Spitfire Mk XIVc RM687 of 402 SQN

[Ice_Eagle]

Hello friends!
Was this particular aircraft coded "AE*D" or "AE*G"? FLown by William G. Austin, Hawkinge, Aug / 1944. I also believe it had one V-1 flying bomb kill. Thank you in advance!

[Crimea River]

A profile appearing in Spitfire: The Canadians by Robert Bracken has it as 'G'

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

Brian Cull, in his, Diver! Diver! Diver! (Grub St/London/2008/pp.317 & 442), states that Austin was flying 402 (RCAF) Sqn Spitfire XIV RM686:AE-? when he scored his V-1 kill on 23 August, 1944.

The 402 (RCAF) Sqn ORB agrees:

AIR 27/1778/14 - 402 (RCAF) Sqn ORB (F.541) Aug 1,44' - Aug 31,44'. Image 10 of 13. http://discovery.nationalarchives.go...ils/r/D8438552

Col.

[Crimea River]

Agree with that. Ausitn flew two missions that day. The first was in RM687. The second, in which he shot down the V-1, was in RM686.

[Crimea River]

Here's the entry for RM686:

[Tom Semenza]

The description of the downing of the V-1 in Spitfire: The Canadians was written by Austin himself. He states that he was flying RM687 AE-G. Presumably he was consulting his log book. As neither log books or ORBs are infallible I suppose that either could be incorrect here.

Tom

[Stephen M. Fochuk]

The late Robert Bracken did his best to confirm the individual code letters of the Spitfires that appeared in both volumes.

And yes, 402 Squadron's ORB, is rife with mistakes; it will take a fair amount of cross referencing to get a sense of what's what.

Stephen