ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 228404
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| Date: | Monday 27 May 1940 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: |  Hawker Hurricane Mk 1 |
| Owner/operator: | 56 (Punjab) Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | P3478 |
| MSN: | US-P |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Sea, near Ostend, West Flanders -
 Belgium
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF North Weald, Essex |
Hawker Hurricane Mk.I P3478 (US-P) 56 (Punjab) Squadron, RAF: Written off (destroyed) when lost (failed to return) from a combat air patrol on 27 May 1940. Pilot survived and was rescued. According to the official Air Ministry file into the incident (File AIR 81/609): "Pilot Officer M H Constable-Maxwell: rescued from the sea near Ostend; Hurricane P3478 hit by another aircraft avoiding enemy action, 27 May 1940"
Pilot Officer Michael H Constable-Maxwell not only survived this incident, but rose to the rank of Wing Commander, retired from the RAF in 1964, and died in August 2000, aged 83. His obituary, published in the "Daily Telegraph" on August 31, 2000, made reference to the above incident, as follows:
"Constable-Maxwell had originally received his commission a few days before the outbreak of the Second World War. In January 1940, he was posted to No 56, a Hurricane squadron at North Weald, and scored his first victory over Dunkirk on May 27, when he shot down a Heinkel 111 bomber. Soon afterwards, however, he himself was shot down - by Belgian anti-aircraft fire.
"There was an almighty bang and smoke all around," he recalled. As the Hurricane fell away out of control and turned on its back, he slammed open the cockpit canopy and "popped out like a champagne cork". As he fumbled for his parachute ripcord, he cursed himself for not having rehearsed this manoeuvre.
He managed to open the parachute and landed in a circle of unshaven and hostile Belgian soldiers, whose suspicions were further aroused when he was unable to produce any evidence of his identity. Fortunately, an officer intervened to explain that the prisoner "must be English [in fact he was a Scot]. Only the English would go to war like this."
Shortly afterwards, the battery commander, Prince Charles of the Belgians, introduced himself with profuse apologies; his guns, he said, had been firing at the enemy all morning, but the Hurricane was the only aircraft they had contrived to hit. Constable Maxwell was able to tell the Prince that the King and Queen of the Belgians had stayed at Beaufort Castle in Scotland with his uncle, the 14th Lord Lovat.
Immediately a staff car appeared to whisk him to Ostend, where he boarded a trawler for England. Skippered by a Highlander who had once been the Lovats' head forester, the trawler evaded a torpedo attack, and landed Constable Maxwell at Deal just as Belgium was capitulating".
Sources:
1. Royal Air Force Aircraft P1000-P9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1978 p 20)
2. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/609: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C14502301
3. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1368261/Wing-Commander-Michael-Constable-Maxwell.html
4. http://www.nwamuseum.co.uk/WESTESSEXcrashesMishaps3WW2.pdf
5. https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/Fighter-Aces-The-Constable-Maxwell-Brothers-Hardback/p/2440
6. http://www.epibreren.com/ww2/raf/56_squadron.html
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 21-Aug-2019 21:50 | Dr. John Smith | Added |
| 22-Aug-2019 08:57 | stehlik49 | Updated [Operator] |
| 07-Nov-2022 02:00 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location] |
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