Curtiss P-40 E Kittyhawk Mk I flown by F/Sgt. Graham George Buckland, No. 250 Squadron, LG 91/Egypt, 30 May 1942

This day Staffelkapitän, Marseille with his Schwarm found themselves in an early morning melee with No. 250 Squadron RAF and No. 450 Squadron RAAF in the airspace between El Adem and Tobruk.

During this battle Marseille manage to turn into and shot down Flight Sgt. Graham George Buckland Kittyhawk with a short burst. The Germans saw the pilot jump from his stricken fighter at 06:05, although his parachute failed to open. It was believed that he have struck the tail of his aircraft. When Marseille saw what was happened to Buckland he was heard over the radio to shriek in horror "arme Mann"("Poor Bastard").

Marseille wrote down the coordinates, and upon landing he immediately took off in his car and found the body of Buckland (in fact inside allied territory). After collecting the dead pilots paper and confirmed his identity and unit he went back to his base and climbed into his Messerschmitt. He then headed strait for the home airfield of No. 250 Squadron, with Bucklands papers in a small bag, along with a note of regret that he had written. Making a fast low level pass over the enemy airfield he manage to drop the bag and continued just above the deck util he was out of range of the anti-aircraft fire that never touched him.

Buckland body was then recovered by his unit, and he was buried at Knightsbridge in full honors and the Australian pilot was later promoted posthumously to Pilot Officer.

Please note that there is not any photos of Bucklands Kittyhawk, this profile is therefore based on other machines from this unit and period.