Its first victory was on 8 October 1940, when its Yellow Flight (Denys Gillam, Alois Vašátko and Josef Stehlík) shot down a Junkers Ju 88 medium bomber over Liverpool.

Over the Irish Sea Ambruš mistakenly led the flight to attack two Bristol Blenheim Mk IF light bombers of No.

One Blenheim, L6637, code letters RO-S, crashed into the sea off Point of Ayre on the Isle of Man and not far from the Morecambe Bay light ship.

The other Blenheim, L7135, code letters RO-S, survived with minor damage and returned safely to RAF Ternhill in Shropshire with its crew unharmed.

On 27 May Sqn Ldr Jan Klán succeeded Čižek as commanding officer,[3] and two days later the squadron moved to RAF Kenley[7] in Surrey.

[13] From here its operations included intercepting V-1 flying bombs, escorting bombers and attacking rail and road targets in German-occupied Europe.

[13] On 11 July it moved again to RAF Coltishall[13] in Norfolk and operated daytime bomber escort flights over continental Europe.

[12] However, on 27 August its duties were switched to the Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB), for which it was moved on RAF North Weald in Essex.

On 25 October 1941, when 312 Squadron was based at RAF Heathfield, F/O František Hekl crashed a Spitfire Mk IIA into a reservoir in Ayrshire on a solo training flight.

An RAF salvage crew brought a boat and spent several days trawling parts of the bed of the loch, but failed to find either the aircraft or Hekl's body.

[24] In 1977 the Dumfries branch of the Scottish Sub Aqua Club began a systematic search of the bed of the loch in the area where an eyewitness thought the aircraft had crashed.

[24] The search was unsuccessful so in 1982 it was moved to a different area of the loch, where divers quickly found the Spitfire's tail and rear part of the fuselage.

Both wings were badly damaged, magnesium parts such as the undercarriage wheels had corroded away, but the Merlin Mk XII engine was recovered in good condition.

[24] The wreckage was moved to Dumfries and Galloway Aviation Museum, where the aircraft was slowly restored and a pair of replica wings fitted.

[citation needed] Supermarine Spitfire Vc 'AR501' (civil registration G-AWII) built in 1942, remains airworthy, and is maintained & operated by The Shuttleworth Collection in Bedfordshire, England.