© 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!