Taken at the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum in June
Spitfire Mk IX MJ730 GZ-?
On October 9, 1944, MJ730 was transferred to 32 Sqn., RAF at Kalamaki, Greece. The aircraft was chosen by Sqn. Ldr. George Silvester, DFC, as his personal plane. Before its individual code had been assigned, he jokingly said to some of his ground crew that there was "a bit of a question mark" over which identity letter to give his personal Spitfire, because as Squadron Leader, he belonged to neither 'A' Flight or 'B' Flight. The ground crew as a lark placed a large "question mark" where the individual code letter would have normally appeared. Sqn. Ldr. Silvester was amused by the gesture and MJ730 was referred to as "The CO's Query". This tradition continued into the 1950s with 32 Squadron's future commanding officers continuing to also display the "?" on their Vampire jets.