19:20 noth of Beja, the Spitfires of the 111st Squadron, together with planes of the 72nd Squadron, engaged a formation of 23 FW190 of the III./SKG10 escorted by Me109s of the JG53. The German planes were returning from a bombing mission over the Souk el Arba airfield.
PO Kirkwood of the 111st Squadron claimed one Bf109 and Fl. Lt. Gale one probable; FO Hardy of the 72nd Squadron also claimed one probable.
One Spitfire was claimed (evidently FOW. K. Clarke) by Fw. Frankenberger of II/JG53. JG53 may have claimed another Spitfire, but I don't have any detail.
One FW190 of the III./SKG10 damaged by anti-aircraft fire, belly landed 10km south west of Mateur.


Regards
Marco

[VoyTech]

F/Lt Shand (left) photographed with S/Ldr Skalski in 1943 in Africa.

CENTURION: RAF squadrons used cardinal numbers (No. 145 Sqn) not ordinal numbers ("the 145th Sqn"). USAAF used ordinal numbers for their units.