The crew of HP848 were W/C John Sidney Dunlevie 37965 and F/O Islay Sinclair MacMillan 142329.

The crew of HX809 were F/L Allison and P/O Tamplin, who hit a balloon cable at 820 feet, damaging the Mossie enough to make a landing impossible. They climbed to 9,000 feet and baled out OK, landing near Huntingford, with the aircraft coming down two miles away. The aircraft was coded UP-O.

Info on the first crew is from various posts on another board, confirmed by the CWGC site. Info on the second from “We Never Slept – The Story of 605 Squadron” by Ian Piper.

P/O “Timmy” Tamplin DFM was my grandfather, and lived to be 90. He had served in both 23 and 605 Squadrons in the UK and Malta. Apparently there was a problem with the aircraft altimeter and they were much lower than they thought they were, (IIRC the aircraft was battle damaged but I may be mistaken, its a good twenty five years since he told me the story and this was one crash amongst many for him) and the balloon was not where it should be.

Thanks for the tip on the book , an order is already in with Amazon.
130FF