11. To Make The Few

22nd April 1944: On a fine day several Spitfires from 61 OTU RAF Rednal were in the process of a mock dogfight above the small village of Selattyn, near Oswestry. They were being keenly watched by a group of schoolboys who lived in the Pant-Glas area between Selattyn & Oswestry.

One of the young lads was Ken Edwards who would quite often watch the comings & goings of all types of aircraft above his sleepy village, be they British American or German. The latter normally on the way to or from Liverpool.

He watched the Spitfires as they performed all sorts of manoeuvres to get on each others tails. W3364 a MK5 flown by 1649905 Sgt. Barry (Netherlands) dived, rolled & then pulled up sharply to rejoin the 'battle' In pulling upthe long nose of his 'Spit' hit another Spitfire, R6623 a MK1 flown by 1318189 Sgt. Leslie James Friend. The tail of Sgt. Friend's aeroplane was clipped & enough damage was caused to send him into a short dive into open farmland a mile west of Selattyn. Sgt. Friend died instantly in the impact.

Sgt. Barry's Spitfire continued to respond to the controls & he flew back to Rednal, successfully making a forced landing.  Ken Edwards remarked that "the sky quickly cleared of aircraft after that"

A visit was made to the crash site in May 2005, the land owner was very helpful in pointing out the site, even taking me (Rob) there on his Quad Bike. We respect his request not to identify his home on the internet, which explains why in this case only a general idea of where R6623 crashed is given.

Sgt. Friend is buried in Oswestry Cemetery, plot S134. But what became of Sgt. Barry - please let us know if you have any information.