The fate of a 93 Squadron Spitfire

I think I’ve got it now. Thanks, Mark.

The Spit that was hit by flak over Albania was not LZ929 but LZ928 of 318 Squadron. This makes more sense geographically, as 318 Squadron seems to have been working its way up the east coast of Italy that summer, not the west coast like 93 Squadron. On 24 June 1944, 318 Squadron was based at San Vito in Italy. I haven’t been able to locate it precisely (there are several places with the same name in Italy but none fits) but 318’s bases before and after San Vito are both on the east coast, so it is likely that San Vito is somewhere between the two.

The photo that I posted at the start was of LZ929 (HN-O) which was SOC on 8 March 1944, so was probably ‘lost’ just around or just before that date. At that time, in fact between January and June 1944, 93 Squadron was based at Lago, north of Naples.

[QUOTE=ianwoodward9;2385292]I’m probably being a bit thick here, Mark, but could you be a little more specific, please.[/QUOTE

The movement card for LZ928 reads – 318 Sqn 20 June 1944 damage on 1 July 1944

The movement card for LZ929 reads – SOC 8 March 1944 followed by 318 Sqn and damage on 1 July 1944.

Same unit, same damage date and similar serial. This suggests to me a clerical error on the LZ929 card rather than ‘bboc’, bought back on charge.

Mark

I’m probably being a bit thick here, Mark, but could you be a little more specific, please.

If you look at the movement card entries for LZ928 you can see that the clerk may have continued the service of LZ929, post SOC 8 March 1944, in error.

Mark

Sorry to come back on this but, having looked into this further, some doubts have been raised in my mind and I hope someone here may be able to help.

I based my comment about LZ929’s final end on this webpage:

http://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/LZ929

I noticed that it was “Struck Off Charge” on 8 March 1944 [though that information is in square brackets], yet it was on 24 June 1944 that it is recorded as having been hit by flak. On the surface, this seems odd. Am I missing something?

Could someone have inserted an American-style date in the chronology, perhaps. For example, was it ‘SOC’ on 3 August 1944 (3-8-44, not 8-3-44)?

The various locations of 93 Squadron that year and the dates of those moves, the ones I mentioned above, came from an on-line history of the squadron. Would a squadron based on the west coast of Italy, north of Rome, have been operating over Albania?Wouldn’t there have been a closer unit to fulfil whatever role there was over Albania that day? Were they escorting a bomber raid, perhaps?

Incidentally, I have been unable to locate ‘Ceravode’ in Albania, as mentioned on the above webpage. If the place is Corovode, also known as Corovoda, it is in southern central Albania, about 450 miles from 93 Squadron’s base in Tarquinia, Italy. The area immediately around Corovode is very rugged, a mountainous area with deep gorges – not much like the scene in the photograph.

I also looked at this webpage and noted that LZ929 is not listed under 93 Squadron.

http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/squadrons.html

The listing may well be incomplete or inaccurate, as I found a note elsewhere that “Hap’ Kennedy was assigned to 93 Squadron between September 1943 and January 1944, during which time he made a ‘claim’ in LZ929 on 13 October 1943. Nevertheless, I feel a little confused.

Finally, I found a note that I wrote many, many years ago (possibly in my teens) that 93 Squadron used Mk.Vs between June 1942 and October 1943, then Mk.IXs until September 1945. As I say, this note is donkey years old and a great deal more detailed research has clearly been undertaken since then, so I was probably wrong about those datings. I thought it worth tossing into the mix anyway.

Can anyone here help clear away the doubts still lingering in my mind?

Thank you, GYD. It was apparently hit by flak and abandoned on 24 June 1944 over Albania.

93 Squadron had been moving up the west coast of Italy. In early June 1944, they moved to Tre Cancelli, a sand strip just NE of Anzio. Just over a week later, they moved further up the coast to Tarquinia, using a concrete runway but one which had suffered badly from Allied bombing, its craters having been filled with rubble. The dust that came up apparently caused the Spitfires some problems. LZ929 was lost the day before their next move to Grosseto.

For those who are, like me, of a certain age, I should add that Raymond Baxter was a member of 93 Squadron during the period in question.

‘Fighter Squadrons of the RAF and their aircraft’ by John Rawlings lists a MkVc as LZ929/HN O

GYD