Normandy Spitfire attack

Suppressing enemy air activity to protect the Allied beachheads in Normandy was one of the RAF's key roles in June 1944. On 7 June, D-Day+1, the Spitfires of 443 Squadron flew cover patrols without incident until their third sortie of the day, when 'B' flight spotted four Luftwaffe Bf109s to the east of Caen.

Flight Lieutenant Hugh Russell and Flying Officer Gordon Ockenden pursued one of them towards the coast, catching up with it "on the deck" at the mouth of the River Orne, just east of one of the British assault beaches, codenamed Sword.

My depiction was commissioned by the RAF Memorial Flight (BBMF) for their 2019 Yearbook: Spitfire MK356, 2I-V, which Ockenden was flying, is still in service with the flight. We surmise that Russell, the section leader, probably fired first then pulled aside for Ockenden to attack. As he was doing so, the Messerschmitt exploded in mid-air, killing the pilot - believed to have been Unteroffizier Albert Zillmer, flying Bf 109G-6 Werk# 441135 "Yellow 5 + I" of 9./JG3, which had just moved to St. André de l'Eure, 75 miles WSW of Caen.