Spitfire V ER488 MIA 17 Dec 1942

[Alex Smart]

May be of interest - from 93 Sqn's ORB.
Details in a letter indicating that on the 13th November 17 pilots flew to North Africa from Gibraltar.
But later in the ORB it has
November 13th, 16 aircraft flew to Maison Blanche.
And again 21st November, 16 aircraft made the first landing at Souk-El-Arba.
Then on the 28th November, two pilots shot down.
So what became of the seventeenth pilot/aircraft, did he not fly to North Africa with the others on the 13th as is stated in the letter or did something happen to him during the flight ???

[Buckeye30]

Laurent was right when he said arrival dates are confusing and not just dates; Alex lists 35 Spitfires on R628 but there are 34 on the Shipping Database (the odd one was ER788 which shows as being on "Empire Day" ( convoy KMS1G) one of 41 carried but this was a CAM ship with a Hurricane aboard, though they could carry crated aircraft ( the 31FG had a Detachment on Gib. to assemble and test-fly arriving Spitfires). Arrival date varies, 8th, 9th or 13th Nov. for this ship.


ER788 went to 92 Sqn. in early 1943.
ER789 also on that ship (?) was with 93 Sqn. Apparently using a temporary "J" code in Algeria, before and after that they carried their assigned one "HN".

Nick
( Update--Convoy Web says she docked in Algiers not Gibraltar on the 8th.)

[Alex Smart]

Hello Nick,
Thanks for the information.
What I found for 93 Sqn, looking for the 17 a/c that are reported to have flown to North Africa on the 13th November 42, I could only find the following that were listed as 93 Sqn a/c in the Convoy lists -

Empire Day
ER717, ER737, ER743, ER789.

R620
EP890, ER225, ER260.

R626
ER330, ER497, ER594.

R628
ER530, ER599, ER736.

Total 13

POST 13 November 42

R634
ER815, ER823.

K72
ER597, ER727, ER925.

H70
ER827.

K87
ER769.

So am four short for the 13 November departure flight from Gibraltar.
.
I listed all the serial numbers for 93 Sqn from the AB series from AA to MH and was able to match the serial numbers with those Listed as ships cargo .

Spitfires not in the Convoy lists were -
ER894; ER938; ER944; and ER979.


Alex