Spitfire Mk1a codes – Can anyone help me please?

Thanks Gerry,

I’ll try and arrange a visit. It sounds like a treasure trove of information. I had no idea that this forum would provide me with so much help and so many answers in such a short time. Really glad I joined.

Regards,

Glenn

Thanks a lot for clearing that up Antoni. I’ll look up a copy of that book.

Regards,

Glenn.

Hi Glenn,
Pleased to assist.
He may well have flown all of those different types of aircraft.
Pilots usually listed aircraft they had flown and aerodromes they had visited in a section at the back of their logbooks.
I suspect this list was drawn directly from that although I cannot say with any certainty without seeing the log.
You can visit the RAF museum and visit their department of research, you will need to call them and book up in advance though.
Gerry

Asanol II was a Mk Vb W3519. A detailed history can be found in Gifts of War by Henry Boot and Ray Sturtivant.

Hi Gerry,

Thank you again, you’re a mine of information. I’ve just looked at that site and amazed doesn’t come close. Excuse me if I’m being thick but is that list of aircraft the ones that Bob flew personally? It’s probably self evident but my brain is doing cartwheels at the moment.
That photo of him was obviously taken during his brief spell with 65 squadron in November 1941. I’ve tried to look up the Asansol Spitfire to see whether it was a MkII or a MkV, as they were re equipped with MkV’s in October 1941, but have drawn a blank

Regards,

Glenn

It won’t be a Battle on the squadron. It will be either a slip of the pen at the time or a transcription error.

As Gerry says, you are going to need to see logbooks and use deductive reasoning skills to go any further!

EDIT.. Just followed that link.. I think you’ll find it rather useful!!!!

Hi Glenn

Sadly I am unable to confirm the individual aircraft codes of any of these aircraft.
I think we would need to compare the ORB with a 72 squadron pilots log book entries from that era.
Some pilots recorded aircraft serial numbers in their logs whilst others recorded the aircraft’s code.
It’s a eureka moment if you can achieve this!
However……………………..
Take a look here and you may just be amazed.
http://navigator.rafmuseum.org/results.do?id=200648&db=object&pageSize=1&view=detail

Kind regards
Gerry

Hi Beermat,
It would seem that you have a good point there. I’ve just checked that number myself and it does correspond with a Fairey Battle so that suggests that Bob also flew one of those on that occasion, though I wasn’t aware that any Fairey Battles had been allocated to 72 squadron. Maybe someone could clarify this for me.

Regards,

Glenn

Sorry Gerry, after reading your reply several times I now see that you got the information from the ORB. I was too busy looking at the serial numbers. After receiving such a wealth of information could I be so bold as to ask whether the aircraft codes were listed along with the serial numbers.

Regards,

Glenn

What can I say!! I’m absolutely dumbfounded!! Firstly, thank you to Moggy for changing my thread title and then Gerry!!, I had no idea that he flew so many aircraft. Do you mind telling me where you discovered all that information. I found a photo of him in the book Swift to Battle but I’ve never seen that one before. This really has knocked me for six. I’m really grateful to everyone who has replied to my thread and been so helpful.

Thank you,

Glenn.

Wow – told you Glenn, there’s always someone on here who knows!

I reckon there wasn’t a K9460 (or rather, that wasn’t a Spitfire – Fairey Battle?), and that entry for 2/9 should have read R9460, making it three sorties in that aircraft.

That one correlation between your work and Gerry’s list, RF-Q / K9940, was a ‘personal aircraft’ of another pilot, Thomas Elsdon – http://www.cieldegloire.com/002_raf_elsdon_t_a_f.php

Hi Glenn,

I have been researching BoB airmen for a while now and he was one of my subjects.
I have the following details from the ORB relating to Spitfires that he flew with 72 Squadron.
July 1940 – He flew Spitfire L1078 several times and no other aircraft. He wrote this aircraft off on August 8th.
X4109 – 18/8
X4034 – 22/8
K9940 – 24/8
R6928 – 31/8
X4105 – 1/9 am
X4005 – 1/9 pm
X4105 – 2/9 am
R6971 – 2/9 pm
K9460 – 2/9 pm
N3068 – 9/9 and 11/9
R9460 – 14/9 and 15/9
L1083 – 23/9 and 27/9 I have a copy of his combat report for the 27th September. He was ‘Blue 3’.
X4486 – 28/9
R6721 – 1/10 and 2/10 and 4/10
X4544 – 5/10. On this date he was involved in a collision with P/O Sutton who was killed.
X4486 – 7/10 and 8/10
X4483 – 23/10
X4595 – 27/10 and 29/10. I have a copy of his combat report for the 27th October. He was ‘Yellow 2’.

Finally,
I have attached the only photograph I could find of him. It isn’t very good but it is all I have.

Regards
Gerry

Asansol is a City in West Bengal.

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I am sure a friendly, helpful moderator will be along soon to assist. 🙂

It doesn’t seem there are any of those around – so I did it. 😉

Yes, had to ask a moderator when I wanted to change a title.. regarding aircraft letters, it’s a tricky area. A pilot would usually have a nominated aircraft, but would often use others as well. Hence the callsign system of section /number. Should that aircraft be replaced, it would often, but not always and rarely immediately be given the same letter as that which it ‘replaced’ by virtue of becoming a pilot’s ‘new’ aircraft. I get a sense from limited researches that the ‘stickiness’ of one’s letter increased with rank. In some cases this is because the Officer in charge of flight might want that denoted for ease of recognition.. eg ‘A’ flight has letters A to M available to it, the leader of A flight having ‘A’, and the leader of ‘B’ flight having ‘N’. I have seen this only in two examples that I have fallen over, no idea how formalised this was, or how widespread. There are many here who know more.

In practice, on a busy front-line squadron, this was never going to be kept up, of course.

Maybe!

At the bottom-right of your original thread you will see a pencil icon. Select that to edit your post.
Strangely, on my iPhone, I then have the option to edit the title (of my own threads), but I cannot see that option on my PC. I may have just missed it.

I am sure a friendly, helpful moderator will be along soon to assist. 🙂

Hi again Janie. Just realised I don’t know how to edit the thread title, duh. Can you help please?

Glenn

That’s a good idea Janie, thanks for the heads up. Should have thought of that myself. Why is it that sometimes the most obvious things are elusive.

Regards

Glenn

Hi Rusty: Just a friendly tip … if you include the words “Spitfire Mk1a codes” in the thread title, it may encourage more people to read it and you may find more information forthcoming.

Should be “fee per month”

Glenn

Have you tried the 72 Sqn ORB for the period which can be downloaded for a few per month it might contain the serial/Sqn code he flew on sorties

Or I don’t suppose you have access to his log book? BTW you can trace his commissioned career via the London Gazette website using his service number

Paul