Iconic D-Day Spitfire restored to the skies
THE Allied aircraft that was first to down an enemy plane over the D-Day beaches has regained its invasion stripes to mark 80 years since the Normandy landings.
Supermarine Spitfire ML407, known as The Grace Spitfire, destroyed a German bomber as waves of troops stormed the coastline on June 6, 1944.
The iconic fighter has now had its black and white D-Day stripes painted back on.
After several post-winter test flights, the Spitfire was taken above the clouds for a sortie with aviation photographer Darren Harbar this week, in preparation for an appearance at the Sywell Airshow Weekend in Northamptonshire in June.
The plane, originally built as a singleseater, flew 176 combat sorties and amassed 319 combat flying hours.
It was constructed in early 1944 at the Castle Bromwich aircraft factory in the West Midlands as an Mk IX variant of RJ Mitchell’s inspirational elliptical-winged fighter. Given to 485 (New Zealand)
Squadron, it was delivered on April 29, 1944 and allocated to Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton and painted with the squadron codes OU plus V for Vicky – the name of his then girlfriend and later wife.
In the run-up to D-Day, the Spitfire was painted with black and white stripes across the top and underside of the inner wings and around the rear fuselage so Allied forces could easily identify friendly aircraft in the skies above Normandy.
On June 6, Johnnie was patrolling in ML407 south of one of the beaches targeted by US soldiers when he spotted a Luftwaffe Junkers Ju88 bomber diving away from him.
He gave chase, putting a burst of machine gun fire into the bomber’s starboard engine, crippling the German plane and forcing its crew to bale out.
The bomber crashed into the Channel – and Johnnie had registered the first victory over the Luftwaffe during D-Day.
In 1950, the Spitfire was converted into a two-seat trainer for the Irish Air Corps and in 1979 it was bought by Nick Grace who restored it into flying condition.
He was killed in a car accident in 1988 but his widow Carolyn learnt to fly and went on to display the Spitfire.
She also lost her life in a car crash, in December 2022, but today ML407, under the custodianship of the Grace family, remains flying as a testament to both her and to Nick.
Their son Richard is the director of Ultimate Warbird Flights, which operates the plane for passenger trips. It will star at Sywell Aerodrome with other Second WorldWar aircraft on June 22 and 23.