© Darren Harbar Photography
Spitfire Mk IIa P7350
Spitfire Mk IIa P7350 , built in 1940 , was the fourteenth of 11,939 Spitfires constructed at the Castle Bromwich ‘ Shadow ’ factory . On 25 October 1940 , whilst being flown by Polish pilot Ludwik Martel , P7350 was shot by a German Bf109 . A cannon shell punched a large hole in the port wing and Martel was wounded by shrapnel in the left side of his body and legs . Despite his injuries , Martel managed to fly the aircraft down through 16,000 feet of thick cloud , in pain and fighting to stay conscious , to force land in a field near Hastings . The Spitfire ’ s next operational unit was No 616 ( County of South Yorkshire ) Sqn ( AuxAF ), based at Tangmere , to which it was issued on 18 March 1941 . Then on 10 April it was transferred to No 64 Sqn at Hornchurch . With these units P7350 flew on fighter sweeps over occupied Europe as Fighter Command went on the offensive during 1941 . With higher-performance , better-armed versions of the Spitfire now available , the time had come to withdraw the Mk II Spitfires from operational flying and , on 27 April 1942 , P7350 was issued to the Central Gunnery School at Sutton Bridge , near Kings Lynn . After further service with training units , P7350 was put in storage in 1944 . The making of the movie ‘ Battle of Britain ’ saw P7350 emerge from 20 years of dormancy when it was selected to fly in the film . After filming for the movie was complete ,
P7350 was allocated to the Battle of Britain Flight , being flown to the Flight ’ s base at RAF Coltishall by Sqn Ldr Tim Mills on 5 November 1968 . This famous old Spitfire has served with the BBMF ever since , the only airworthy Spitfire from the Battle of Britain , a much-admired survivor and precious artifact of British aviation history and of the RAF ’ s wartime heritage . P7350 currently represents 54 Sqn Spitfire Mk 1 R6895 , ‘ KL-B ’, “ KIWI III ”, the personal aircraft of New Zealander Al Deere from 10 Jul 1940 ( the official start of the Battle of Britain ) until 31 August , when , after being bombed on take-off from Hornchurch , Al Deere crashed upside down . He survived , but ‘ Kiwi III ’ didn ’ t !