Wings and Pixels

The prototype Spitfire first flew in March 1936 and became the most famous British fighter of WW2.

MK356 was built at Castle Bromwich in 1944.

In March 1944, MK356 was transferred to 443 (Hornet) Sqn, Royal Canadian Air Force and completed sixty wartime operational missions between April and June 1944.

It took part in D-Day operations in June 1944 and and one of its pilots, Fg Off Ockenden, was accredited with a shared confirmed kill against a German Messerschmitt Bf109 on 7th June. MK356 is only one of eight Spitfires still airworthy that flew operationally with the RAF or its affiliated air forces on D-Day.

14th June 1944, MK356 suffered a wheels-up landing on returning from its 60th mission and was grounded for the next 53 years. It was returned to airworthy condition before joining the BBMF in November 1997.

MK356 wears the desert camouflage markings of MK356/QJ-3 of 92 Sqn, RAF which operated in Tunisia in 1943.