Remember the scene from the film Dunkirk (2017) where it showed a Spitfire performing a forced landing on the Beaches at Dunkirk
Well it appears that this indeed happen!!
Squadron Leader Stephenson of 19 Squadron made a forced landing on the beach on the very first day of air cover operations over Dunkirk; he was ultimately taken prisoner by the Germans and imprisoned as a POW at Colditz Castle.
The photo is an abandoned Spitfire on the beach at Dunkirk with two Germans.
As squadron leader of 19 Squadron based at RAF Duxford, he was shot down on Sunday, 26 May 1940, in Spitfire Ia, N3200, coded 'QV', while covering the evacuation of the Dunkirk beaches during Operation Dynamo, crash-landing his fighter on the sands at the shoreline. According to the Imperial War Museum, Stephenson was captured on the beach in France shortly after crashing.
Multiple escape attempts led to his transfer to Oflag IV-C at Colditz Castle where he would participate in the creation of the never-flown Colditz Cock glider. Following the war, Stephenson served as the personal pilot for King George VI.
Remarkably, Spitfire N3200 was rediscovered and salvaged from the beach in 1986, and restored to flight in March 2014, with the markings worn when it was downed.
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