Date:	Friday 17 May 1940
Time:	20:30 LT
Type:	Hawker Hurricane Mk I
Owner/operator:	79 Sqn RAF
Registration:	L2140
MSN:	AL-J
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	between Vilvoorde and Braine-le-Comte, Hainaut -   Belgium
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Biggin Hill, Bromley, Kent
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I L2140 (AL-J), 79 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (failed to return) from a combat air patrol east of Brussels, Belgium. Pilot bailed out, survived unharmed, but was captured and taken as a PoW. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 811/503): "Hurricane L2140 crashed east of Brussels, Belgium, 19 May 1940. Pilot Officer R Herrick: prisoner of war".

Hurricane L2140 failed to return from patrol between Vilvoorde and Braine-le-Comte and believed shot down by AA fire at 8.30 p.m. Other sources state that the loss was due to air-air-combat with a Bf 109 of 6./JG 52, with the pilot bailing out near Valenciennes. Pilot Officer Robert Herrick (RAF 70899) bailed out and was captured. He spent much of the war as a PoW at Stalag Luft III. Aircraft was a write-off.

Note that, although Hurricane L2140 was lost on the 17 May 1940, it was not until 19 May (two days later) that the loss was officially recorded. The recorded crash location of Braine-le-Comte is a Walloon municipality, located in the Belgian province of Hainaut at approximate coordinates: 50°36'N 04°08'E.

Flying Officer Robert Herrick returned to the RAF post war, but was killed on 6 May 1953 in the crash of Harvard IIb KF300, of 22 FTS, seven miles north east of Newark, Nottinghamshire. At the time has was a flying Instructor with 22 FTS, and both he and the trainee Syrian pilot he was instructing were killed (see link #7)

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 15)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/503: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502124
3. Peter D. Cornwell, The Battle of France, Then and Now, 2008 p 303
4. Fighter Command Losses of the Second World War by Norman L R Franks (p 24)
5. Hurricane Squadron Ace: The Story of Battle of Britain Ace, Air Commodore Peter Brothers CBE DSO DFC* by Nick Thomas
6. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/79_squadron.html#1705
7. http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?p=256274
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilvoorde
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Braine-le-Comte

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
06-Aug-2019 23:56	Dr. John Smith	Added
08-Aug-2019 05:17	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]