Bf109

There is also this one.

http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/G-EMIL.html

http://www.luftwaffe.no/5JG5.html

Supposedly nearing completion in UK for European client.

regards

Mark

Allen

Hi Andy,

Yep, I did notice that. Came up on the FB feed for RAF site.

http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive/missing-no-more-20072012

Look forward to reading the full story.

regards

Mark

Klimov

Thanks Seafuryfan,

Love doing the research and writing. Usually they are twice as long with a lot more info though magazines have to cut to fit these days.

Been a busy few months, Yak-1, then the P40 Kittyhawk, then the He-115 and now another Yak-1 recovery and Il-2 recovery. Shortly a FM-2 from Lake Michigan. All have been written (except the FM-2) and hopefully are in the process of being published over the next few months.

regards

Mark

Love the Yak-1 and the hostry and would love to see her restored and flying with a Bf109E.

P40

Hi Qattara,

I am getting more and more confused by some statements.

He obviously did not bail out unless he managed to shut the canopy on exiting the aircraft.

It looks as though he may have tried to retract the undercarriage (if the starboard leg is in the wheel well which is possible as only one tyre/wheel has been located). Knowing they were fixed down he may have ensured he landed on a rocky area to ensure the undercarriage snapped off. It shows the port wheel did not retract and damage to the tail plane from the impact. If you know you had your undercarriage fixed down I would be looked to ‘remove it’ rather than try to force land on sand and risk turning over. This is also assume he could see rock, it may well have been more sandy 70 years ago than today?

Personally, the fuselage damage to me seems more like flak (through bottom of fusealge and out through thet top) than air to air having seen numerous recovered aircraft with machine gun and cannon fire damage.

There were quite a few P40 units in the area, not just 260Sqn.

No. 233 Wing
2 Squadron SAAF
4 Squadron SAAF
5 Squadron SAAF
260 Squadron RAF

No. 239 Wing
3 Squadron SAAF
112 Squadron RAF
250 Squadron RAF
450 Squadron RAAF

The note about the Qattara depression on Sheppard’s account I also found interesting as he does mention on the right. I too thought it might be on the left when he flew off and headed to 53RSU. To me it seems more straight ahead though again we are not sure of his final setting when he flew off to Cairo.

Again, the 240 degree is the direction they started and assumed to be for 35-40 minutes assumed to be around 170 knots (with ET574 wheels down). Sheppard landed 1 hour, 50min later.

As for the radio. We will never know. Sheppard stated he broke radio silence but got no reply from Copping.

I doubt we will ever know what truly happened but until I see some other firm evidence, I will go on what we know from the records and assessment of what we can see from the photos.

regards

Mark

PS The family are obtaining his service record. It is thought he arrived in North Africa in March 1942 (to be confirmed) and was the more experienced of the two pilots hence why he led.

P40

Andy,

Seem to recall that RAFM were unaware of the existence of the P40 Kittyhawk until Bruce contacted them at the end of April when it was all being discussed on the site. Qattara indicating Ian Thirsk/RAFM were informed in Feb does int seem to stack up though will check with him and Paul Collins.

Qattara have yet to furnish photos of when they discovered her untouched on 12th Feb (before Jakub on 27th Feb). 70 years in the desert and two teams find her within two weeks of each other.

David, as for untouched, I still believe it was. I know it is a lot further from civilisation but North Africa had thousands of tons of war debris and all has been completely removed for scrap. Being a P40 has nothing to do with it – it is just scrap and therefore has some monetary value which would have meant it would have been partially or fully stripped by now if discovered before.

I tend to believe Copping is still out there and still to be found.

Copping does not have a grandson. I am assuming Qattra means he is trying to talk to the grand nephew who is called John.

RAFM/Defence Attache are doing there best but there is so much going on in Egypt at the moment it is not easy.

regards

Mark

P40

Another Ex Soviet P40B/C airframe and still no Russian scheme. Thats four restored now and none carry an historic scheme.

I know they are not the crowd puller but have always preferred an historic scheme to a fictitious one.

Great work by Matt Nightingale and team though.

Mark

Amazing

Ditto – amazing guy but they all were.

RIP