Seeking details of first confirmed Defiant victory

[lritger]

I'm presuming that 264 Squadron got first honors on the victory board with the B.P. Defiant, but as my references on that aircraft are rather thin, I'm hoping someone here might be able to offer details on this event (crew, airframe, date, victim type or ID).

Thanks much in advance!

Lynn

[Franek Grabowski]

If I did not miss anything, the credit goes to F/L NG Cooke, who destroyed He 111 over Channel together with 4 other fighters. 264 of course.

[Chris Goss]

According to the 264 Sqn war history, 12 May 40, Flt Lt N G Cooke & Plt Off Eric Barwell (plus 66 Sqn)-Ju 88; Sqn Ldr P A Hunter, Plt Off E H Whitehouse & Plt Off M H Young-another Ju 88; 1410 & 1418 hrs 5 miles south of the Hague. Victim believed to have come from 7/LG 1 but did not crash but got back to base, albeit damaged

[Peter Cornwell]

According to their ORB, 'A' Flight of No.264 Sqdn were patrolling the Dutch coast near the Hague with 'B' Flight of No.66 Sqdn from 13.55 hrs. Each section of Defiants behind a section of Spitfires. Red Section of No.264 Sqdn (S/L Hunter & LAC King, P/O Whitehouse & Sgt Smalley, and P/O Young & LAC Johnson) engaged a lone Ju88 that dropped a bomb near 3 destroyers at 14.50 hrs & reported it down in a field with port engine on fire. Meanwhile, Yellow Section of No.264 Sqdn (F/L Cooke & Cpl Lippett, P/O Barwell & Sgt Quinnie, and P/O Whitley & LAC Turner), along with a section Spitfires, engaged a lone He111 that was also reported brought down in a field.

Matching these claims to known losses is problematic. 3./KGr126 lost two He111s in this area (Ossendrecht & Woensdrecht) on this date but much later in the day (20.10 hrs) & are both credited to GC III/3 ?

Full details of these actions can be found in the excellent 'Luchtgevechten boven West-Brabant en de Biesbosch' by Jan Jolie (Lorelax Productions 2000).

[Andy Mac]

As a matter of inerest, Gordon Batt of 238 sqn suggested during the BoB that his sqn use a Defiant as a tail end charlie or 'weaver' when on patrol. The idea was never put into practice, but I wonder how efective it would have been?