Date:	Tuesday 21 May 1940
Time:	day
Type:	Supermarine Spitfire Mk Ia
Owner/operator:	74 (Tiger) Sqn RAF
Registration:	K9957
MSN:	171
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Berck-sur-Mer, Pas de Calais -   France
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Rochford, Essex
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Spitfire Mk.I K9957: First Flown 2-5-39. First isued to 65 Squadron 6-5-39. To 74 Squadron 6-12-39 as ZP-Q; Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from a sortie (combat air patrol) over Dunkirk 21-5-40. According to the official Air Ministry file on the incident: "Spitfire K9957 failed to return from an operational flight over, Berck, France, 21 May 1940. Pilot Officer R D Aubert: missing, later reported to be safe".

"Berck" also referred to as Berck-sur-Mer, is a commune in the northern French department of Pas-de-Calais, at approximate Coordinates: 50°24′32″N 1°35′36″E. Unofficial published sources state that the pilot bailed out of Spitfire K9957 due to a fuel supply failure, which caused the engine to stop.

Crew of Spitfire K9957:
Pilot Officer Richard Dennis Aubert (pilot, RAF 41361) - bailed out survived, returned to the UK

However, P/O Aubert's survival was (literally) short lived; he returned to his unit on 23 May 1940, two days later, after "hitching a lift" on a UK-bound Blenheim. The next day - May 24 1940 - he was killed in combat when the Spitfire he was in (N3243) was shot down 20 miles south of Dunkirk. His body was never found and thus not recovered, and he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft K1000-K9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1976 p 81)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/451.
3. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p001.html
4. http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1083083/aubert,-richard-dennis/
5. http://francecrashes39-45.net/page_fiche_av.php?id=7541
6. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=50731
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berck
8. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/74_squadron.html
9. http://www.rafcommands.com/archive/11415.php
10.http://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14501981

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
28-Jul-2019 00:12	Dr. John Smith	Added
28-Jul-2019 04:24	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]
09-Mar-2020 15:54	Iwosh	Updated [Aircraft type, Source, Operator]