The Truth About 6 Squadron Hurricane Mk IV Serial KZ321

Hurricane MK IV (KZ321 marking) with 6 Squadron Jaguar Escort (Photo courtesy 6 Sqn Archives)

It is a well-documented fact that Hurricane MK IV Serial Number KZ321 was on charge with 6 Squadron during early 1944 after the squadron moved from Fayid in Egypt to Grottaglia in Italy (the move was carried out over a period of weeks from mid February to early March 1944). It is also well-reported on many Internet sites that KZ321 was at some point abandoned to be later recovered and restored to flying condition with the markings of 6 Squadron (JV N / KZ321) and a desert camouflage colour scheme. Though it makes a good story, this is not in fact true, as the real KZ321 crashed into the Adriatic on the 23rd May 1944 and sank to the bottom of the sea, never to be recovered.

The following description paraphrases several entries in the 6 Squadron Operations Record Book for May 1944:

Hurricane Z321 was hit by AA fire from an armed schooner on the 23rd May 1944 when four Hurricanes of 6 Squadron attacked the vessel with RP-3 rockets as it sailed north up the Adriatic Sea. Such was the accuracy of the schooner’s main gun (coupled with the slow speed of the rocket-laden Hurricanes) that two of the 6 Squadron Hurricanes received hits during the prolonged attack which eventually sank the enemy ship. F/O William Tye, the pilot of the first Hurricane to be hit, reported that his engine was 'running rough' and he was ordered to break off the attack and return to Vis. The second pilot affected was F/O John Neville Grey in Hurricane KZ321 though he continued with the mission despite the fact that his engine’s oil pressure was falling. After the schooner was sunk the two undamaged Hurricanes flew alongside KZ321 and the three aircraft headed south-east towards the island of Viz, the nearest landing ground. F/O Grey soon reported that his engine was failing and he was losing height rapidly. At 1400 feet Sqn Ldr J M Brown DFC (OC 6 Sqn) ordered Grey to abandon ship, which he did. Sadly Grey’s parachute did not open until just before he hit the water and upon circling the area the other pilots observed F/O Grey floating motionless in his Mae West surrounded by a pool of blood. The bodies of Grey and the New Zealander William Tye were never recovered and their names are on the Malta Memorial as well as on the 6 Squadron Roll of Honour at Lossiemouth. 

Crash site of 6 Squadron Hurricane IVs (KZ321 and LB997) 23/05/44

The answer as to how the KZ321 marking found its way on to another Hurricane airframe can be found on the Zoboko website where Robs Lamplough gives a detailed account of the link between two Hurricane airframes he found at Jaffa, both of which served with 6 Squadron and one of them confirmed as KZ191.

6 Squadron Hurricane IV fuselage KZ191 plus a second Hurricane at Jaffa [Photo: Robs Lamplough]

KZ321

https://zoboko.com/text/jv1mnwjr/hawker-hurricane-survivors-a-complete-catalogue-of-every-existing-hurricane-worldwide/44

KZ191

https://zoboko.com/text/jv1mnwjr/hawker-hurricane-survivors-a-complete-catalogue-of-every-existing-hurricane-worldwide/43

Robs Lamplough takes the history of the restored 'KZ321' up to 2006 when it was based at the Gatineau Executive Airport Ottawa, Canada and I have attached below details from then until it was destroyed in a crash on the 22nd August 2022, information courtesy of Gp Captain (ret) Willie Cruikshank, one-time OC 6 Squadron who happened to be the pilot of one of the 6 Squadron Jaguar fighters that accompanied 'KZ321' in September 2005 (see the photo at the top of this post).

The airframe for the 6 Squadron Hurricane IV that later was given the KZ321 marking was apparently abandoned in Palestine in 1947, then recovered in 1983 and fully restored to airworthiness. Hawker Restorations completed its restoration (as KZ321 in 6 Squadron markings) for The Fighter Collection at Duxford in 2003. It was sold by TFC to Vintage Wings of Canada the following year and then returned to Europe in late 2018 following its purchase by Belgian businessman Bernard van Milders. Subsequently, the aircraft was acquired during 2021 by a group connected with the Tocná Aviation Museum at Tocná, just south of the Czech capital Prague, and it was kept on the Belgian register as OO-HUR. Sadly, the aircraft was lost in an accident during an airshow at Cheb, in the Czech Republic, on Sunday 14 August. Its pilot Petr Paces was killed. The accident occurred on the second day of the show at Cheb, in the far west of the Czech Republic near the German border. The Hurricane crashed off-airfield, near houses in the village of Podhradí. The pilot, Petr Paces, flew MiG-21 fighters in the Czechoslovak Air Force and later became a commercial Boeing 737 captain and instructor. To read the Accident Investigation, see https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/281539