File:Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb (48108218062).jpg

- Spitfire MkV AB910, DZ K Sannerville, Normandy, France 5th june 2019. 100% cropped

Spitfire Mk Vb AB910 was built at the Castle Bromwich Aeroplane Factory in 1941 and was delivered, brand new, to its first RAF unit, No 222 Squadron at North Weald, on 22nd August that year. In August 2016 we are, therefore, celebrating AB910’s 75th ‘birthday’.

Exactly 75 years ago this Spitfire was engaged in offensive fighter patrols with RAF Fighter Command as it went on the offensive against the Luftwaffe.

On 26th August 1941, AB910, flown by Pilot Officer Ramsey, was part of a force of 24 Spitfires patrolling off East Goodwin to cover the withdrawal of a ‘Circus’ from St Omer. The next day AB910 was one of 12 Spitfires from 222 Squadron providing top cover at 19,000 feet to nine Bristol Blenheims on a bombing raid to Arras. On 29th August it was one of 11 Spitfires from the Squadron which flew as part of the ‘withdrawal wing’ patrolling off Dunkirk at 20,000 feet. All these sorties were flown by Ramsey. AB910 then suffered some damage, which put it out of action until December 1941 when it was allocated to 130 Squadron based at Perranporth, Cornwall, from where it flew further escort and daylight bombing raids and convoy patrols.

Amazingly, 75 years later and after having completed 143 ‘ops’ in almost three and a half years of war fighting, AB910 is still flying in RAF hands. A D-Day veteran itself, it now wears the colour scheme of Flight Lieutenant Tony Cooper’s 64 Squadron Spitfire Mk Vb on D-Day. <a href="https://memorialflightclub.com/blog/spitfire-mk-vb-ab910-%e2%80%93-75-years-old" rel="noreferrer nofollow">memorialflightclub.com/blog/spitfire-mk-vb-ab910-%E2%80%9...</a>

D-Day is celebrating its anniversary today, 75 years after the 1944 landing in Normandy. The official name for the event was Operation Neptune and was the largest scale seaborne invasion in history. The effort from more than 200,000 heroic allied soldiers on June 6, 1944, unclasped Adolf Hitler’s hand from Europe. In celebration of their brave efforts today, the Imperial War Museum will release a fleet of aircraft which will take a route over England and towards the English Channel with a final descent on France.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8kkGIh_NXQ" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8kkGIh_NXQ</a>

<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9219317/dakotas-heroes-d-day-fly-again-75th-anniversary-celebrations/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.thesun.co.uk/news/9219317/dakotas-heroes-d-day-fly-ag...</a>

Approximately 280 paratroopers, made up of 130 UK troops from 16 Air Assault Brigade and 150 from the French Army’s 11e Brigade Parachutiste, will carry out a commemorative parachute descent onto fields on the outskirts of Sannerville, Normandy.

In the early hours of 6th June 1944, the same fields served as Drop Zone ‘K’ for the 8th (Midlands) Parachute Battalion, tasked with the destruction of bridges to restrict German freedom of manoeuvre.

Following the military parachuting The Red Devils, the Army and Parachute Regiment freefall display team, will do a display, including a tandem jump with D-Day veterans Harry Read and Jock Hutton. On D-Day, Mr Read, now 95, was a 20-year-old wireless operator and Mr Hutton, now 94, was a 19-year-old in 13th (Lancashire) Parachute Battalion.

<a href="https://www.daksovernormandy.com/aircraft/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.daksovernormandy.com/aircraft/</a>