The First Spitfire Captured by the Germans

The first Spitfire captured by the Germans. On the 15th August 1940 Pilot Officer Richard Hardy's Spitfire mk.1a was damaged in combat and he was forced to land near Cherbourg where it fell into German hands. The damage behind the cockpit occurred when Hardy used his demolition charge to destroy sensitive electronics. Notice the man in the light colored jacket painting a German Balkenkreuz over the the British roundel. As per Jochen Prien in book " Jagdgeschwader 53 " he claims that " ...Oberleutnant Georg Claus brought Spitfire AZ-H to Cherbourg Airfield - He caught it in the midle of Channel , Tommy ( P/O Hardy of 234 SQN RAF ) made off to the south but Oblt. Claus improved each of his turns with a brief burst of tracer fire. So it went all the way to Cherbourg Airfield.There Tommy ( F/O Hardy ) lowered his undercariage and luckily the 20 mm flak failed to hit him (actualy single 20mm shell did hit Spitfire behind cockpit - there is picture in the book ). Then he landed safely and taxied in..." Leutnant Karl Leonhard from 3 staffel JG 53 claims: "...The English pilot slid back the cockpit hood and immediately raised his hands - he obviously expected to be shot at once othervise. He was just as surprised when I asked him to lower his hands and instead to climb out and come to to the pilot's mess to have glass of champagne with pilots of JG 53..." There was a single hit to Spitfire which was caused probably by German flak canon when Spitfire was aproaching landing strip at Cherbourg - just behind cokpit ( page 141-142 of Jagdgeschwader JG53 by Jochen Prien ) There are claims that RAF pilot detonated demolition charge in order to destroy radio IFF system but In my opinion P./O. Richard Hardy had no time. IFF systems were not fitted to Spitfires until September 1940, that damage looks to be a flak damage.

Source :
Filip Seidl photo collection
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