News & Articles
PRU Pilots Revisited
2026-01-19
Time to time, we get a strong interest in PRU (Photo Recon Unit) pilots, whose missions generally involved some extremely dangerous low level flights over enemy targets, with no weapons, a lot of slipping and sliding the aircraft to avoid obstacles, along with considerable sweat and determination. They also flew at very high altitudes such as over industrial plants deep inside enemy territory. We have some fascinating stories such as from the son of pilot John Bendixson, and just now, another user who knew a PRU pilot and now wants to find as much detail as possible.So to start this research, and we are due for a refresher, I am going to list all our PRU pilots (there may be more), and we will fill in this article further on the PRU pilot we are currently assisting on the research. But for an excellent read, check out the exploits of John Bendixson.
This is the query we just received, and, stay tuned as we dig in to fill in the story of Maurice Hicks. "I came across this site whilst searching for a former PR spitfire pilot I knew back in 1989. His name was Maurice Hicks ... read more ...
Eliminate Ads with a Donation
2026-01-12
Do you enjoy our site but wish you could read all the content in it's purest form?We do rely on ads to help cover our hosting costs -- which are real -- as the site is custom coded and because of it's advanced features, requires special hosting. But, we do hear from some readers that they wish they would have an option to make a donation in order to see our content without ads.
If this is you, please get in touch (use the CONTACT US below). What does that cost, not much, just 20 UK pounds a year or equivalent ($35 CAD, $25 USD).
While most readers will choose to see ads, and we welcome advertisers, we also want to ensure we support all our readers wishes as we continue to preserve history by collecting from around the world, as we do. Some of our readers use the site daily, and if that's you, we're glad to listen and provide this option.
Best
Kurt read more ...
Squadron Movement MAPPING feature with Animations!
2025-11-13
We are very excited to announce a new feature on allspitfirepilots.org. If you have a look at the following sample pages for RAF; 601 RAF, 92 RAF, 310 RAF, and for RCAF; 411 RCAF, 442 RCAF, and 416 RCAF you will see some examples of the new squadron pages we are creating.UPDATE: All RCAF Squadrons ( that flew the Spitfire in combat ) have now been mapped. That would be 400, 401, 402, 403, 411, 412, 414, 416, 417, 421, 430, 441, 442, 443.
For any squadrons for which we collect this squadron movement data and create a map, the squadron page now starts with a large map showing where the squadron moved over time, and below it, all the pilots we have on the site for that squadron, roughly sorted by date. The map allows you to click through to see aerial views of these airfields as they are today!
Kevin Charles, our chief editor has had a crack at the RAF squadrons, in particular because his father served in 601. Kurt, meanwhile, wrote the mapping software along with features to allow (somewhat) easier imports of location, dates, and, squadron information -- ... read more ...
Funding Season - Hosting Cost Donations Drive
2025-11-01
Well it's that time of year we look at hosting costs and how to cover them. As volunteers who host the site at our cost and offer all the information, reserch, new features and user support, our only ask is that if you have found the site helpful, that you consider donating once or even annually. We want to keep developing new features, and, some new ones are almost ready to announce (announced now, see our maps).We've also created an affiliate account with Amazon that you can use to purchase books, and, we've highlighted several interesting Spitfire related books on our Support Us page. Click over to Amazon to purchase a book (any book), or make a donation, or do both!
Our site is well used globally, and, we enable research by digging deep into the military records, including the ORBs. Users who add pilot data such as aircraft flown help us relate pilots to aircraft flown, and in turn to other pilots who flew the same aircraft in the same squadron (or later).
Now, we've come up with a very interesting set of maps that show squadron movement, with animations. What discoveries will that feature enable? ... read more ...
Suport Us with an Amazon Book Purchase
2025-10-16
Do you enjoy WWII aviation books, including Spitfire books covering various campaigns or pilot first hand accounts? Not just the Battle of Britain, the North African campaign, the invasion of Sicily and Italy, the Normandy landings and subsequent ground support, and fighting in both Burma and the Pacific. If you click the Support Us here or at the bottom navigation of this site, you get out Support Us page, where we've added a sample list of books with images and links directly to Amazon. When you click that and purchase a book, we get a small commission which goes towards our monthly hosting costs. So any book purchase via our links is greatly appreciated. If you like, review your book and send that to us for posting. Since this is all new, let me know if you do purchase, so I can verify everything is set up with Amazon properly.
I've added some actual suggested books to consider, and I just ordered "Make it Do" myself to add to my own collection. It builds on my current interest in the North African air battles of Nov 1942 to June 1943 as discussed in the last blog article and ... read more ...
