Another Hellcat loss !

[cheesey]

Hello all.

Just read the post re Hellcat losses and thought that i'd add a request of my own. I have posted here and elsewhere requesting info on this loss but to no avail. So I thought I would try again !

I have attached a poor quality photo of a FAA (?) Hellcat lifted from the sea off the Channel Island of Herm, the small island just east of Guernsey. The pic dates from the early 70s. Sadly very little now remains of the wreck save for a few engine bits.

According to local legend the a/c was shot down by German Flak on or around D-Day. The plane came down near to Herm and the pilot captured. I have been unable to discover any info on the loss and it remains a bit of a mystery. I have the diary entry's for 800 and 804 Sqn., FAA for that date (carrier based and guarding the western approaches for Overlord) which make no mention of a loss.

Is it a Fleet Air Arm Hellcat ? Is the date correct or could it be earlier/later ? Could anyone help ? Thanks, Steve.

[Larry]

Cheesy,

You might like to investigate Hellcat JV227 of 800 NAS - shot down by AA while strafing shore battery c 27.10.44.

Pilot S/LWD Vine rescued by Walrus L2238 from HMS Emperor. This could fit in with the return to the UK of 800 NAS / Emperor from the Aegean in Autumn 1944.

No further details of the location though, in FAA Aircraft 1939-45 by Air Britain Publications.

Also JX845 went missing on a ferry flight from Melton Mowbray to Portreath on 15.5.45 in bad weather. The pilot was F/O LE Nixon RAF. Did he miss Cornwall and run out of fuel near the Channel Islands?

[cheesey]

Hello Larry and thanks very much for the info. Both of those are well worth following up especially the '45 one.
I have never really trusted the date of the alleged crash ! I think it entered local myth after the war and was never questioned.
I did at one point think that the loss could have been a French Hellcat ? Could that be possible ?
Again, thanks for the info.
Steve.