Aircraft: Supermarine Spitfire Mk1
Nationality: British
Serial number: R6812
Unit: No. 54 Squadron
Call sign: N/K
Date of loss: 24/07/1940
Pilot Officer John Allen DFC – Killed Cliftonville, 24th July 1940.
Rolls-Royce Merlin valve rocker gear, engine valve mechanism and small airframe items from a Spitfire Mk1 R6812 which crashed at Cliftonville on 24th July 1940.
Flying with No 54 Squadron from RAF Rochford, P/O Allen DFC intercepted 40 Messerschmitt Bf109s of JG26 and 20 Dornier bombers intent on attacking a convoy in the Channel and Thames Estuary.
Nationality: British
Serial number: R6812
Unit: No. 54 Squadron
Call sign: N/K
Date of loss: 24/07/1940
Pilot Officer John Allen DFC – Killed Cliftonville, 24th July 1940.
Rolls-Royce Merlin valve rocker gear, engine valve mechanism and small airframe items from a Spitfire Mk1 R6812 which crashed at Cliftonville on 24th July 1940.
Flying with No 54 Squadron from RAF Rochford, P/O Allen DFC intercepted 40 Messerschmitt Bf109s of JG26 and 20 Dornier bombers intent on attacking a convoy in the Channel and Thames Estuary.
During combat over Margate, P/O Allen was hit in the engine by a Bf109. Badly damaged, he was seen making for Foreness in a glide with a dead engine. The engine restarted and he altered course in an attempt to reach RAF Manston. During this manoeuvre, the engine stopped once more and the aircraft stalled and spun in, crashing into the substation at Omer Avenue, Cliftonville.
One of the first people at the scene of the crash was Colin Cuthbert, who tried in vain with others to try and save P/O Allen, but the flames of the burning aircraft were too intense. John Allen was buried with full military honours at Margate Cemetery.
Pilot Officer John Allen DFC in his short operational career had shot down 8 enemy aircraft and had been awarded his DFC by the King, in a ceremony at Hornchurch Aerodrome, on the 27th June 1940.
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