K9813: Spitfire Mk.Ia (c/no 24). Delivered to 66 Squadron 8-11-38 Transferred to 41 Squadron 1-6-39, and then to 64 Squadron 11-8-39 as "SH-L". Written off (destroyed) in Combat with Bf 110s over Dunkirk 31-5-40. Pilot Flight Sgt Hatch bailed out, became POW, died later of injuries.
According to the official Air Ministry file into the accident (File AIR 81/707): "Spitfire K9813 in air operations over Dunkirk, France, 31 May 1940. Sergeant G H Hatch: report of death from injuries"
Crew of Spitfire K9813-SH:
Flight Sergeant (Pilot) George H. Hatch, RAF 510966 - bailed out, survived, but injured. Died of injuries sustained on 29-09-40 at Enghien Hospital in Belgium while still in captivity. Buried at Enghein Communal Cemetery, Hainaut, Belgium
According Kenley Revival, "Sergeant Hatch took off on what to be his final sortie on the afternoon of 31 May, as part of a nine aircraft formation. They were patrolling Dunkirk when a number of enemy aircraft were encountered. In the ensuing combat four German aircraft were claimed and three Spitfires damaged but George Hatch “did not return”. He had been shot down, in Spitfire K9813, and wounded. When captured, Sergeant Hatch was found to have burns to his hands and lower body. As a result, he was hospitalized in the Military Hospital of St. Augustin College in Enghien. A Red Cross nurse, Madame Delannoy, who visited the hospital twice daily confirmed he was a patient there.
Madame Delannoy is the wife of the Burgomaster and as Red Cross nurse visited the patients (all British Prisoners mostly from Dunkirk) in this Hospital twice daily and amongst other women was very devoted to our wounded and sick.
George Hatch was the fifth child of John Lionel Hatch and Annie Elizabeth (French) Hatch, born in the New Forest at the end of 1911. He joined the RAF as an Aircrafthand late in 1925 before later becoming a pilot. He married Irene Dewey at St. Matthews, Netley, Hants on 5 July 1939, the marriage was attended by his mother and younger sister Ida Littlecott. George’s father had passed away in 1935.
Flight Sergeant George Herbert Hatch died of his wounds on 26 September 1940. His death was certified in the Civil Register of Enghien. He is buried in Grave 7 at the Enghien (Edingen) Communal Cemetery in the Belgian province of Hainault and remembered on the Copythorne Cross in The New Forest, Hampshire.
Wreck of a 64Sqd Spitfire, during operation Dynamo, in May 1940 (Picture: Key-Aero)
