D-Day Spitfires
On D-Day, June 6, 1944, a total of 57 Royal Air Force Spitfire squadrons were available to No 2 Tactical Air Force (2 TAF) and Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB)—the new and temporary title allocated to RAF Fighter Command—for offensive operations in support of the D-Day landings.
Most of these squadrons were equipped with Mk IX Spitfires, but 11 squadrons under the command of ADGB were still operating the older Mk Vb Spitfires. One of these was Spitfire Mk Vb BL415 AZ-B of 234 Squadron, which flew on two beachhead cover patrols on D-Day, one of those in the hands of Flight Lieutenant Walter “Johnny” Johnston. Later in the day on D-Day it was used to escort 37 C-47 Dakotas towing Horsa gliders to the Caen area.
On D-Day+8, June 14, 1944, Spitfire BL415 was to meet its end on another patrol of the invasion area, falling victim to German 88mm flak gunners while being flown by Johnston, who was very fortunate to survive the subsequent crash landing unscathed. Of 152 Spitfires destroyed or damaged from all causes during the month of June 1944, only 21 fell to German fighters. There may not have been much threat from German fighter aircraft during the D-Day period, but there certainly was from flak, which claimed most of the Allied aircraft lost to enemy action during the Battle of Normandy.