Can you help Identify this Spitfire Shot down in North Africa - a User Asks
2025-10-11
Recently, a user from France came to us with an aircraft mystery to help solve based on a photo he acquired in a WWII era photo album of German origin. Purchased recently, the album contained German fighter aircraft and airfields from the North African campaign, but it did have one image of a downed Spitfire.In the image, one can see a mostly intact Spitfire with German troops examining it. This photo has a serial number only partly identifiable, so Francois kindly contacted us for our take on identifying it.
One of our editors, Kevin, got to work on it as he enjoys a good Spitfire mystery. One can see in the image a partial serial number with 100% confidence on the number 7, 80% confidence on the last digit being a 6 (I did not discount the 8 immediately) and low confidence on the middle digit, which Francois gleaned through steady stare to be a 2. It’s the middle digit that created the mystery along with the fact that there was no squadron code on the aircraft.
So with that information we went to work on this image, and it kind of went like this;
1. Kevin first assessed ... read more ...
Spitfire And Hurricane Pilot Memoirs of Battle of Britain - Empty Skies Video
2025-09-24
Youtube has accumulated a number of Spitfire pilot memoirs. While adding one such to Geoffrey Wellum's page on this site, I came across this video, which is a good pilot's summary and recollection of flying the Spitfire and Hurricane in combat, in the Battle of Britain. If a new pilot could survive the first two months mastering the aircraft and learning to shoot, as one pilot states, they had a better chance overall of surviving.The Spitfire was a nimble plane to fly that pilots "strapped on" but it did have it's limitations with visibility on take off and also in combat. As such the Spitfire pilots talk about trying to get as close as possible to an adversary before shooting. The video is here, EMPTY SKIES, featuring interviews with both Hurricane and Spitfire pilots as filmed some years ago. It is an excellent video, as it's the actual pilots voices (in their senior years), giving you the facts and insightful details in their own words.
These are the survivors, but as Geoffrey Wellum states, being remembered is about remembering all of them, those that fought and survived, and those who fought and did not -- ... read more ...
Allspitfirepilots.org is 10 Years Old Today Sept 15, 2025
2025-09-15
Founded 10 years ago, launched on the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, a large global memorial event that timed well with this site's launch. While the site was launched on that occasion; Malta, North Africa, Southeast Asia, India, England/France/Belgium/, Germany/Holland/Norway/Italy (European theatre), Yugoslavia/Italy, and, various other countries and theatres are now treated on the site in detail.The site now has over 4,300+ pilots, with bios, serials flown / dates / events, images and a links section. The response from relatives has been tremendous, and, we've likely collected thousands of images from the day, many from private catalogues otherwise lost to history. If these were printed into a book, I think it would be the largest Spitfire pilot book ever printed.
We've had some very detailed bios added including pre-war, war, and post-war (for those that survived) information. Many sons/daughters, nephews & nieces, and grandchildren have added information and also at times ask us for help in their research. Two such requests asking us to research pilot details are ongoing presently, and every week brings new stories and linkages between pilots. We often find a contributor not only focused on their relative, they want to know about other ... read more ...
Which WWII pilot flew the most number of Spitfires?
2025-08-07
As you can see on this site, we like to match pilot to aircraft, for a given date. If contributors add a note, the line becomes a mini-ORB entry (sortie details). But once the serial is added, it links to the actual Spitfire page which in turn lists all the pilots who have flown it.In the case of this pilot, she was one of the ATA pilots flying Spitfires from factories to various RAF airfields. Her name, now quite well known of course, is Marry Ellis (NEE Wilkins). Our chief editor Kevin Charles has added many or most of the serials flown he could find for 1/Off Ellis, and you can see the list of her Spitfires flown as part of her ATA duties on her page on this site here.
When one clicks the serials she delivered, a list of other pilots who later flew that Spitfire in training or combat is then shown (if added to this site). Often times, there are images of this aircraft, taken at a later date before or after operations.
This pilot has flown, along with other ATA pilots, a very large number of Spitfires (and other aircraft too) in WWII, ... read more ...
e-bay WW2 Battle of Britain Photo Album from N Franks
2025-07-22
One of our users alerted us to a very rare photo album for sale from WW2 Battle of Britain pilot N Franks. There are various pilot / squadron images of interest.The listing is here for as long as it's available.
Various pilots in the album are on our site already, and, we've placed some of these photo snippets to the pilots page before they are lost to the online world. So if nothing else, this was a good source for one of our contributors.
When a piece of Spitfire pilot related history is placed for sale, and, we're alerted, we'll put a link up here so that Spitfire enthusiasts from this site may consider it. The provenance / authenticity of something on e-bay is not a given, so it's up to buyers to do their due diligence.
Kurt read more ...