“Red Leader” is no longer missing
Header image: BBMF Hurricane Mk II LF363 wore 501 Sqn AuxAF code letters on its starboard side in 2017-18. (Photo: Claire Hartley). Inset: Fg Off Philip Cox went missing on 27th July 1940 and for almost 85 years had no known grave.
On 27th July 1940, during the early and critical stages of the Battle of Britain, 12 Hurricanes of 501 (County of Gloucestershire) Squadron were scrambled from Hawkinge, taking off at 17.36 with orders to patrol Deal and Dover at 5,000 feet. The Squadron’s Red Section was led by the experienced pilot and recently appointed OC ‘A’ Flight, Flying Officer Philip Anthony Neville Cox, flying Hurricane P3808. Just seven days previously he had claimed a Me Bf 109 destroyed and shared in the destruction of another.