No. 6 Squadron, REAF was the first equipped with ex-RAF Spitfire Mk Vcs drawn from RAF stocks at Abuqir. Although losing one example in an accident, in March 1945, training mishaps remained rare afterwards: the JK615, shown here, was damaged in a wheels-up landing on 25 March 1946. Repaired, it continued serving until being sent to al-Arish before the outbreak of the Palestine War, by which time its large single-letter code was probably removed. JK615 then took part in the second sortie recorded on the first available page of the REAF Tactical Air Force’s Operational Diary, when Wahdan flew as Abu Zaid’s wingman in attack on warehouses in the port of Tel Aviv. Eventually, this machine became one of the most heavily used RAF combat aircraft, carrying out at least 20 combat sorties, the last of which was recorded on 22 October 1948. (Artwork by Tom Cooper)