Spitfire P9506 (possibly) damaged in the air, probably landed at Leconfield airfield.
On 25th May 1940 this 249 Squadron aircraft is believed to have been damaged, possibly in the air, and the pilot then appears to have made a landing without injury to himself, which
probably occurred at their Leconfield base. The squadron had only formed a few days earlier, the incident is not recorded in their record book. On a previous version I had probably incorrected stated that this aircraft was damaged on an operational sortie but this would seem unlikely as 249 Squadron don't appear to have been flying operationally in May 1940.
Pilot - Name unknown.
I would also add a possible correction to this information given above. On 30th May 1940 a number of 249 Squadron Spitfires were undertaking training flights much further north and were using Acklington as a base. One aircraft landed with the wheels not fully lowered at Acklington with it's pilot F/O J B Nicholson and it sustained damage beyond the unit's capacity to repair it. Until I learn of the identity of the Spitfire damaged at Acklington on 30th May 1940 I would suggest that the date may not be correct for the 25th May 1940 / Leconfield incident and it may relate to an incident five days later.
Spitfire P9506 was built to contract B980385/39 by Vickers Armstrong's (Supermarine) Ltd at Woolston and was
first test flown on 20th April 1940. It was then delivered to 12 MU at Kirkbride on 25th April 1940 where it remained
until being issued to 249 Squadron at Leconfield on 20th May 1940. Five days later it sustained the damage as recorded
above and Cat.R/FA was recorded. The report is very vague it it must have been a fairly serious damage as the record
then states that on 31st May 1940 it was dismantled and transported to "A.W." for repair. "A.W." is either Airworks at
Staverton or Armstrong Whitworth at Baginton but neither had contracts to repair Spitfires at that time. On 27th August
1940 it was flown to 9 MU at Cosford and the issued to 54 Squadron at Hornchurch for use in the Battle of Britain on 1st
September 1940. Two days later this unit moved to Catterick. On 10th February 1941 it sustained Cat.R/FA damage
when crashed in a forced-landing at Ellerton, near Catterick Airfield. On 12th February 1941 it was dismantled and
transported to Scottish Aviation Ltd. at Prestwick for repair but after assessment it was Re-Cat.W and struck off charge
on 28th February 1941 with total flying hours of 149 hours and 50 minutes. The incident at Ellerton is recorded on this website.