Spitfire MA903

[Phil Listemann]

Hello,

Air-Britain Register gives this aircraft as 'SOC as missing 28.02.46'. I can't find any trace of this Spitfire and even the book 'Final Landings 1946 - 1949' doesn't say a word on this loss. I guess that the date is uncorrect.

Does anyone know more about this plane sent in FE?

Many thanks

Phil

[ian94avenge]

Hello Phil,

Sorry, not much to add, arrived India August 29, 1943 via SS Martand thence no service known until "missing" SOC February 28, 1946.

Perhaps it's one of those that got buried and everyone is looking in the wrong place !

Regards,

Ian

[Bill Walker]

The SOC date is only a paperwork exercise. The aircraft could have been destroyed or gone missing much earlier, but nobody got around to the paperwork. The lack of records after arrival in India suggests damage in transit or while unloading.

I have a record of an RCAF Moth, used as an instructional airframe by the start of the war, loaned to an Air Cadet Squadron about 1943, and then declared "missing" and struck off in 1960. I suspect it took till then for anyone to notice the gap in the records.

[JohnE]

MA903 was with 607 Squadron in February 1944. It arrived in India in August 1943, but where it was from September to February I don't know.

John Engelsted