Regarding the engine – what happened to it next? Who identified the engine? Was it returned to the RAF for examination, and was any such examination carried out? Is it preserved somewhere, or did it just end up in an Irish scrapyard?

25degsouth has a good point about the attitude to loss at the time; so soon after 6 years of total war, it is understandable that the loss of two aircraft did not raise as many eyebrows as it would today. That is what I think is so tragic about this event; that it could be accepted so easily.