On the 2nd of January 1940 this aircraft suffered engine failure near Thornaby airfield, the pilot force
landed the aircraft on (or near) Thornaby airfield damaging it to some extent.
Pilot - F/O William E (Billy) Legard RAF, ok.
Billy Legard was born in York on 1911, he arrived at 41 Sqdn on 26th November 1939. He was killed when his
aircraft was shot down on 1st June 1940, he was 29 years old. His body was never found and is commemerated on the Runnymede Memorial.
My thanks to Graham Sharp for the aircrafts history.
The aircraft has a very long record, it was built by Supermarine at Woolston to contract 527113/36
and delivered to 41 Sqdn on 3 January 1939. There is no mention of the incident above on its record card so damage must have only been slight,
Cat U or Cat M. It was returned to service and suffered a Cat R/FA on 13th February 1940 and following inspection by 60 MU on 15th Febuary
1940 it was
assessed as beyond repair on site, it was transported to 4 MU on 26th February and transferred to 6 MU on 9th June 1940.
Following repair it was issued to 57 OTU on 1st November 1940 where it suffered a Cat R/FA on 10th February 1941. It was transported to
Vickers Supermarine's repair facility on 26th February and returned to 57 OTU on an unspecified date but
once again suffered a Cat R/FA on 12th April 1941. Once again it was repaired and suffered another Cat R/FA on 8th November 1941 with the same unit.
After this incident it was transported to Vickers Supermarne's repair facility on 10th November 1941. It was again re-issued to 57 OTU on
13th December 1941 before being moved to 61 OTU on 1st Febriary 1943 but was back at 57 OTU on 13th February 1943. It suffered a Cat B/FA
on 16th June 1943. No further details are known but it was later repaired and then transferred to 33 MU
and prepared for re-issue to service. It was then transferred to 58 OTU on 8th November 1943 then finally to 1 TEU on 26th February 1944.
It was finally SOC on 28th August 1944.
My thanks to 41 Squadron historian Steve Brew for the information about this incident and for other 41 Sqdn incidents in Yorkshire.