Date:	Monday 13 May 1940
Time:	13:30 LT
Type:	Hawker Hurricane Mk 1
Owner/operator:	3 Sqn RAF
Registration:	L1901
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near Wavre, Walloon Brabant -   Belgium
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Mervile, France
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I L1901 (QO-V) 3 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost in air to air combat 13 May 1940. According to the official Air Ministry file on the incident (File AIR 81/320): "Flying Officer A R Ball: report of death on 4 June 1940; Hurricane L1901 crashed near Brussels, Belgium, 13 May 1940". However, according to another published source (see link #6):

"On Monday 13th May 1940 F/O Ball was flying Hawker Hurricane Mk. I, Serial No. L1901, and was leading Blue Section and chasing a Dornier Do 17. Over the R/T, he was heard to call for help when he was attacked by five Messerschmitt Bf 109E’s (believed to be from 1/JG 21). Seriously wounded in the thigh, he crash-landed his badly damaged aircraft between Louvain and Wavre at 13.30 hours and was captured. He sadly succumbed to his wounds whilst a prisoner of war on 4th June 1940.

Albert Ransome Ball, son of Sidney Hastrell and Isabel Gilman Ball, of Montreal Province of Quebec, Canada, was twenty-five years old and is buried in plot 28.E.13 in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery in Germany (about five kilometres south-west of Kleve)".

Crew of Hurricane L1901:
Flying Officer (Pilot) Albert Ransome "Dickie" Ball, RAF 40069 (Canadian National), age 25 - Survived, captured, taken as PoW. but died of wounds 4 June 1940. He is buried at Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1978)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/320: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502314
3. Norman L.R. Franks, Fighter Command Losses, Vol 1, 1939-1941, Second edition, Midland, 2008
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2036702/ball,-albert-ransome/
5. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/3_squadron.html#1305
6. https://www.facebook.com/126834467471736/posts/flying-officer-albert-dickie-ball-no3-squadronon-10th-may-1940-germany-attacked-/788991654589344/
7. http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?23916-Flying-Officer-Albert-Ransome-(Dickie)-Ball

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
04-Jul-2019 22:49	Dr. John Smith	Added
08-Jul-2019 05:45	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]
26-Jun-2022 05:45	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]
06-Nov-2022 01:45	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]