This is an authentic, glass-framed aluminium airframe parts and engine parts which one still has some of its green paintwork remains very clear to see. These are very rare parts to get from an aircraft that was recovered on television on a timeteam dig in 1999.This aircraft also has the link to the very famous Great Escape in 1944 and the even rarer bit is a copy of the original combat report when this aircraft and Roger Bussell its former pilot were both shot down minutes apart.
The aluminium and metal parts have torn away by the impact of the crash but remains in good, solid condition. They have been carefully cleaned while preserving its original character and wartime patina.
The relics are presented in a glass-fronted box frame, complete with aircraft information also many pictures including the recovery of the aircraft and a brief highlight section of the combat report and on the back is the full report a complete copy of the original. Making it an excellent display piece and a rare one for any aviation or Second World War collection. The frame measures approximately 13 inches by 13 inches.
The parts are from RAF Spitfire P9373 flown by pilot Paul Klipsch who was wingman of Roger Bushell at the time and this aircraft was his before they swapped over Roger Bushell’s maps were found in the cockpit when it was recovered in 1999. Both spitfires and Bushell himself were shot down on 23rd May 1940 over France during the Dunkirk pocket evacuation.
Squadron Leader Roger Bushell was a brilliant, South African-born lawyer and British Royal Air Force pilot who became one of the most resilient thorn-in-the-side figures to Nazi Germany. A fluent German speaker and elite skier, Bushell was given command of the RAF's premier No. 92 Squadron in 1939. His front-line combat career was tragically short; on 23 May 1940, during a fierce aerial dogfight defending the Dunkirk evacuation beaches, he shot down two German aircraft before his own plane caught fire, forcing him to crash-land in occupied France. Captured immediately, Bushell refused to accept captivity and launched multiple daring escapes—once nearly reaching the Swiss border and another time evading capture for eight months in Prague with the Czech resistance—before being sent to the maximum-security Stalag Luft III camp. There, under the code name "Big X," he masterminded "The Great Escape," a massive, highly sophisticated operation involving 600 prisoners digging three tunnels simultaneously (Tom, Dick, and Harry). Though 76 men famously broke out in March 1944, Bushell was recaptured and subsequently murdered by the Gestapo on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. His indomitable leadership later immortalised him as the inspiration for Richard Attenborough’s character, Roger Bartlett, in the 1963 classic film The Great Escape.
The aircraft intricately tied to Bushell's fateful final mission was Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I, serial number N3194 (codenamed "Z"). Powered by the iconic Rolls-Royce Merlin III engine, this particular Mark I variant was the 435th Spitfire ever constructed and represented the absolute cutting edge of British aviation technology at the dawn of the war. It featured the classic elliptical wings and nimble handling that allowed Bushell to aggressively engage Messerschmitt fighters over the English Channel. On that same mission, Bushell was leading a formation that included Spitfire P9373 (coded "GR-H"), a sister aircraft piloted by 24-year-old wingman Sergeant Paul Klipsch. While Bushell's N3194 was lost to the earth after his forced landing, Klipsch's P9373 was violently shot down in the same dogfight, claiming the young pilot's life on his very first day of combat. Decades later in 1999, the deeply buried wreckage of P9373 was archaeologically excavated for the television programme Time Team, pulling remarkably preserved personal artefacts and mechanical components from the French soil to finally piece together the full story of Bushell's tragic final patrol.
This is an authentic, glass-framed aluminium airframe parts and engine parts which one still has some of its green paintwork remains very clear to see. These are very rare parts to get from an aircraft that was recovered on television on a timeteam dig in 1999.This aircraft also has the link to the very famous Great Escape in 1944 and the even rarer bit is a copy of the original combat report when this aircraft and Roger Bussell its former pilot were both shot down minutes apart.
The aluminium and metal parts have torn away by the impact of the crash but remains in good, solid condition. They have been carefully cleaned while preserving its original character and wartime patina.
The relics are presented in a glass-fronted box frame, complete with aircraft information also many pictures including the recovery of the aircraft and a brief highlight section of the combat report and on the back is the full report a complete copy of the original. Making it an excellent display piece and a rare one for any aviation or Second World War collection. The frame measures approximately 13 inches by 13 inches.
The parts are from RAF Spitfire P9373 flown by pilot Paul Klipsch who was wingman of Roger Bushell at the time and this aircraft was his before they swapped over Roger Bushell’s maps were found in the cockpit when it was recovered in 1999. Both spitfires and Bushell himself were shot down on 23rd May 1940 over France during the Dunkirk pocket evacuation.
Squadron Leader Roger Bushell was a brilliant, South African-born lawyer and British Royal Air Force pilot who became one of the most resilient thorn-in-the-side figures to Nazi Germany. A fluent German speaker and elite skier, Bushell was given command of the RAF's premier No. 92 Squadron in 1939. His front-line combat career was tragically short; on 23 May 1940, during a fierce aerial dogfight defending the Dunkirk evacuation beaches, he shot down two German aircraft before his own plane caught fire, forcing him to crash-land in occupied France. Captured immediately, Bushell refused to accept captivity and launched multiple daring escapes—once nearly reaching the Swiss border and another time evading capture for eight months in Prague with the Czech resistance—before being sent to the maximum-security Stalag Luft III camp. There, under the code name "Big X," he masterminded "The Great Escape," a massive, highly sophisticated operation involving 600 prisoners digging three tunnels simultaneously (Tom, Dick, and Harry). Though 76 men famously broke out in March 1944, Bushell was recaptured and subsequently murdered by the Gestapo on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler. His indomitable leadership later immortalised him as the inspiration for Richard Attenborough’s character, Roger Bartlett, in the 1963 classic film The Great Escape.
The aircraft intricately tied to Bushell's fateful final mission was Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I, serial number N3194 (codenamed "Z"). Powered by the iconic Rolls-Royce Merlin III engine, this particular Mark I variant was the 435th Spitfire ever constructed and represented the absolute cutting edge of British aviation technology at the dawn of the war. It featured the classic elliptical wings and nimble handling that allowed Bushell to aggressively engage Messerschmitt fighters over the English Channel. On that same mission, Bushell was leading a formation that included Spitfire P9373 (coded "GR-H"), a sister aircraft piloted by 24-year-old wingman Sergeant Paul Klipsch. While Bushell's N3194 was lost to the earth after his forced landing, Klipsch's P9373 was violently shot down in the same dogfight, claiming the young pilot's life on his very first day of combat. Decades later in 1999, the deeply buried wreckage of P9373 was archaeologically excavated for the television programme Time Team, pulling remarkably preserved personal artefacts and mechanical components from the French soil to finally piece together the full story of Bushell's tragic final patrol.
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