Spitfire IIa

Built under contract by Vickers Amstrong at Castle Bromwich in February l941 it was fitted with a Merlin XII engine driving a Rotol three blade propeller.

Spitfire P7913 was a Mk IIa presentation aircraft bearing the name of the donor ‘City of Birmingham’ on the side of the engine cowling.

The aircraft was capable of speeds of 370 mph at 13000 feet and 290 mph at sea level. It carried 85 gallons of 100% octane petrol which gave it a range of 70 – 80 miles into France from the south coast of England.

Armament consisted of 8 wing mounted Browning 303 machine guns. P7913 was delivered to No.9 Maintenance Unit on the 3rd February 1941 and then to 66 Squadron on the 4th March. 118 Squadron received the aeroplane on the 9th April. On the 25th February 1943 it was transferred to the Central Gunnery School. Its operational service here however was short lived when as the result of an engine fire it was abandoned in mid-air by Canadian Ace, George ‘Buzz` Beurling and crashed at Middle Drove in Norfolk on the 8th June 1943. The airframe was signed off charge on the 30th June with a total flying hours of 413.50.

Flight Lieutenant George Frederick Beurling DSO, DFC, DFM and Bar, baled out of the aircraft and landed safely. He was Canada’s Top Scoring Ace with 31 confirmed Victories, 1 shared and 9 damaged.

In 1948, Beurling was recruited to fly P-51 Mustangs for the Israeli Air Force. Beurling fatally crashed his Noorduyn Norseman transport aircraft while landing at Aeroporto dell’Urbe in Rome on 20 May 1948, just six days after the Israeli Declaration of Independence. In November 1950 ,he was re-interred in the military cemetery at the foot of Mount Carmel in Israel.

The airframe, cockpit and Rolls Royce Merlin XII engine were recovered in 1985