News & Articles
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 ...
Would you like one of these?
2025-02-11
We have a locally made tote bag with outer Spitfire fabric pocket and an attached custom tag with pilot details. Made by one of our volunteers, who uses a mix of new (liner), new Spitfire pattern fabric (for pocket), and up-cycled tote fabric for this very unique item. A laser engraved tag may be created which can be placed on the outside or inside with pilot name and number, along with an airforce logo of choice.There are 2 designs, one with a beige/black Spitfire fabric done in spotter design, as the front pocket fabric, on an outer fabric that is closer to light military grey. The other tote bag design is as shown. Carefully stitched by hand and reinforced. Both feature a plaid liner and an outer pocket with a repeating Spitfire design. Take that out with you on your errands - you never know what conversation you may end up having as a result.
Just use the contact us below to let us know your interest. Cost is quite fair, it's done to help cover hosting.
Kurt - founder read more ...
Your favourite Spitfire Videos?
2024-12-06
If like me, you search youtube every now and again to get a glimpse of the Spitfire either in WW2 or in other settings, then you may also have collected a few favourites. What about the Spitfire combat scenes from the movie 'Dunkirk', 'Dark Blue World', or perhaps the clips from the movie Pearl Harbour, or just the iconic "Battle of Britain" movie shot in 1969. This one below is captivating because of the linkage between the factory workers who made the Spitfire and the pilots via their gun camera footage. The contributor put Battle of Britain in the title, which attracted lots of comments because most of the footage isn't, but just the same, I like the introduction. A boy asked his Gran what she did in the war. She explains that she built Spitfires. What planes the boy asks? "They called them Spitfires". The video goes on to show dramatic gun camera footage set to equally dramatic music. It takes you beyond the aesthetic of an airshow flypast to the frantic moments of combat.
Here it is: Gran's job in the war along with gun camera footage
Do you have some clips of interest? Send them ... read more ...
Completing pilot bios and related ORB entries for pilots in 73 and 74 squadron.
2024-07-13
Happening now! One of our users Justin Worrell is completing pilot bios and related ORB entries for pilots in 73 and 94 squadron.Justin’s great grandmother Rose O’Keefe’s son Henry was in 94 and 73 squadron. When he visited Greece in his 20's he visited Phaleron War Cemetery and found his headstone along with reading most of the others there as well. Over the years he tried to find out what happened to Henry and those who flew with him. With the internet things become a lot easier.
We’ve seen this pattern before, as the ORBs (publicly available at IWM) become a source of great detail to understand what type of flying a relative would have done. In the case of 73 and 94 squadron pilots, at that later stage of the war, in the North African, Italian, Yugoslavian (via Italy), and Greek theatres - it was less air to air combat and more convoy patrol, ground strafing, and bombing. Flying in at close range, flak took many and occasionally a bomb hangup as well.
Read more about 73 and 94 squadron pilots here and read about the Spitfire serials flown and the missions ranging from escort, formation ... read more ...
Usage Stats and Update
2023-10-05
Thanks to everyone contributing otherwise "lost to the attics" photos and bio information recently. Family members and others who still have access to photos, documents, and, memories that can be shared tell the story of these pilots. We wish we could do more, for example, have a ground crew database as well, but the efforts to maintain a site like this do have their costs. If anyone has a story worthy of a blog post here for other ranks within ground crew, we'd love to post it.In the meantime, here's where we are at with usage of the site, I think it shows the typical readership, with the UK being the largest and then countries with pilot representation from around the world. Interestingly France is always in the mix, no doubt because of the operations and direct contact with pilots in WWII. From 2nd place United States, it's a descending mix of countries like Canada, Australia, Poland, Holland, New Zealand, Czechia and so on.
Thanks for your support, whether it's imagery, further pilot detail, or a simple donation that helps us offset hosting costs.
Kurt read more ...
Ashton Pub on September 15 B of B Memorial
2022-10-02
After Kevin's thoughtful post relating the IWM Duxford Battle of Britain Airshow to some of the todays events, I followed up with my own recollection of my day on September 15th, 2022.Three years ago in 2019 I cycled the South Downs way with a friend from B.C. Canada for the 100 miles, with a stop at RAF Tangmere. Two days later on September 15th, 2019 I was at Capel Le Ferne on a beautiful September day in very similar weather to Ottawa's weather of September 15th, 2022. I recommend anyone visit Capel Le Ferne on the 15th of September, as you will see a Spitfire fly over the memorial and the white cliffs of Dover. The interactive surround sound and video show in the museum is very impressive.
I was thinking not only of this crucial day on September 15th, 1940 when Britain fought not just for itself but for the whole world. And the whole whole world had to some extent joined in with pilots and aircrew from allied nations such as Poland, Canada, USA, France, Slovakia and many more.
I remember Sept. 15th 2019 for many reasons. One of which was the world in which we lived, ... read more ...