Spitfire Mk.Vc, "Cirecooks VII", JG720, "AX-N", Ben Gardane, Tunisia, June 1943.
Spitfire Mk.Vc JG720, coded AX-N, was first flown by Lt. McClellan Eric Sutton 'Robbie' Robinson, on the 13th June 1943, when he took the aircraft for a test flight. His logbook also records that this was the "first trip" for "Cirecooks VII". The name first appeared on a Hurricane coded "AX-O", and after the squadron converted to Spitfires, it appeared on every aircraft flown by Lt. Robinson. It is a combination of his name "Eric", being spelt backwards and the nickname of his wife being "Cooks". Contrary to what has been indicated previously, the "Cirecooks" name has therefore nothing to do with racehorses.
With the official end of the campaign in North Africa, No. 1 (SAAF) moved from their Tunisian base at Ben Gardane, to Luqa on the Island of Malta. Sixteen aircraft, led by the O.C. Maj. D.D. Moodie, took off from the African continent at 08:30, on Monday 14th June, and the first aircraft started landing on the Island aerodrome by 10:00. It was however, during this transfer that Lt. Robinson pranged the aircraft he had only one day earlier, named & test-flown. After an uneventful flight to Malta, Lt Robinson was unable to get one of his wheels down for the landing at Luqa. He flew circuits around the aerodrome whilst attempting to get the stuck gear out, but when it became clear that nothing was going to make the stuck gear come down, he eventually put the aircraft down in a landing just off the runway. The excellent crash landing resulted in the aircraft not being too badly damaged . A Group Captain, went up to Lt Robinson and congratulated him on his great effort in landing the aircraft, and also knowing that he had just flown in from Africa, he suggested that Lt.Robinson remove his personal belongings from the crashed aircraft. The squadron's war diary for the day records the events that followed:
"Robbie began undoing panels here and others there, and from one gap he took out a primus, from another two bottles of gin, from another a packet of 1,000 cigarettes, while the Group Captain's eyes got wider and wider. Robbie's aircraft is being repaired and will soon be servicable again"
The other aircraft flown by Lt. Robinson, which also bore the name "Cirecooks" were;
- Cirecooks - Hurricane xx957 AX-0
- Cirecooks II - ???
- Cirecooks III - Spitfire ER214, AX-N
- Cirecooks IV - Spitfire ER116, AX-N
- Cirecooks V - Spitfire ER874, AX-N
- Cirecooks VI - Spitfire JG959, AX-N
- Cirecooks VII - Spitfire JG720, AX-N
- Cirecooks VIII - Spitfire EN286, AX-8.
