Spitfire Mk.IX, MK356 and Spitfire Mk.XVIe TE331, from the Royal Air Force (RAF) Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF), flying a paired display at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford on the second day of the 2021 Duxford Battle of Britain Airshow. The pilots are Squadron Leader Mark Sugden and Flight Lieutenant Andy Preece MBE.

Spitfire LFIXe, MK356 - MK356 was acquired by the BBMF in November 1997. Test flown by Squadron Leader Paul Day, this was the first time that the aircraft had flown since 1944. Built at Castle Bromwich in early 1944, the aircraft was delivered to Digby in March and served with 443 'Hornet' Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) at various locations on the South Coast. In the weeks leading up to the Invasion of France, the aircraft was involved in bomber and fighter missions, claiming a 1/2 kill on a Me109, and being damaged 3 times including 2 belly landings.
On 14 April 1944 it flew its first operational mission as part of a ‘Rodeo’ fighter sweep over occupied France, piloted by 20-year-old Canadian, Flying Officer ‘Gord’ Ockenden, who flew 19 ‘ops’ in the aircraft. From then on, MK356 was involved in fighter sweeps and in attacking ground targets by dive bombing and strafing in the lead-up to the ‘D-Day’ invasion and in support of the landings and fierce fighting afterwards.
In 60 days of furious flying and fighting, ‘MK’ flew 60 operational sorties, was damaged by enemy fire on three occasions and suffered three ‘wheels-up’ landings. On D-Day+1 (7 June 1944) during a beachhead cover patrol in MK356, ‘Gord’ Ockenden’s flight engaged four ME Bf 109Gs “on the deck”. He fired at one of the ‘109’s and saw his rounds hitting the enemy aircraft. His wingman finished it off and each pilot was credited with a half share of the kill.
On 14 June 1944, the aircraft lost a wheel on take-off, the pilot electing to continue his mission prior to a third belly landing. Normally the aircraft would have been repaired on site, but the squadron moved to airfield 'B-3' in France the next day, leaving MK356 to be picked up by a Maintenance Unit and stored. Following the War, the aircraft was used as an instructional airframe at RAF Halton until 1951, and then for the next 17 years was a ‘gate guardian’ at Hawkinge, Bicester, Locking and Henlow and also appeared in 1968 as a static airframe in the film "The Battle of Britain", before joining the RAF Museum reserve collection at St Athan, Wales. In January 1992 a complete refurbishment was started resulting in the aircraft's first flight for 53 years in 1997.

Spitfire Mk. XVI, TE311 is a low-back/bubble-canopy Spitfire with ‘clipped’ wingtips.
She was built at Castle Bromwich just after the war, being taken on charge on 8th June 1945, and delivered to 39 Maintenance Unit (MU) Colerne, where it went into storage. From October 1945 to February 1946, TE311 was flown by the Handling Squadron of the Empire Central Flying School (ECFS), Hullavington. It was then stored at 33 MU, Lyneham until May 1951 when it went to 1689 Ferry Pilot Training (FPT) Flight, Aston Down. On 21st June 1951, TE311 was damaged in an accident. Repairs were done by Vickers Armstrong and she was returned to 1689 FPT Flight on 31st December. She was later allocated to the Ferry Training Unit, RAF Benson until September 1953 before returning to 33 MU, Lyneham. In January and February 1954, TE311 served with 2 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-operation Unit, Langham, before returning to 33 MU on 23rd February 1954.
On 13th December 1954, TE311 was grounded and transferred to non-effective stock. For the next 12 years she was a ‘gate guardian’ on the main gate at RAF Tangmere. Then, in 1968, TE311 was loaned to Spitfire Productions Ltd, who temporarily modified her with a false rear fuselage to resemble a Mk.1 Spitfire and restored her to taxying condition for use during filming of ground sequences for the film ‘Battle of Britain’. When filming finished, a RAF working party restored her to her original configuration and she then went to the RAF Exhibition Flight. For over 30 years, from 1968 to 1999, TE311 was displayed as a static exhibit at many airshows, regularly being dismantled and re-assembled for transportation by road.
In January 2000 TE311 was delivered to RAF Coningsby for ‘spares recovery’, along with Spitfire Mk XVI TB382, which was broken up for spares and struck off charge. Chief Technician Paul Blackah MBE decided that the aircraft merited a re-build to flying condition. This was started in October 2001, with a small team of engineers initially working on her in their own time, until official approval was received from the Ministry of Defence in 2007 to return TE311 to flying condition as part of the Flight.
After a painstaking re-build lasting 11 years the aircraft was returned to an immaculate and extremely authentic standard, and took to the air again, for the first time in 58 years, on 19th October 2012.

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