page_title: Spitfire 944
section_title: Historical context
hierarchical_section_title: Spitfire 944 / Historical context
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial photograph of Mount Farm Airfield, England.
context_page_description: Spitfire 944 is a short documentary in which the 83-year-old World War II pilot John S. Blyth views 16mm footage of his 1944 Spitfire crash-landing for the first time, sixty-one years after the event.
context_section_description: Lieutenant Blyth was flying with the United States Army Air Corps' 14th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron based at RAF Mount Farm, UK. He began the war flying a Lockheed P-38 Lightning variant modified for photo reconnaissance work (United States Army Air Corps designation "F-5"). His unit soon switched to the British Spitfire Mk XI, which was better suited to high-altitude, low-temperature flight conditions than the American planes.
  This was not Blyth's first crash. On 31 October 1943, he was forced to return to base because of equipment problems and haze. He attempted to land at RAF Thame, failed to stop in time and had accident.
caption: RAF Mount Farm in 1946
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