Date:	Saturday 25 May 1940
Time:	17:15 LT
Type:	Hawker Hurricane Mk 1
Owner/operator:	151 Sqn RAF
Registration:	P3323
MSN:	DZ-X
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 P3323 (DZ-X) of 151 Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) 25 May 1940 in combat operations when collided with another 151 Squadron, RAF, Hurricane (P3319) 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 (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.

Crew of Hurricane P3323:
Pilot Officer John Merrett Bushell, RAF 43059, age 26, posted 25/05/1940, as missing, presumed killed

According to the official Air Ministry file into the Incident (File AIR 81/569): "Hurricane P3326 [*sic] in a mid-air collision with another aircraft, 25 May 1940. Acting Pilot Officer J M Bushell: missing presumed dead". As no trace of P/O Merrett was ever found, he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Note that due to an administrative error, the serial of the Hurricane involved is incorrectly recorded as "P3326" when it should be P3323. Serial P3326 is part of a "black out" block of unused serials between P3325 and P3344

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 19)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/569: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502207
3. https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/1530952/bushell,-john-merrett/
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 .

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

2 April 1940

L1799

151 Sqn RAF

1

North Sea, off Coast of Suffolk, England

w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
15-Aug-2019 01:03	Dr. John Smith	Added
15-Aug-2019 05:12	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]