Date:	Thursday 6 June 1940
Time:	afternoon
Type:	Hawker Hurricane Mk 1
Owner/operator:	17 Sqn RAF
Registration:	P2905
MSN:	YB-D
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	North Sea, off Dunkerque, Pas de Calais, Haut de France -   France
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Hawkinge, Folkestone, Kent
Destination airport:	RAF Hawkinge, Folkestone, Kent

Narrative:
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I P2905 (YB-D) 17 Squadron, RAF: Written off (damaged beyond repair) when lost (Failed To Return) from a Combat Air Patrol over France. Pilot missing presumed killed. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/801): "Hurricane P2905 failed to return from air operations over France, 6 June 1940. Pilot Officer R C Whittaker: missing presumed dead"

Airborne from RAF Hawkinge, Folkestone, Kent for 17 Squadron's afternoon Combat Air Patrol (the squadron's second patrol of the day). Shot down in air to air combat, and believed to have crashed into the North Sea, off Dunkerque, Pas de Calais, Haut de France.

17 Squadron lost two Hurricanes and two pilots in the above afternoon combat air patrol: Hurricanes P2905 and P3472, with pilots P/O R C Whittaker and Squadron Leader G D Emms. Over the years, various unofficial published sources have contradicted themselves over which pilot was in which aircraft. The AIR 81 file puts P/O Whittaker in Hurricane P2905 (shot down by a Dornier Do 17) and Squadron Leader Emms in Hurricane P3472 (shot down by a Bf 109).

Crew of Hurricane P2905:
Pilot Officer Richard Clare Whittaker, RAF 40450, DFC, age 20, posted 06/06/1940, missing in action, presumed killed.

As no trace of Hurricane P2905 or its pilot was ever found, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/801: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502472
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1531487/whittaker,-richard-clare/
4. Norman L.R. Franks, Fighter Command Losses, Vol 1, 1939-1941, Second edition, Midland, 2008 p 41
5. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/17_squadron.html#0606

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
11-Sep-2019 23:57	Dr. John Smith	Added
17-Sep-2019 19:35	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]