Supermarine Spitfire P.R. XI serial number PL965 left the Aldemaston factory in mid 1944. Built as a Mk XI photo reconnaissance aircraft, she was designed to operate at high altitudes (over 30,000 ft.) as well as at high speeds of over 400 MPH, and as such was the fastest of all the Merlin powered Spitfires. She was allocated to No. 9 MU Cosford on 1st October 1944 and then ferried to No. 34 Wing and then allocated to 16 Squadron, which at the time was a forward squadron based at Melsbroek Airfield near Brussels in Belgium as part of the 2nd Tactical Air Force. She proudly wore the identifying code “R” for Robert.

16 Squadron was commanded by Squadron Leader Tony Davis DFC and his Spitfires were called upon to provide photographs of enemy territory for bomb damage assessment, to monitor airfields harboring jet and rocket propelled aircraft and to build up the vital photographic mosaic maps which were used by the bomber groups for “pinpoint” bombing accuracy. The PRU blue painted Spitfires operated at low and high altitudes, always flying alone and unarmed.

Over the next year or so, PL965 flew in excess of 40 operational missions over Germany, France and Holland. Squadron and pilot records include such destinations as Osnabruck, Bremen, Dortmund, Hanover, Hamburg, Kiel, and Berlin itself. Several distinguished pilots were entrusted with her safety on these long and dangerous sorties. Pilots such as Norman Godfrey DFC and Croix de Guerre, Willy Willshaw DFC, Group Captain Richard Bowen DFC, to name but a few.

With such missions being conducted at both high and low altitudes, she encountered anti-aircraft fire and was often intercepted and attacked by German fighters, including the new jet powered Me 262, one of the few aircraft that had the speed to catch her.