I have just started reading Fighter Boys by Patrick Bishop and it contained an incident that I had not read about before.

Tim Elkington is mentioned in the introduction because his mother (unknowingly) witnessed him being shot down.

I wanted to find out more and found this article by his son John

http://www.johnelkington.com/archive/inf-people-father.htm

and in his own words

http://acesofww2.com/UK/aces/elkington/

The next day (August 16 1940) he was “Top Weaver”, flying back and forth over the
rest of the squadron to provide an early warning of enemy fighters,
when they encountered 100 German aircraft. In the ensuing melée,
he never saw the aircraft that riddled his plane with cannon
shells – although, amazingly, his mother did. From nearby Hayling
Island and quite unaware that her son was involved, she watched the
lone Hurricane (P3173) pursued by three Me. 109s. Tim’s fuel tank exploded,
peppering him with shrapnel.

Perhaps not what most people would think of as good luck. Yet his
luck did hold. Unconscious as he drifted seawards in his parachute,
he would certainly have drowned. Then his flight leader,
Flight Sergeant Berry (Frederick George Berry DFM KIA Sept 1, 1940 #563426
Hurricane P3276),
achieved the extraordinary feat of blowing him back over land with
his aircraft’s slipstream.

L2124 History via my Hurricane acquaintance

14.9.39. 501 squadron, 31.05.40. 13 MU, 19.6.40. 19 MU, ?.06.40. 7 O.T.U., 21.08.40. 5 O.T.U. 05.12.40. FAT (2) Sgt B.C.Walmsley swung on landing of the runway at Moreton-in-the-marsh and tipped on nose. 07..04.41. FA CAT E. 07.04.41 SOC.

Please excuse my ignorance but what do the letters/ numbers mean?

SD is 501 Sqn Code – All aircraft in this sqn would carry this
H is the individual Code for that Plane. This would be on one plane at time and only re-used in Sqn plane written off on transferred out

Allows Identification in Sky

Low letters A B C D etc generally mean A Flight

High Letters N P Q generally mean B Flight

but this only works for two flights

Some letters like I and O generally not used (as could be 1 or 0)

Hurricane acquaintance of mine confirms L2124 Cat E on 7.4.41 but he could not find Accident card for this. So maybe a typo

This isn’t really Historic Aviation !

No but it adds another perspective to the discussions we have on here on Replicas/Reproduction etc

Mark12 once posted this on one of those threads

http://www.gomog.com/articles/no1judgement.html

Paul

Ed you need to try and get a copy of Battle of France Then and Now by Peter Cornwall

Btw does Arrhur still have his log book from the time and do you know service number thanks ?

At least they didn’t order a middle aged Flight Sergeant to burn the “lame duck”