Captured Spitfire Mk Vb AA865 prepared for transport after being shot down over Calais in April 1942

Spitfire Mk.Vb AA865 was serving with No. 313 Squadron since October 1941. The unit was the last RAF squadron to be formed mostly of escaped Czechoslovak pilots. With squadron code RY-D it was flown by Václav Truhlář who is pictured posing with the artwork "GÖBELS". This carciature was painted by fellow pilot Karel Pavlík, who would be killed in action on May 5th 1942 when he was shot down over Belgium.

Truhlář was flying AA865 when he was involved in a dogfight with Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters of Jagdgeschwader 26 on April 10th 1942. Severely wounded in combat, he nonetheless managed to make a forced landing on a beach in Calais. A projectile can be seen to have penetrated the aircraft skin on the caricature's mouth.

Due to his injuries, Truhlář would eventually be repatriated in 1943 by Red Cross intervention through neutral Sweden. He returned to flying after his recovery, although strictly in a non-combat role having previously been a prisoner of war. Following the end of WWII he joined the Czechoslovak Air Force and once again flew Spitfires, but sadly his career would be cut short after he was killed when he crashed his Spitfire Mk IXe SL635 having become disoriented during a night training flight on October 10th 1947.