As indicated in "Fighters over the Desert" two 2 PRU losses are recorded as taking place on September 22, 1942. Tony Wood's listing has the two Crete PRU losses as occurring on September 22, the morning one flown by P/O Ford being shot down at 0920 by Uffz Hanns Loffler and the afternoon mission flown by F/L Day shot down at 1520 by Uffz Moycis, both of 9/JG-27.
In FOTD the a/c flown by L/L Day and shot down by Uffz Moycis is reported as "....crash landing on the island after his attack" Since F/L Day was shot down into the sea, perhaps this airplane is the one flown by P/O Ford.
posted by Andy Fletcher on the rafcommands.com forum
"...I've rechecked the 2 PRU ORB and both the F.540 and F.541 agree on the dates of the losses:
22 Sep 42 - BP883 (P/O L.L. FORD)
23 Sep 42 - BR435 (F/L F.B. DAY)
30 Sep 42 - BR411 (F/O M.E. LENG)
P/O FORD's take off time from Kilo 8 is given as 07:30 (refuelling at Dekheyla [Dekheila])
F/L DAY's take off time from Kilo 8 is given as 06:30 (refuelling at Dekheyla [Dekheila]). Presumably the date (23rd) in DAY's obituary for his loss near Crete comes from the family and this ties in with the ORB.
I've also checked on http://spitfires.ukf.net for the loss dates.
22 Sep 42 - BP883, agrees with ORB
23 Sep 42 - BR435, agrees with ORB
22 Sep 42 - BR411, contredicts ORB but would indicate two 2 PRU losses on this date. However looking through the ORB BR411 is recorded as flying sorties on 22nd, 23rd, 26th, 28th and finally on the 30th. So 22 Sep 42 must be an error.
According to the ORB 2 PRU flew only one sortie (P/O FORD) to Crete on 22 Sep 42 so the afternoon claim by Uffz MOYCIS wasn't against a 2 PRU aircraft..."
