This Spitfire aircraft was built as a single-seat LFlX fighter at the Castle Bromwich factory of Vickers Supermarine in 1944 as part of contract No. B981687/39. It was delivered to the Royal Air Force at No.33 Maintenance Unit at Lyneham in Wiltshire as PV202 on 18/09/44 where it was brought up to operational standard for service delivery.
PV202 had carried out 20 operational sorties with ten pilots from Britain, Denmark, Holland and South Africa during its service with 33 Squadron. A move between M.U.’s took it to 83GSU at Dunsfold in January 1945 before being issued to 412Sqn. Royal Canadian Air Force operating from Heesch in Holland where it carried the Squadron identity “VZ-M” later changing to “VZ-W”. Operations were still to strafe anything enemy moving on the ground and the Squadron eventually moved further into Germany itself, being based at Rheinand Wunsdorf forward operating airfields. On 04/05/45 Fg Off H.M.Lepard carried out the last of PV202’s 76 operational sorties with 412 Sqn. With the war in Europe at an end, the Sqn. returned to Dunsfold at the end of May and PV202 was flown to the famous 29MU at High Ercall for storage in July 1945.
Battle of Britain Airshow at Imperial War Museums Duxford.
Photographed Saturday 18th September 2021.
