Do 17 shot down by Lysander of Special Duties Flight 2 Sept 40

[phasselgren]

Hi,

Larry Donnely’s The Other Few includes a claim for a destroyed Do 17 on the 2nd September 1940 by a Westland Lysander of the Special Flight at Christchurch. The Do 17 crashed into the sea.

I found no combat report from this date on the National Archives site. The only combat report for any “Special Duties Flight” was from 12 May 1940. According to http://www.hampshireairfields.co.uk/airfields/xch.html the Special Duties Flight were involved in radar experiments and had a number of different aircraft types including 3 Hurricanes for defence.

First of all I am interested in the names of the crewmembers but any other information about the combat is appreciated.

Regards,
Peter

[phasselgren]

I have probably found the pilot in in Aces High, Vol 2 by Christopher Shores but it needs to be confirmed.

Aces High has the following information about Group Captain Patrick Edward Meagher, RAF No.34072: “It is believed that he then served with Special Duties Flight at Christchurch, Sussex, during summer 1940, claiming one victory with this unit.”
The victory was one destroyed Do 215 on the 2 September 1940.

Peter

[Larry]

As the absolute expert on the SDF, I can say with almost 100% accuracy that an SDF Lysander did not shoot down a Do17 or any other enemy aircraft at Xchurch or elsewhere. Meagher and Flt DL Rayment both were credited with Do 215 (Ju88's) while flying Hurricane L1562.

BTW Christchurch was in Hampshire at the time, though county border changes means it is in Dorset now!

[Stig Jarlevik]

Larry

Interesting answer, but a bit of a riddle in my opinion.
What exactly do you mean? All of a sudden you introduce a second pilot, Flt DL Rayment into the scenario, indicating there were two pilots who shot down the Do 215, and that both pilots flew one Hurricane. Since both you and I know that is not possible I see two ways here
a) Meagher was the pilot in L1582 and together with Rayment they shot down either one or two Do 215 that day in seperate aircraft.
b) Meagher shot down one Do 215 on 2.9.40 in L1582 and Rayment shot down another one at another date but used the same aircraft.

You may be the expert on the SDF, but unfortunately that does not work for me...
Cheers
Stig

[phasselgren]

Thanks Larry,
maybe I should I have expected that this claim was to good to be true but I did not. Anyway two destroyed enemy aircraft must be a good score for a local defence flight.

Regards,
Peter

[Chris Goss]

Stig

Larry has studied the Christchurch SD Flt intensely so I would have no concerns as to his research. In any case, for 2 Sep 40, nothing Do 17/215-wise appears to match

Chris

[Stig Jarlevik]

Chris

I am not questioning his research, I am questioning his answer which I don't understand.

So Larry, can you develop your answer a bit please?

Cheers
Stig

[Tom Semenza]

Like Stig, I found Larry's answer to be unclear. Are you saying that the two pilots shared the same claim, or used the same Hurricane on different sorties either on the same or different days and that there were two claims?

Tom

[phasselgren]

Found this on the archive of RAF Commands Forum http://www.rafcommands.com/archive/10391.php

Rayment's claim was made on the 19 September.

Peter

[Larry]

Apologies, too much vino! Rayment's claim was indeed on another day. I should have made it clear. These were the only two pilots in the SDF that had confirmed kills, while at XChurch, both in the same Hurricane L1562. As for Hurricane L1582 that is an error and should read L1562 as L1582 was lost in 1939.

Incidentally L1592 came as a replacement for the above after it was hit by return fire (and it's now in the Science Museum).