ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 228015
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| Date: | Friday 11 October 1940 |
| Time: | 16:15 |
| Type: |  Supermarine Spitfire Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 41 Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | X4052 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | near South Ash Manor, West Kingsdown, Sevenoaks, Kent, England -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Hornchurch, Essex |
| RAF Hornchurch |
October 11th, 1940, was a busy day for Fighter Command in southeast England.
The Luftwaffe mounted four raids that day, consisting mainly of high altitude fighter sweeps carried out by bomb carrying Me.109's.
41 Squadron was " scrambled " to intercept two of these raids. The first sortie resulted in no contact with the enemy, but the second, the last raid of the day, resulted in the loss to the Squadron of 3 Spitfires, one of them shot down and two destroyed by a mid-air collision.
As the Squadron climbed through about 25,000 feet to intercept a large formation of 109s, Yellow Section, at the rear of the Squadron, was dived on by a group of the enemy fighters.
The order to " break " was given and in the melee two Spitfires, X4554 ( Sgt Leslie Carter ) and X4052 ( F/O Desmond O'Neill ) collided, both aircraft being heavily damaged in the impact and falling out of control.
Sgt Carter was able to bale out of his wildly gyrating aircraft ( its tail section severed from the fuselage and restrained only by a control cable ) and landed safely, but F/O O'Neill was not so lucky. He was able to abandon his crippled Spitfire but was killed when his parachute failed to open.
Desmond Hugh O'Neill is buried in Square 7A, Grave 12104, Streatham Park Cemetery, Surrey.
R.I.P.
Sources:
Blood Sweat And Courage - 41 Squadron RAF 1939-1942, pub. by Fonthill 2014
Spitfire production list
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 08-Aug-2019 04:24 | angels one five | Added |
| 08-Aug-2019 04:31 | angels one five | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 08-Aug-2019 23:35 | angels one five | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
| 09-Aug-2019 18:08 | angels one five | Updated [Narrative] |
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