Date:	Saturday 25 May 1940
Time:	17:15 LT
Type:	Hawker Hurricane Mk 1
Owner/operator:	151 Sqn RAF
Registration:	P3319
MSN:	DZ-W
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	12 miles SW of Ostend, West Flanders -   Belgium
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Manston, Kent
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I P3319 (DZ-W) of 151 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) 25 May 1940 in combat operations when collided with another 151 Squadron, RAF Hurricane (P3323) twelve miles off Ostend, Belgium. Both pilots were killed, but not at the same time. The pilot of Hurricane P3323 - Pilot Officer John Barrett Bushell (RAF 43059) was killed instantly in the collision. However, the pilot of Hurricane P3319 - Flight Lieutenant Frederick Allen "Ivy" Ives, RAF 37782 - survived the collision, only to die three days later (on May 28 1940) when the boat in which he was sailing back to England in (the s.s."Abukir") was sunk by a torpedo.

Hurricane P3319 was airborne (along with Hurricane P3323) at 16:15 hrs on 25 May 1940, when 151 Squadron again took off with No 56 Squadron from RAF Manston, Kent, for a rendezvous with twenty four Blenheim bombers over Hawkinge, the Blenheims being detailed to attack enemy troop concentrations in the vicinity of St Omer. No enemy aircraft were encountered, but on the return journey two of the aircraft were unfortunate to suffer a collision.

Pilot Officer Bushell (in Hurricane P3323) and Flight Lt Ives (in Hurricane P3319) were the unfortunates, and Pilot Officer Bushell's aircraft was seen to spin and crash into the sea. Flight Lt Ives was last seen turning towards the French coast about twelve miles from the collision location, and he was not seen again, but he survived the crash and his final actions were reported later, thus:

"June 5 [1940]
Pilot Officer Muirhead, a former Squadron member, wrote to Squadron Leader Donaldson as follows:-

Dear Sir,

I am writing to give you news of Flight Lt Ives who, unless he was picked up by the motor boat which torpedoed us, is, I am sorry to say, missing. He originally landed on the beach twelve miles south west of Ostend and I met him in Ostend after being shot down and jumping at the same place. We spent the next two days together dodging bombs and bullets and "Ivy" spent a lot of the time helping the wounded. In fact he was everything anyone who knew him would have expected and then some.

We sailed On the ABOUKIR at about 10 pm on Tuesday night. "Ivy", myself and an Army Officer were on top manning the guns, as we expected to be bombed at any time. Eventually however, we were torpedoed at point blank range and blown into the water. Only 24 people out of 500 on board were saved and I was the only Officer. Please express my heartfelt sympathy and admiration for "Ivy" to his people. He was a brick.

Yours sincerely,

(signed) J.Muirhead. P/O."

Crew of Hurricane P3319
Flight Lieutenant Frederick Allen Ives, RAF 37782, posted 25/05/1940, as missing, believed killed

According to the official Air Ministry file on the incident (File AIR 81/568): "Hurricane P3319 force landed near Ostend 25 May 1940; Flight Lieutenant F A Ives - missing presumed dead; on board SS Abukir when torpedoed". As no trace of Flt Lt Ives was ever found, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 19)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/568: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502206
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1800958/ives,-frederick-allen/
4. http://www.oldhaltonians.co.uk/pages/rememb/ROH/B.htm
5. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/151_squadron.html
6. Air Battle for Dunkirk: 26 May - 3 June 1940 By Norman Franks
7. http://ww2talk.com/index.php?threads/151-squadron-orb-air-27-1018.37186/
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Abukir#Air_and_sea_attacks .

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
15-Aug-2019 00:37	Dr. John Smith	Added
15-Aug-2019 00:43	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
15-Aug-2019 05:12	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]