The Spitfire and David Blair

On 6 February 1945, Spitfire TA837 of No. 349 (Belgian) Squadron RAF made a forced landing near the Winterdijk in the Oosterwolde area after anti-aircraft fire. Aircraft-loss records, local accounts and a first-person evasion narrative establish the general sequence, though they differ over details such as the departure time and some locations. [2,3,16,36,54] The pilot is best identified as David Blair. The London Gazette entry published on 13 March 1945 connects enlisted number 1514313, the name David Blair and commissioned officer number 190913, with the commission effective 19 December 1944. The apparent mismatch between the two numbers is therefore explained by different service-number systems, rather than necessarily indicating two men. Some Dutch retrospective accounts call him Dick Blair, and other compiled sources have used Donald; these variant names should be reported as source variants rather than erased. [37; October 2026 National Archives correspondence] An attributed first-person evasion page describes help from an English-speaking boy, a bicycle ride, shelter in a hut, civilian clothes, and assistance by two Dutch policemen. It does not name the boy or the Blaauw family. Local histories identify Henk Blaauw as the boy associated with the aircraft and recovered equipment. Linking the unnamed boy in Blair’s account to Henk is a reasonable comparison but not an explicit identification in that page. [4,5,22,54] The later 1970 Elburger Courant retrospective places the landing opposite Huize Morren, near Ezelshoek, and describes Henk helping the pilot to a work hut near Waaskolk. It names Aalberta van Hattem in connection with a bicycle and police officers Van Heerde and Oolbekkink in the subsequent assistance. Its detailed local recollections deserve attention, while OCR errors and retrospective dating mean the original newspaper image remains the authority for exact wording. [1970 newspaper; October 2026 update]