Spitfire N3200 on the beaches of Dunkirk in 1940.
Spitfire Mk Ia N3200 flew again in Duxford on 26 March 2014, flown by John Romain. It was assigned to S/L Geoffrey Stephenson who was shot down over Dunkirk in May 1940, and spent the war in captivity. Stephenson ended in the infamous Colditz castle, where he was part of the team who designed and built a glider in an escape attempt. After the war, Stephenson was King George VI’s personal pilot and was killed in 1954 flying the F-100 Super Sabre.
N3200 was exhumed in 1986 and spent a few years on display in a French museum before being sold to the UK in 2000. Its restoration began in 2007 and was made by Historic Flying Ltd. It is the fourth Spitfire Mk. I to take to the air agai, and the only Mk I of the three based in Duxford to have actually been based there in wartime.
Excellent pictures of this superb aircraft by David Whitworth are available here.
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