Date:	Monday 27 May 1940
Time:	day
Type:	Supermarine Spitfire Mk Ia
Owner/operator:	74 (Tiger) Sqn RAF
Registration:	L1084
MSN:	299
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Dunkerque Beach, Dunkerque, Pas de Calais -   France
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Hornchurch, Essex
Destination airport:

Narrative:
L1084: Spitfire Mk.Ia (c/no. 299). First Flown 22-8-39. Delivered to the RAF at 609 (West Riding) Squadron 29-8-39. transferred to 74 (Tiger) Squadron 9-5-40 (as "ZP-L"). Missing from patrol Calais-Dunkerque 27-5-40 after being hit by Do17. Last seen diving into the English Channel off Deal, Kent. Pilot:-Pilot Officer P C F Stevenson was safe and returned by ship on 31st May 1940.

According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/589): "Spitfire L1084 crashed into the sea off Deal, England, 27 May 1940. Pilot Officer P C F Stevenson: missing, later reported safe".

However, most unofficial published sources disagree with the official crash location of "Deal, Kent"; according to a published biography of the pilot...

"Over Dunkirk on 22nd May Stevenson shared a Ju 88 and on the 27th probably destroyed a Bf-109. On this day he was hit by return fire from a Do 17 which caused a glycol leak, and made a forced-landing on the beach at Dunkirk in Spitfire L1084. He removed the blind-flying panel, reflector gun sight and radio before setting fire to the aircraft and going off to seek transport. He managed to get back to Hornchurch on the 31st. Finding the squadron gone, he then joined them at their new base at Leconfield in Yorkshire"

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 5)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/589: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502227
3. Royal Air force Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War Volume 1 Operational Losses: Aircraft and Crews 1939-1941 Page 33 (Norman L R Franks)
4. http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p002.html
5. http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/Stevenson.htm
6. http://francecrashes39-45.net/page_fiche_av.php?id=6548
7. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/74_squadron.html
8. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showpost.php?p=249098&postcount=9
9. http://www.oldcranwellians.info/bob-rollcall.html

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

17 March 1940

L1084

609 (West Riding) Sqn RAF

0

RAF Drem, East Lothian, Scotland.

min

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
08-Aug-2013 15:50	Anon.	Updated [Damage]
08-Aug-2013 19:38	JINX	Added [[Damage]]
25-Mar-2015 18:09	Don Diego	Updated [Operator]
02-Jun-2015 15:54	King T.	Updated [Operator]
09-Mar-2016 08:19	Red Dragon	Updated [Total fatalities, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative]
18-Aug-2019 21:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Cn, Other fatalities, Location, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
18-Aug-2019 21:52	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]