WW2 Spitfire belly landing Heston?

P9426 Early Summer Incident 1940

A better scan of the earlier incident to P9426 (the big ‘Dawbarn’ hangar was bombed 19Sep40)

Interesting reading Malcolm ,thanks for posting that gen.

update on P 9426

Greetings,

With regards to the landing of P9426 at Heston, November 1940 the flight mechanic 949649 Rhodes H, taken up on the tail was my dad.

We have dad’s diary with an entry on Thursday 28th. November, 1940
“Taken up on tail of spifire – 26 by Polish officer. Taken to Infirmary.”

On Friday 6th. November the entry reads “Left Heston Hospital on 7 days sick leave”

We also have the original telex message requesting assistance with salvage of the aircraft.

The body of the telex is as follows (as far as I can read it)

A Spitfire P9426
B PRU
C HESTON AIRPORT . 21/11/49 14?? HOURS
D P/O R DRYGALLO p95XXXXX PO 689 (POLISH) SLIGHTLY INJURED
E HOUNSLOW GENERAL HOSPITAL
F PHOTOGRAPHIC MATERIAL
G AIRCRAFT TOOK OFF WITH F/M ON TAIL . NO
H FUSELAGE BADLY DAMAGED . BOTH MAINPLANES BADLY DAMAGED .
ENGINE SHOCK LOADED . SUPERSTRUCTURE CASING SPLIT . CAT E .
SALVAGE ASSISTANCE REQUIRED . 21? MU ARE COLLECTING AND
DISPOSING
I 54 MU AND 71 MU INFORMED. 949649 AC1 RHODES H F/M SXXXXX
ALSO SLIGHTLY INJURED AND IN HOUNSLOW GENERAL HOSPITAL
======1535

I hope this helps.

Malcolm Rhodes.

Well, apparently P9426 was also damaged by enemy action on 19/09/40, I don’t know how badly though and that picture does look more like a flying incident doesn’t it?

Rod.

Well prehaps the incidents have been confused, the aircraft could have had a landing accident the same day (prior to bombing which I believe was in the evening) and the assumption is that it was a result of the bombing… I notice Air Britain listing only said ‘damaged’ on 19th Sept 1940.

Of course it could have had accident day or two before (as shown in photo) and the in the paperwork catch afterwards cause confused

Well, apparently P9426 was also damaged by enemy action on 19/09/40, I don’t know how badly though and that picture does look more like a flying incident doesn’t it?

Rod.

Thanks……It just occurred to me that the photo in Spitfire at war vol2 must have been of an earlier belly landing by that Spit because the Dawbarn hangar (signed AIRWORK)was destroyed by a land-mine 19 September 1940

See also post #23 in this old thread:

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=41431

Rod

So was the incident at Heston and is the photo the result of the hard landing?
Googling Ryszard Dyrgalla leads to his post-war life as Ricardo Dyrgalla, a pioneering rocket scientist in Argentina and Brazil, it seems.

The Spitfire pilot was F/O Ryszard Dyrgałła (P0689).

F/O Dyrgalla took off whilst an airman was sitting on the tail. The aircraft behaved in a very unstable way and after twice nearly stalling, the pilot succeeded in dropping the machine on the ground from 100′. Pilot had slight concussion and airmen only two broken ribs and concussion.

Source: 1 PRU ORB Form 540

Best Regards

Andy Fletcher

949649 AC1 Rhodes H ((Flt/mech) & P/O R Dyrgallo both injured – ref. Spitfire the History p83.

Rod

Stop messing about!

Most interesting!…Where did the ‘fitter on the tail’ incident happen? (I’ve added the Spitfire at war ” text to the pic btw)

Oh that one’s easy. It’s when Tony Hancock was flying it as a test pilot with Kenneth Williams having been working on the rear fuselage when he took off. Dunt everiwun kno dat wun!

Most interesting!…Where did the ‘fitter on the tail’ incident happen? (I’ve added the Spitfire at war ” text to the pic btw)

P9426 was a PR111 type C converted from an F Mk1.

Famously took off with a fitter on the tail and was damaged on landing 21/11/1940.

Note also the plain coloured PR(?) Spitfire in the background on the first picture.

Rod

That’s the one.

Notice it’s camouflaged like a normal fighter, with the same roundels/flashes, so I think it’s a PR Type G. Can’t recall the caption in the book, though.

Oh well, NOT a Type G! Dunno what made me think it was!

Thanks Dazdaman….Excellent lead….the shot in Spitfire at War 2 is plainly the same incident to P9426 but a slightly different photo viewpoint…. a member on the HestonAirport Yahoo Group scanned it up and I’ve made an edit (attached). A point of interest is that the big Dawbarn hangar which was destroyed some months later by a German bomb is titled AIRWORK over the faded sign British Airways which it wore in 1938-1939

text from Spitfire at war vol2 added 17 Apr 2010

Think there’s a full version of it in Spitfre At War volume 2 by Alfred Price.

I found this small photo on my old computer and can’t remember the original source……does anybody recognise it or have a larger version?

A PR Spitfire with the large oil tank and lack of armoured canopy.

** Title amended to reflect that this is a wartime incident and not recent so as not to cause concern about the airworthy Spitfires**
Peter, Moderator