ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 229092
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| Date: | Friday 7 June 1940 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  Hawker Hurricane Mk 1 |
| Owner/operator: | 43 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | L1608 |
| MSN: | FT-A |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Wanchy-Capval, 25 km east of Dieppe -
 France
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex |
| RAF Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex |
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I L1608 (FT-A) 43 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (Failed To Return) from a combat air patrol over France. Pilot survived. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/823): "Hurricane L1608 failed to return from air operations over France, 7 June 1940. Sergeant P G Ottewill injured, missing, later reported as safe"
Airborne from RAF Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex for a combat air patrol over the Le Treport-Aumale sector. Shot down a Bf 109 of 11./JG 26, and the pilot bailed out from his burning aircraft. According to Sgt Ottewill's obituary in the Daily Telegraph (13 February 2003) for this period:
"On June 7 1940 Ottewill flew two cross-Channel sorties to cover the BEF's retreat and evacuation. On the first he bagged an Me 109 fighter; on the second, he had just shot down another 109 when an enemy fighter got the better of him; severely burned, he baled out of his Hurricane.
Ottewill came down behind German lines, and was hidden by a farmer; then, concealed beneath a load of hay on a cart, he was delivered safely to a retreating British unit. Meanwhile, he had been posted missing believed killed. The squadron was astonished when he turned up at Tangmere.
Although most burned airmen were treated by the celebrated plastic surgeon Archie McIndoe and his team at the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead - thereby earning membership of the Guinea Pig Club - Ottewill was treated elsewhere. He was, however, fortunate in that his case was supervised by Sir Harold Gillies; he was the First World War father of plastic surgery who had trained McIndoe, a fellow New Zealander and distant cousin. The fact that Ottewill had been treated by Gillies assured him of a warm welcome at the Guinea Pig Club's annual dinners."
Crew of Hurricane L1608
Sergeant Peter Guy Ottewill (pilot)
Peter Guy Ottewill returned to service in 1941. In 1943 he rescued two airmen from a Bristol Beaufighter which had crashed into an ammunition store at Kirknewton, Scotland during take-off, and was awarded the George Medal. He rose through the ranks to become a Group Captain, and retired from the RAF in 1965. He died on January 31 2003, aged 88.
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/823: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502546
3. http://francecrashes39-45.net/page_fiche_av.php?id=7428
4. Obituary of Peter Guy Ottewill 1915-2003: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1421881/Group-Captain-Peter-Ottewill.html
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ottewill
6. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/43_squadron.html#0706
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 9 July 1940 | P3464 | 43 (China-British) Sqn RAF | 0 | 3 miles from RAF Tangmere, Chichester, West Sussex, England |  |
w/o |
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 17-Sep-2019 20:27 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 24-Sep-2019 12:05 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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