RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) 2022 (Saturday)

A Hawker Hurricane, Supermarine Spitfire and Avro Lancaster of the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), displaying at RAF Fairford on the Saturday of The Royal International Air Tattoo 2022.

The Hurricane:-
Hawker Hurricane Mk.IIc, LF363 was built at the Hawker factory at Langley, Slough. It first flew in January 1944 and is believed to be the last Hurricane to enter service with the RAF.
As part of its ‘Major’ servicing in 2021 it was repainted into new colours as ‘RF-J’ of 303 Kościuszko (Polish) Squadron during the Battle of Britain.
The original Hurricane ‘RF-J’, was Hurricane Mk.1 V6665, which was delivered to 303 Squadron at Northolt on 7th September 1940, as a replacement aircraft. It was only 20 days before it was lost in combat.
In common with all the 303 Squadron Hurricanes, V6665 was painted with the colourful circular unit badge on each side of the upper fuselage under the wireless aerial mast. Also, shortly after receiving instructions from HQ 11 Group on 16th September, it was painted with an unusual red diagonal band around the rear fuselage ahead of the fin and tail. This was an experimental identification marking that was applied to three of 303 Squadron’s Hurricanes as a trial, subsequently not pursued. It was not, as some think, an indication that this was a flight commander’s aircraft.
In its new markings Hurricane LF363 allows the BBMF to commemorate Group Captain Johnny Kent DFC and Bar, AFC, Virtuti Militari, whose final total of wartime victories was 13 enemy aircraft destroyed, and also the vital part that the Polish Air Force played in defending freedom during the Second World War and the Battle of Britain.

The Spitfire:-
Spitfire LFIXe, MK356 has been with the BBMF since November 1997. Built at Castle Bromwich in early 1944, it was delivered to Digby in March and served with 443 'Hornet' Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) at various locations on the South Coast.
On 14 April 1944 it flew its first operational mission as part of a ‘Rodeo’ fighter sweep over occupied France, piloted by 20-year-old Canadian, Flying Officer ‘Gord’ Ockenden, who flew 19 ‘ops’ in the aircraft. From then on, it was involved in fighter sweeps and attacking ground targets by dive bombing and strafing in the lead-up to the ‘D-Day’ invasion and in support of the landings and fighting afterwards.
In 60 days MK356 flew 60 sorties, was damaged by enemy fire on three occasions and suffered three ‘wheels-up’ landings. On D-Day+1 (7 June 1944) during a beachhead cover patrol in MK356, ‘Gord’ Ockenden’s flight engaged four ME Bf109Gs “on the deck”. He fired at one of the ‘109’s and saw his rounds hitting the enemy aircraft. His wingman finished it off and each pilot was credited with a half kill.
Following the War, the aircraft was used as an instructional airframe at RAF Halton until 1951, and then for the next 17 years was a ‘gate guardian’ at Hawkinge, Bicester, Locking and Henlow and also appeared in 1968 as a static airframe in the film "The Battle of Britain", before joining the RAF Museum reserve collection at St Athan, Wales. In January 1992 a complete refurbishment was started resulting in the aircraft's first flight for 53 years in 1997.

The Lancaster:-
PA474 is one of only two Lancasters remaining in airworthy condition of 7,377 that were built. The other is in Canada with the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Hamilton, Ontario.
The left-hand side of PA474 represents Lancaster BIII W5005 ‘AR-L’ “Leader” of 460 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). This has the nose art of a kangaroo wearing wellington boots and playing bagpipes, reflecting the crews mixed nationalities at the time - Australian, Scottish and Welsh.
The ‘bomb log’ on the nose shows a ‘snapshot’ at the point just after the 30th successful operation flown by W5005, to Munich on 6th September 1943.
The Lancaster's 30th operation (op) was flown from its base at RAF Binbrook on the night of 6/7th September 1943, taking off just after sunset, at 2148hrs double British Summer Time (BST), or 1948hrs GMT. The crew then were on their 12th op of their 30 op tour and their 10th op using W5005 and were a different crew to that which 'commissioned' the nose art. W5005 completed 44 successful op’s with 460 Squadron. It then went to 550 Squadron, kept its nose art, and became ‘BQ-N’. It flew 50 more ops with 550 Squadron and ditched in the Humber Estuary returning to RAF Killingholme from its 94th operation, in August 1944.

The right-hand side wears the 50 Squadron code letters ‘VN-T’ representing Lancaster LL922 in which Flying Officer ‘Dougy’ Millikin and his wireless operator John Tait, flew 33 operations together. It also bears the coat of arms and name of The City of Lincoln.


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