Loss of Hurricane Mk. I P3469 flown by F/L. Hubert Cecil DOWN(E) for 274. Sqd, RAF on May 25th, 1941

[Kurtl12]

Is anyone able to provide details about the loss of Hawer Hurricane Mk. I Serial P3469 flown by Flight Lieutenant Hubert Cecil DOWN (sometimes written: DOWNE) of 274, Sqd. RAF somehere over / near the greek island of Crete? Date of loss: May 25th, 1941, he was initaially listed as MIA and later changed to KIA.
His Service Number is 40171, he is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial, Column 240 and son of Claude Evelyn and Lilian Annie down, of Marylebone, London
Thank you very much in advance! Regards, K.

[Karoband]

According to No. 274's ORB [NARA AIR 27/1588/12 p.6] and Record of Events [NARA AIR 27/1588/13 p.8] F/Lt Down was "[ground] strafing enemy aircraft in the Crete area". He took off at 15:30 hrs. that afternoon.

[AndyMa]

His casualty file is at The National Archives:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.g...ls/r/C16755971
It has not been digitized, so a personal visit would be required to see what it contains.

[udf_00]

Air War For Yugoslavia, Greece And Crete 1940-41
Authors: Christopher Shores , Brian Cull , Nicola Malizia
p.374 to 376

Take Off 1530
Target : Maleme aerodrome

3 South African Marylands
One aborted and force-landed at Sidi Barrani.
One (Lt E G Ford) crash-landed near Tymbaki.
No info for the last one.
+
2 274 Sq. Hurricanes (Flt Lts Honor[W9266] & Hubert Down[P3469])

Account from Dudley Honor :
Strafed a transport on its landing roll and spraying everything he could see.
Saw three Bf 109 taking off.
Encountered a line of transports flyng at 1000 feet and claimed destroyed a couple he attacked head on[probably Ju52/3m of KGrzbV 106].
Hit by a Bf 110 then ditched shot down by a Bf 109.

P.376
"In this engagement the II/JG 77 pilots claimed a total of three Hurricanes shot down, one by Uffz Schmidt, who had earlier shot down two of 14 Squadron's Blenheins, one by Fw Otto Köhler of 4 Staffel, and one by FjGefr Günther Marschhausen of 5 Staffel."

[Kurtl12]

thank you very much for your quick reply! I've checked the sources at NARA (online available only). Do you think the engine and machine gun serial numbers will be given at the casualty report only? Or are there any other sources for this kind of data?