Date:	Tuesday 14 May 1940
Time:	19:00 LT
Type:	Hawker Hurricane Mk 1
Owner/operator:	79 Sqn RAF
Registration:	P2635
MSN:	AL-K
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Aircraft missing
Location:	Missing, poss near Nivelles, Walloon Brabant -   Belgium
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Mervile, France
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I P2635 (AL-K) 79 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (failed to return) for a combat air patrol on 14 May 1940. According to the official Air Ministry file on the incident (File Air 81/398): "Pilot Officer L L Appleton, missing presumed dead; Hurricane P2635 failed to return from an operational flight over the Nivelles area, Belgium, 14 May 1940".

According to a published Belgian source (roughly translated into English): "During an attack on a He 111 of 5./LG 1 this Hurricane was hit by return fire from the enemy bomber. The aircraft crashed around 19:00 west of Ronse, East Flanders. The pilot, Pilot Officer Llewellyn Appleton was never found. There were also reports that the aircraft had landed near Nivelles.

After the war, this mysterious disappearance was investigated by the RAF, but neither an exact location nor the pilot were found."

Crew of Hurricane P2635:
Pilot Officer Llewellyn Lister Appleton (Pilot) RAF Service Number 40497, aged 23 - posted as missing presumed dead 15/05/1940.

As no trace of the pilot or his aircraft was ever found, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. The reported crash location of Ronse is a Belgian city and a municipality in the Flemish province of East Flanders, at approximate Coordinates: 50°45′N 03°36′E.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 15)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/398: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502069
3. Peter D. Cornwell: The Battle of France then & now (p268)
4. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1082884/appleton,-llewellyn-lister/
5. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showpost.php?p=62790&postcount=17
6. https://www.luchtvaartgeschiedenis.be/content/hawker-hurricane-p2635-bij-ronse
7. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/79_squadron.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronse

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
16-Jul-2019 22:39	Dr. John Smith	Added
16-Jul-2019 22:45	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
17-Jul-2019 10:16	DG303	Updated [Operator]
27-Jun-2022 23:31	Ron Averes	Updated [Location, Damage]