Supermarine Spitfire PV270, Ohakea, New Zealand

SPITFIRE Return to Flight

Additions and Corrections

1. Page 145 - Spitfires scrapped in Australia - Stewart Wilson, Editor of AERO Australia magazine and a well known aviation and Spitfire writer, pointed out that the number of Spitfires listed as being returned to Oakey for scrapping was too high and thus is in fact more likely the total of all aircraft stored at Oakey which included only around 339 Spitfires by 1946. The RAAF only operated a maximum of 656 Spitfires. A recent article in the Australian newspaper about rumoured buried Spitfires stated "RAAF records show that 544 aircraft -- 232 of them Spitfires -- were flown to Oakey to be sold to a scrap metal dealer".
2. Page 249 - Rene Mouchotte - according to the monument to Rene Mouchotte at Calais Marck airfield in France, his body was found on the beach at Middelkerke in Belgium just north of Dunkirk on 3rd September 1943 but it was not formally identified until 1949. He had been escorting B17 bombers attacking the V2 rocket base at Eperlecques when attacked by FW190s.
3. Page 96 - Sommervieu Advanced Landing Ground B8 as it looks today (July 2011) with Bayeux Cathedral in the distance