DZ364, 540 Squadron

[mhuxt]

Hello Again all,

First, a very Happy Boxing Day from down under.

Re: DZ364, I've encountered a number of puzzlers with this one:

- Does anyone know the circumstances of its loss?
- I've F/Sgt M. Cunstance missing - was he a POW? I can't find him on the CWGC site
- Who was the other crew member?
- Last but not least, does anyone know if this was a PR.VIII, or a PR.IV Mosquito?

As always, thanks in advance,

Mark

[alieneyes]

Hi Mark,

According to page 15 of Martin Bowman's "Mosquito Reconnaissance Units of World War 2" found here:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Gx85T-eYPdQC&pg=PA15&lpg=PA15&dq=DZ364+mosquito&source=b l&ots=Y-RUWMop-x&sig=0TFAfoZ97FzxWCbfx30KG1Y0gIk&hl=en&ei=bq41S92 PK8KF-Qbf68iuCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&v ed=0CAgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=DZ364%20mosquito&f=fals e

it was a PR VIII, lost on 18 March, 1943. Even with the spelling as Custance, nothing shows on CGWC nor are there any 540 Sqn losses listed for that day on Geoff's search engine.

Regards,

Dave

[Ross_McNeill]

Hi Gents,

F/Sgt M M V Custance, 1387822
Sgt R E Smart, 1092622

Both PoW

Regards
Ross

[mhuxt]

Many thanks both.

I wonder if there are PoW reports for the crew. I'd love to know how / why the Mossie came down.

Thanks again,

Mark

[jossleclercq]

hello,

From my own experience of the WO344 series at Kew, some PoW questionnaires are either missing (I know of at least one "lost" between the MoD and TNA, who don't agree about it, one party said it left, the other said it never arrived...) or the prisoners never filed the questionnaire at all. Sometimes you have two for a single prisoner.

Anyway, Custance's should be in WO344/81 (Curwen ->Czura), and Smart's in WO344/291/2 (SMALL ->SMIT). A pity, I've already checked both, but I wasn't looking for your two airmen.

Joss

[mhuxt]

Thanks Joss.

Do I owe you a reply re: French Mustangs? If so, I believe all the F-6s were armed. At least one American recce flier made a name for himself by claiming victories over the Luftwaffe. One of the websites which refers to the French unit mentions that a wingman witnessed his leader's demise - suggests flying together for mutual (armed) support, as opposed to having two cameras in the same place at the same time.

Cheers,

Mark

[Amrit]

Can anyone confirm that this is the same MMV (Michael Magnus Vere) Custance who went on to hold many junior ministerial posts in the Ministries of Aviation, Transport, and Health?

A