Date:	Saturday 14 September 1940
Time:	16:05
Type:	Hawker Hurricane Mk I
Owner/operator:	73 Sqn RAF
Registration:	P2542
MSN:	TP-D
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Parkhouse Farm, Rectory Lane, Chart Sutton, Maidstone, Kent -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Castle Camps, Essex
Destination airport:

Narrative:
No.73 Squadron was 'scrambled' from its base at Castle Camps at 1530 hours and while patrolling over Tilbury at 16,000 feet was attacked by mistake by a section ( 3 aircraft ) of Spitfires.

P/O Roy Marchand (Killed In Action the following day) landed back at Castle Camps unhurt, with his Hurricane L1981 damaged but repairable.

Flight Lt Michael Beytagh was forced to land his machine V7209 at West Malling. Like Roy Marchand he was uninjured and his plane was repairable.

Sgt John Brimble was not so fortunate. His Hurricane P2542 (TP-D) was reported by another 73 Squadron pilot, Pilot Officer J. D. Smith, as being shot down by a Spitfire south of Tilbury. A witness on the ground saw a Hurricane diving, apparently out of control, then momentarily pulling up before diving at full throttle into a meadow at Parkhouse Farm, Rectory Lane, Chart Sutton, Maidstone, Kent.

The Hurricane was buried in the ground by the force of the crash. The site was examined by an RAF salvage unit and some human remains were found. There was no clue as to the identity of the plane or the pilot. The remains were interred at Sittingbourne under a headstone marked " An unknown pilot ". Sgt Brimble was listed by the authorities as missing in action.

It was 40 years to the day when, on September the 14th,1980, a private excavation of the crash site found the identity of the aircraft and personal items belonging to John Brimble, as well as his identity disc. These finds enabled an unknown airman buried at the Bell Road (Milton) Cemetery in Sittingbourne to be named at last. He was re-buried with full military honours at Brookwood, Woking, Surrey, on 16th October 1980. It is not known why he was not re-interred in the original Sittingbourne grave.

Pilot of Hurricane P2542: Sgt John Joseph Brimble, Service Number 741563, aged 23.
R.I.P.

1. The Battle of Britain Then and Now
2. Finding the Few, by Andy Saunders, published by Grub Street Publishing, 2009.
3. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J Helley, Air Britain, 1978 p 15)
4. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/3262: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16472552
5, http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/BrimbleJJ.htm
6. (1st Burial,1940): https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3078900/brimble,-john-joseph/
7. (2nd Burial,1980): https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/3078900/brimble,-john-joseph/
8. https://www.battleofbritain1940.net/0040.html
9. http://www.the-battle-of-britain.co.uk/pilots/Br-pilots.htm

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

25 August 1940

?

73 Sqn RAF

0

RAF Church Fenton, North Yorkshire, England.

min

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
01-Sep-2011 17:11	angels one five	Added
01-Sep-2011 17:14	angels one five	Updated [Registration]
01-Sep-2011 17:28	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]
02-Sep-2011 00:45	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]
06-Jan-2012 07:44	Nepa	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
04-Jul-2013 19:52	angels one five	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Narrative]
03-Mar-2014 02:14	angels one five	Updated [Time]
27-Mar-2015 08:39	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]
09-May-2015 09:15	Angel dot comma	Updated [Time, Operator, Departure airport]
07-Jun-2019 16:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
08-Jun-2019 10:41	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]
08-Aug-2019 00:27	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]
03-Dec-2023 05:42	angels one five	Updated [Narrative]