BUILT

JN862, No. 3 Squadron, No. 150 Wing, RAF Newchurch, Great Britain, June 1944

Following a very successful tour with No. 609 Squadron, flying Typhoons in which he was credited with 6 enemy aircraft destroyed in the air, and a short spell as a gunnery

instructor, F/Lt Remi ‘Mony’ Van Lierde, a Belgian national, joined No. 3 Squadron as ‘B’ Flight commander. His first allocated Tempest was JN736 JF-Z, a Mk.V Series 1 but when

this was lost on operations on 27 May 1944 (when flown by another pilot) Van Lierde was able to acquire a new ‘Z’, a Mk.V Series 2 Tempest, JN862, which was his chosen mount

through most of the campaign against the V-1. Van Lierde became the highest scoring pilot against the V-1 by day and was credited with 35 destroyed plus a further 9 shared

with other pilots; 30 of these claims were made while flying JN862. Unfortunately, on August 4th, 1944, Van Lierde had to make a landing with only one wheel down, and

although he managed to achieve this with minimal damage, the aircraft was unavailable for some time due the resulting repair work. Van Lierde took a new ‘Z’, EJ557, and when

JN862 was returned to the squadron it became JF-Q.

On June 5th, 1944, the aircraft which were to participate in the operation Overlord (Normandy landing), received gaudy markings in the form of eighteen inches wide black and

white stripes applied to the wing and fuselage. Ground personnel also painted the lower part of the landing gear covers in white. The unusual stripes on the spinner are believed

to be the Belgian national colours – black (foremost), yellow and red.

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INFO Eduard - October 2020

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