This aircraft was piloted by Lt. Harold Ivan "Barney" Barnett (206043V) on three operational sorties during October & November 1943. His logbook entries show that he first flew this aircraft on the 22nd October 1943 during an offensive fighter sweep to Volturno & Pescara. The entry for this his 90th operational sortie, amusingly ends with "Johnny Seccombe finds snake in cockpit" In order to have bomb racks fitted to their Spitfires, N°2 squadron was then removed from operations on the 25th October. After the fitting of the bomb-racks, Lt. Barnett's logbook entry from the 28th October records a 35 minute test flight on "S" with the remarks: New "S" with bombrack - OK "CLAUDIA II". The squadrons first operational divebombing sortie with the new 250lb bomb-racks was flown on the 29th October. The target for this operations was gun positions north of Termoli, which could not however, be attacked due to 9/10 cloud cover. The entry for this his 91st operational sortie, ends with "One AX/AC hit by Lightning!" With AX being the aircraft codes used by N°1 squadron, it would appear that a USAAF P-38 Lightning had fired on one of N°1 squadrons aircraft. The squadron was again removed from operations on the 2nd November, when they were withdrawn to Malta, to have modifications done to the Spitfires armament. All the aircraft were flown from Palata to Halfar in Malta via Grottaglie (Italy) and Catania (Sicily). During the course of the next three weeks the Spitfires were fitted with four cannons, before returning to Palata and N°7 Wing (SAAF) on the 25th November. "S" was flown by Lt. Barnett to Halfar in Malta for the cannon modifications, and he also piloted her on the return flights to Palata.
Built by the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory and powered by a Merlin 46 engine, "S" failed to return from a patrol on the 2nd December. Twelve Spitfires Mk.Vc, led by Capt. Bryant, took off from Palata, to carry out an offensive patrol north of the bombline. During the operation, whilst straffing motor transport, intense light anti-aircraft fire was experienced. "S" piloted by Lt. Russel Errol Laing (205718V) aged 20, was hit and observed spinning downwards. Another aircraft, DB-K (JK405), piloted by Lt. Edward Charles Jordan (140809V) was also hit and seen spinning down and crashing in flames. Both pilots were listed as KIA.
Lt. "Barney" Barnett who had started his tour with N°2 sqdn on the 27th August 1942, at LG.97 in North Africa, was OTE (Operational Tour Expired), and left the sqdn on the 25th January 1944. He had completed 107 operational sorties with a total of 166.25 operational flying hours. 117.20 of these hours were on Kittyhawks, with 49.05 being on Spitfires.
Built by the Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory and powered by a Merlin 46 engine, "S" failed to return from a patrol on the 2nd December. Twelve Spitfires Mk.Vc, led by Capt. Bryant, took off from Palata, to carry out an offensive patrol north of the bombline. During the operation, whilst straffing motor transport, intense light anti-aircraft fire was experienced. "S" piloted by Lt. Russel Errol Laing (205718V) aged 20, was hit and observed spinning downwards. Another aircraft, DB-K (JK405), piloted by Lt. Edward Charles Jordan (140809V) was also hit and seen spinning down and crashing in flames. Both pilots were listed as KIA.
Lt. "Barney" Barnett who had started his tour with N°2 sqdn on the 27th August 1942, at LG.97 in North Africa, was OTE (Operational Tour Expired), and left the sqdn on the 25th January 1944. He had completed 107 operational sorties with a total of 166.25 operational flying hours. 117.20 of these hours were on Kittyhawks, with 49.05 being on Spitfires.
