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I just watched an awesome documentary titled "Operation Crossbow"






http://www.flickr.com/photos/24554019@N06/sets/72157619911531715/

Great photo's here, also hires aerial photo's taken over Germany by Lt John Blyth.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/24554019@N06/sets/72157623404746901/

Cheers

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Brent Best

Spitfire PR.Mk.XI, PA892, 14th Squadron, 7th Photo Recon Group, RAF Chalgrove, UK, April 1945.

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Brent Best

Here's an interesting sortie report from 6th October 1943. Two high altitude spitfires scrambled to intercept a high flying enemy recce a/c ... the Spitfires were from the high altitude flight, which was assigned to N° 1 squadron .. !! N° 1 squadron at the time was based in Gioia del Colle, Italy.

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Brent Best

On clicking on the page to be able to read it, I get

Error 404 Page Not Found
The requested URL /misc/spitfire/1_sqdn_6_oct_1943_a.pg was not found on this server.

Webmaster Email: webmastergroundshout.co.z

Sorry W40

Fixed.

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Brent Best

Spitfire Mk.IX, X - MA257, N° 41 Squadron, Idku, Egypt, April 1944. Piloted by Lt Mauritz Hartogh



Source: Squadrons of the SAAF and their Aircraft 1920 - 2005 by Steven McLean (pg343)

N° 41 Squadron's war diary for the day, has the entry:
"Today 41 Squadrom claims its first kill. A Ju-88 was destroyed and crashed into the sea,with both engines ablaze. Lt's Hartogh and Silberbauer both claimed part share. The scramble was indeed a spectacular one. The aircraft were airborne within two mins, and shortly after the "Tally-Ho" was given, the aircraft was reported to have been shot down. Lt Hartogh who set the port engine alight expended a mere 80 x 20mm. Good shooting !!"

The enemy aircraft was a Ju88D-1, coded 4U+HK, from 2(F)/123, (Reconnaissance Group), based at Tatoi, Greece. The crew of the Ju88 were, Fw Joachim Lüdtke, Ofw Hans Fischer, Uffz Joachim Hoheisel and Fw Friedrich Podzierski.

Cheers

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Brent Best

Spitfire Mk.Vc, DB-R, JK815, N° 2 Squadron, Gioia del Colle, Italy, October 1943.

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Brent Best

Hi Brent

I have to check my refs for DB-R, but didn't 2 Sqn Spitfire Mk Vc's generally have 4 long cannon barrels e.g.:
http://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Spitfire/MkV ... 943-0A.jpg

Thanks

Sinuhe

Not all carried the four 20mm and in most cases the Sqns themselves removed two of the 20mm

From the concise guide to Spitfire Wings

The Hispano Mk II cannon fitted in all cases were now belt-fed from box magazines (the Chattellerault system) allowing to double the ammunition supply to 120 rounds per gun. The fairings over the Hispano barrels were shorter and there was usually a short rubber stub covering the outer cannon port when not in use.

The redesigned upper wing gun bay doors incorporated blisters to clear the cannon belt feed motors. Initially a single wide blister was incorporated that covered both motors. Initial production Spitfires Mk. Vc, such as those which were transported to Malta were factory-fitted with four cannon.

In field conditions, it was often sufficient with two cannon armament and many of the four-cannon Spitfires were converted to fly with either outboard or inboard pair of Hispanos, or else converted to B-standard armament.

Later on, production aircraft carried the two 20mm Hispanos and four Brownings. In such circumstances, the very large blister on top of the wing was not required and a new, more streamlined cannon breech cover was provided, with narrow blister fairing over the inboard cannon position and flat surface over the second, unused cannon bay.

The inner machine gun bays in C wing were moved outboard to between ribs 13 and 14. Also, the lower surface of the wing no longer had the gun-bay heating vents outboard of the gun bays and the retractable landing lights were no longer fitted.

Hi Sinuhe

Thanks for the input

I strive to profile these aircraft as historically correct as possible, however, I don't always get it right .. the devil, as they say, is in the details.

Here are the references I used for this profile.






Cropped area of second photo above.

The below report from 2 Squadron for 19th October 1943, detailing a top-cover sortie by 2 Spitfire MkVc's. E.(1) lists the ammunition carried by the 2 aircraft at sortie start. 480 x 20mm & 2400 x.303. ie 240 x 20mm & 1200 x .303 per aircraft. Using the figure of 120 rounds per cannon, that would then be two cannons fitted per aircraft. What was the rounds carried per .303 gun ?


Cheers

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Brent Best

Thanks for the detailed reply, Brent - will be added to my files.

Look forward to seeing more of your work.

Best, S:)

Not a SAAF Spitfire but one with a South African connection which is still flying today is MH-434

This Spitfire Mk.IX.b was the personnel aircraft of Ace (7 kills, 1 shared & 3 damaged) 87449 Wing Commander Patrick Henry Lardner-Burke D.F.C & Bar.

He flew MH-434 (ZD - B) from Hornchurch as a flight commander with 222 "NATAL" Squadron, claiming a Fw-190 destroyed and 1 shared with her.

He was born in Harrismith OFS 27 June 1916 to and joined the RAF in 1940. He died 04 February 1970.

His family are still in possession of his medals, flying gear and parachute.

MH-434 also served post WWII in The Dutch Royal Netherlands Air Force, Belgian Air Force and in France as a target tug.

MH-434 in flight in August 2011 at the Shuttleworth Collection near Sandy in Cambridgeshire, close to Duxford

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsub9U1blVs

What a great sound

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Brent Best

Visiting the SAAF Ysterplaat museum last week, I had the pleasure of seeing this painting for myself. Signed by the artist right bottom corner.

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Travelling in Europe - including photos.
http://anewad.blogspot.co.uk/

My Portfolio of Airplane Pictures
http://www.airplane-pictures.net/member ... php?p=6981