Squadron 611

Twelve "Spitfire" IX :

W/Cdr A.C. Deere "Spitfire" IX # EN 568. Green 1
F/Lt F. Colloredo MansfeId.“Spitfire" IX # EN 573. White 1.
F/Lt J.M. Checketts. “Spitfire” IX FY © H. Black 1.
F/Lt H.A.S. Johnston "Spitfire" IX # EN 576. Green 3.
FlI_t Fi. F. Luness "Spitfire" IX FY @ P. Green 2.
F/O J.H. Devlin “Spitfire” IX # EN 529. White 2.
F/O J. Garden "Spitfire" IX # JK 860. White 3.
F/O K Branson "Spitfire" IX FY © A. Black 2.
F/O. G.FI.Lindsay. "Spitfire" IX # EN 570. FY © J, B/ack3.
Lt J. lvedte "Spitfire" IX # LK 979. White 4.
Sgt G. Claydon "Spitfire" IX # EN 564. Green 4.
Sgt K.J. King "Spitfire" IX _ FY © K. Black 4.

The mission report

Beautiful sun. At 15:58 the Wing took off for Rodeo 229 ... We flew to Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise at 7800 meters
above sea level and just before we got over this town in the Pas-de-Calais we saw 13 FW 190 flying south
at 6900 meters altitude in formation, well aligned, each plane being 50 meters from each other.
The Squadron will then immediately turn to his right by diving to these enemy planes to attack them.

These FW 190s saw our Squadron's planes at this time, and as F / Lt Checketts, who was closest to the Huns,
began their attack, these Huns escaped to their right. After a complete turn the enemy planes passed on
their backs and dived vertically to disappear in the thick fog that was at 4500 meters. The F / Lt Checketts
will be the only pilot able to open fire to one of these planes. He will claim this destroyed enemy plane.
W / Cdr Deere was ready to shoot when he saw a "Spitfire" which he later identified as Black 4 appearing
through his section and thus disrupting the attack Black 3, F / O Gordon R. Lindsay had just been seen
diving to the ground with 8 FW 190s behind his tail, and he will not be returning to the base, the
Squadron lost one of its oldest and most popular pilots.

The remainder of the Squadron reformed, resumed rapidly from altitude and left France above Berck
at 5400 meters before landing at 17:17 on the base.

After having obtained the necessary authorizations,
the excavation took place on July 10th. After just a
few buckets from our digger operator, Gerald Frion,
a number of relatively well preserved aluminum
structural parts, fuselage sheet, engine mount tubes,
the intercooler radiator in good condition, the
shielding plate of the glycol radiator and the
magnificent Merlin 66 Rolls Royce were revealed.
Gerald then uncovered the complete propeller hub
with the propeller pitch control mechanism still
with its original oil !!!

10. July, 2013

We get the engine and additional parts back to base
and the work to preserve it have started.

Propeller hub and Engine is in amazing condition
after all these years.

The engine is washed and cleaned properly before it is
??????

The engine is retrieved

2. September, 2018

Norwegian Flying Aces buys the engine parts and
we begin rebuilding on the Isle of Wright shortly after.

Two years in the making, and many inspections later,
the plane will be the first Spitfire we operate in
Norway from around year 2020.

We will keep all our followers updated on booking,
and we expect this unique offer to be sold out quickly!

The crash site

Merlin 66 Spitifre Engine

Current progress