It was back to the Service Logs...
P9566 Spitfire F.Ia (Merlin III); Became Turkish AF No.2092; Class B reg. N-22 - Arr Turkish AF in 05/1940; 42nd Company of 4th Air Regiment in 08/1940; Detached to Corlu; Grounded due to lack of spares 12/1940; Abu Sueir, Egypt, flown to No.1 (ME) Training School at El Ballah c.04/1942 (F/O NF Duke); Re-serialled HK954 by 25/04/1942; Fate unknown
P9567 Spitfire F.Ia (Merlin III); Became Turkish AF No.2903; Class B reg. N-23 - Arr Turkish AF in 05/1940; 42nd Company of 4th Air Regiment in 08/1940; Detached to Corlu; Grounded due to lack of spares 12/1940; Abu Sueir, Egypt, flown to No.1 (ME) Training School at El Ballah c.04/1942 (F/O NF Duke); Re-serialled HK956 by 25/04/1942; Fate unknown
L1066 Spitfire F.Ia (Merlin III); Became Turkish AF No.2901; TOC/RAF 31/07/1939 - Arr Turkish AF in 19/08/1939; 42nd Company of 4th Air Regiment in 08/1940, detached to Corlu; Grounded due to lack of spares 12/1940; Fate unknown
By December 1940 -
all three were grounded in Turkey due to a lack of spares!
Which explains (and is corroborated by) a very strange and previsously garbled remark buried in "The Last Polish Spitfire" source...
All three Turkish Spitfires were used to 1940,becouse they didn`t had so much parts
But
THEN what happened???
P9566 Spitfire F.Ia (Merlin III); Became Turkish AF No.2092; Class B reg. N-22 - Arr Turkish AF in 05/1940; 42nd Company of 4th Air Regiment in 08/1940; Detached to Corlu;Grounded due to lack of spares 12/1940; Abu Sueir, Egypt, flown to No.1 (ME) Training School at El Ballah c.04/1942 (F/O NF Duke); Re-serialled HK954 by 25/04/1942; Fate unknown
P9567 Spitfire F.Ia (Merlin III); Became Turkish AF No.2903; Class B reg. N-23 - Arr Turkish AF in 05/1940; 42nd Company of 4th Air Regiment in 08/1940; Detached to Corlu;Grounded due to lack of spares 12/1940; Abu Sueir, Egypt, flown to No.1 (ME) Training School at El Ballah c.04/1942 (F/O NF Duke); Re-serialled HK956 by 25/04/1942; Fate unknown
By early 1942 they had managed to get to the Delta, to RAF Abu Sueir - a VERY large operational base, home through the war to MANY combat and service squadrons, some American though mostly British - where I ASSUME it would have been more than possible to service them
...and THEN they were flown on to the Fighter School at El Ballah in April 1942...
But that's only PART of the reason those entries are SO interesting...
Look again -
They were flown there by...DAN DARE!
P9566 Spitfire F.Ia (Merlin III); Became Turkish AF No.2092; Class B reg. N-22 - Arr Turkish AF in 05/1940; 42nd Company of 4th Air Regiment in 08/1940; Detached to Corlu;Grounded due to lack of spares 12/1940; Abu Sueir, Egypt, flown to No.1 (ME) Training School at El Ballah c.04/1942 (F/O NF Duke); Re-serialled HK954 by 25/04/1942; Fate unknown
P9567 Spitfire F.Ia (Merlin III); Became Turkish AF No.2903; Class B reg. N-23 - Arr Turkish AF in 05/1940; 42nd Company of 4th Air Regiment in 08/1940; Detached to Corlu;Grounded due to lack of spares 12/1940; Abu Sueir, Egypt, flown to No.1 (ME) Training School at El Ballah c.04/1942 (F/O NF Duke); Re-serialled HK956 by 25/04/1942; Fate unknown
....NEVILLE DUKE!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neville_Duke
Suddenly these have become celebrity aircraft!!!
"Well, my days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle." - Malcolm Reynolds