Base: Eastchurch
Time Up: 1455 - Time Down: 1710
Op: Recco
A certain amount of A.A. was encoutered just north of Somme but no a/c were seen. On attempting to land at BOOS, starboard undercarriage failed to come down, so decided to return to England and dropped copy of message on aerodrome, also at Hawkinge. Crash landed at Eastchurch at 1710hrs. Found bullet had damaged hydraulic lock on undercarriage.
The ORB Form 541 makes no mention of squadron code of this a/c, only the a/c serial. However the Form 540 notes for 05/06/40 - "Salvage of 'V' (F/O J.E. Horton). Horton was the squadron Engineering Officer.
No Casualties:
 | |  |
Sgt Barry - Obs. | F/O G.H.D Evans - Pilot |
During WWII, the RAF used three-letter codes to identify their aircraft from a distance. Two large letters were painted before the roundel, which signified the squadron to which the aircraft belonged, and another letter was painted after the roundel which indicated the individual aircraft. Aditionally, there was the individual serial number for each aircraft, which was painted in a much smaller size, usually somewhere at the rear of the aircraft: (more)
Codes used by RAF 59 Squadron:
PJ Sep 1938 - Sep 1939
TR Sep 1939 - Oct 1942
1 Aug 1943 - Jul 1944
WE Jul 1944 - Oct 1945
BY Oct 1945 - Jun 1946, Dec 1947 - Oct 1950