219 Sqn Beaufighter Kills – May 41

I was recently given a copy of ‘Beaufighter Ace’ by Richard Pike which is taken from his father’s wartime diaries; Thomas Pike was CO 219 Sqn at Tangmere at that time. Just for interest I checked out the details of his claimed kills against the loss tables in ‘Blitz Then & Now’. Most of the kills seem to match but with one major difference: Pike claimed two kills on 3 May 1941 but ‘Then & Now’ only shows one, the KG26 He 111 that fell at Eastergate. His other claim for the night (a Ju 88) is stated to have crashed a short while earlier near Petworth but I see no record. Strange that the navigator apparently fixed their position immediately after the combat! Another He 111 fell at Sidlesham that same night but there is a big distance between there and Petworth, even at Beaufighter speed. Does anyone else have any clues?

Dieter