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Date: | Wednesday 29 May 1940 |
Time: | day |
Type: | Supermarine Spitfire Mk I |
Owner/operator: | 610 (County of Chester) Sqn RAF |
Registration: | L1062 |
MSN: | 277 |
Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
Other fatalities: | 1 |
Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
Location: | English Channel, off Dunkirk, Pas de Calais -
France
|
Phase: | Combat |
Nature: | Military |
Departure airport: | RAF Biggin Hill, Bromley, Kent |
Destination airport: | |
Narrative:L1062: Spitfire Mk.Ia (c/no. 277). First Flown 17-7-39. Delivered to the RAF at 7 MU 27-7-39. First issued to 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron 16-9-39. Transferred to 610 (County of Chester) Squadron 30-9-39 as "DW-L". Written off (destroyed) when shot down by AAA/flak from ships off Dunkirk 29-5-40; pilot killed. Total Flying Hours 97.40.
According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/676): "Spitfire L1062 lost in air operations over Dunkirk, France, 29 May 1940. Sergeant P D Jenkins: missing presumed dead".
610 (County of Chester) squadron’s next major encounter came on May 29 – and it was a disaster. Meeting a strong force of Messerschmitt Bf109s over Dunkirk, four aircraft were lost with their pilots. These were:
Spitfire N3177/DW-T – Squadron Leader Alexander Lumsden ‘Bonzo’ Franks, killed (age 32)
Spitfire L1000/DW-R – Flying Officer Gerald Malcolm Theodore Kerr, missing (age 30)
Spitfire N3289/DW-K – Flying Officer John Kerr Wilson, missing (age 32)
Spitfire L1062/DW-L – Sergeant Peter Douglas Jenkins, missing (age 20)
Airborne from RAF Biggin Hill, Bromley, Kent, for a combat air patrol over the Calais-Dunkirk area. As stated above, shot down by flak/AAA from ships in Dunkirk harbour; pilot was seen to bail out and parachute down into the sea, but his body was never found and thus not recovered. Also, there are no reports of his body being washed ashore, and therefore, he is considered to be "missing presumed dead".
Crew of Spitfire L1062:
Sergeant Peter Douglas Jenkins, RAFVR 740830, age 20, posted 29/05/1940, as missing presumed dead
As no trace of Spitfire L1062 or its pilot was ever found, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 5)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/676:
https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502340 3.
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1802052/jenkins,-peter-douglas/ 4.
http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/610_squadron.html#2905 5.
http://francecrashes39-45.net/rech_avion.php 6.
https://scarfandgoggles.wordpress.com/2013/02/14/ 7.
https://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/L1062 Revision history:
Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
07-Aug-2013 02:12 |
JINX |
Added |
01-Mar-2014 22:00 |
Nepa |
Updated [Operator] |
29-Aug-2019 18:14 |
Dr. John Smith |
Updated [Time, Cn, Total fatalities, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative] |