Duxford's Own D-Day Veteran “The Grace Spitfire ML407”
One of the Aircraft that took part At the D-Day anniversary Air show at the 6 th of June 2004 played its own part in the D-Day action sixty years ago to the day. The Grace Spitfire , ML407, was originally built at Castle Bromwich in early 1944 as a single seat Mark IX fighter, and served in the front line of the battle throughout the last twelve months of the Second World War, with six different Squadrons of the RAF's 2 nd Tactical Air Force, all in all flying 176 operational combat sorties. It was delivered to No. 485 New Zealand Squadron on 29 April 1944 by Jackie Moggridge, one of the top lady pilots of the ATA, where it became the ‘mount'of Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton, a 21 year old from Christchurch .
Houlton's ground crew, flight Mechanic Ron White (fitter) Vic Strange (rigger) and Michael Fahy ( electrician ) took charge of ‘407'and applied the Squadron identity code OU and individual aircraft letter V. ML407 first operational duties began the following dat May 1, 1944, escorting bombers tot targets in France. A week later ML407 was again flying escort duties until May 20 when, with a 500-pound bomb slung beneath the fuselage and Johnnie Houlton at the controls, a V-1 flying bomb site in France was dive bombed.
On June 6, 1944 ML407 flew into the History books. With the invasion onderway, ML407, flown by Johnnie Houlton, was leading Blue Section on a beach patrol south of Omaha beach when he spotted a JU88 Bomber.
“ I glimsed a Ju88 above cloud, diving away fast to the south. Climbing at full throttle I saw the enemy aircraft enter a large isolates cloud above the mail layer and it reappeared on the other side I was closing rapidly. Our aircraft were equipped with the gyro gunsight which eliminated the snap calculations or guesswork required to hit a target aircraft – especially one in a reasonably straight flight path and it also enabled the guns to be used accurately at a far greater range than before. I positioned the aiming dot on the right hand engine of the enemy Aircraft and fired a three second burst The Engine disintegrated, fire broke out, two crewmembers baled out and the aircraft dived steeply to crash on a roadway, blowing apart on impact. Supreme Headquaters nominated the JU88 as the first enemy aircraft to be shot down since the invasion began putting 485 (NZ) Spitfire Squadron at the top of the scoreboard for D-Day”
A Second JU88 was intercepted almost immediately and destroyed in what Houlton says was carbon copy of the first victory, the whole section sharing the second victory collectively.
ML407 eventually racked up 137 operational sorties with 485 Squadron ( in the hands of a total of 16 New Zealand pilots ) Including 69 fighter sweeps and over 30 patrols over the Normandy beachhead following D-Day. ML 407 credited with two JU88 kills, two BF109 kills and another BF109 damaged. In addition to this, ML407 went on to serve operationally with No.341 ( Alsace ) Squadron Free French Air Force coded NL-D. Today the Spitfire is owned, operated and flown by Carolyn Grace who keeps the historic aircraft at Duxford.
Text by the Imperial War Museum Duxford , Photos Robert Dahler RDAVP Aviation |
