Two seat dual controlled Spitfire T.IX Rolls Royce Merlin 25, 1800hp. Colour Scheme: 485 Squadron RAF Built at Castle Bromwich as a single seat low level LF Mark IX fighter, The Grace Spitfire served in the front line of battle throughout the last twelve months of WWII. ML407 is currently in the colour scheme as she was when delivered on 29 April 1944 by a famous lady A.T.A. pilot, Jackie Moggridge, to 485 New Zealand Squadron at ALG Selsey to Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton DFC, with Squadron letters OU and Johnnie’s personal insignia letter V (for Vicki his wife to be). In 2014 the Grace Spitfire celebrated the 70th Anniversary on 29 April 1944, of D-Day when on 6 June 1944 Johnnie Houlton flying his Spitfire OU-V was accredited with shooting down the first enemy aircraft (Junkers 88) over the Normandy beach head just south of Omaha Beach. ML407 did a total of 176 operational sorties, predominantly ground attack, amassing over 320 combat hours whilst in the 2nd Tactical Air Force (TAF) going from 485 New Zealand Squadron in December 1944 to 341 Free French, 308 Polish, 349 Belgian, 345 Free French, 332 Norwegian Squadrons, returning to 485 New Zealand Squadron at the end of the War. Miraculously, ML407 did not suffer any major structural damage during this time. In 1951 Vickers Armstrong at Southampton was commissioned by the Irish Air Corps to convert 20 Spitfires to the trainer configuration. ML407 was one of these, serving with the Irish Army Air Corps as IAC162 until 1960 with a total time of 763 hours flown for the IAC. In 1968 ML407 was sold on, finally ending up in Scotland, and went into storage. <a href=" http://ultimatewarbirdflights.com/flights/supermarine-spitfire-t-ix-ml407/ " rel="nofollow">ultimatewarbirdflights.com/flights/supermarine-spitfire-t...</a>
21 Jun 2026 · identified as “RAF pilot flight suit”
