Date:	Monday 3 July 1944
Time:
Type:	Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX
Owner/operator:	1 Sqn SAAF
Registration:	LZ861
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near San Donato -   Italy
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Orvieto
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 3 July 1944 1 Sqn SAAF flew 5 missions for a total of 37 sorties. No enemy aircraft was encountered and claims were limited to two staff cars and one truck strafed, but intense and accurate heavy Flak was encountered three times during the day, with two Spitfires shot down (1 KIA, 1 evader) and 2 damaged.

The first loss occurred during the third mission of the day, a 12 Spitfire fighter sweep over the area Rimini-Ravenna-Ferrara-Bologna-Florence. All the aerodromes were covered but no enemy aircraft were observed on them. On the way home the Spitfire IXc LZ861 flown by Lt Hinton Brown was hit by some very accurate heavy Flak and he announced calmly that he was going to bale out. Lt Mac-William tried to cover him but was driven off by Flak and nobody actually saw him bale.

Brown had some difficulty baling out but at the second attempt at rolling in his back he found the pin, pulled it and dropped as far as the canopy (having already jettisoned the hood) where he stuck until a violent kick at the stick shot him out, at about 9,000 ft. He landed near San Donato, where his fighter crashed into the dry bed of the Marecchia river.

By pulling at the shroud lines Brown attempted to guide his descent to the top of a hill, but began swaying so violently that he let the chute follow its own course. He landed half-way down the slope of the hill, rolled over several times and had fractured a bone in his right foot in the process but still managed to escape the Germans. An old Italian man led him to two partisans who took him into the hills, using a donkey to carry him in the last part. In the next weeks, he met other evaders and was helped by Italian partisans and civilians until he managed to cross the frontline on 2 August with two other English.

1 Sqn SAAF War History, January to December 1944 (AIR 54/31, pages 101-102, 336 and 482-490)
"A history of the Mediterranean Air War 1940-1945, vol 5 : From the Fall of Rome to the End of the War 1944-1945", by Christopher Shores, Giovanni Massimello, Russel Guest, Frank Olynyk, Winfried Bock and Andrew Thomas, ISBN 978-1-911621-97-3, page 151
http://www.aereiperduti.net/approfondimenti/brown.php
https://mapcarta.com/18682522

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
21-Mar-2014 09:04	Anon.	Updated [Country]
18-Sep-2023 07:20	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [[Country]]