Royal
Air Force fighter aircraft, maximum speed for mark I Supermarine Spitfire, 362mph
up to
The Seafire 47 with a top speed of 452mph. maximum ceiling for Mk I
34,000feet up to 44,500 for the mark XIV. Maximum range for MK I 575
miles . up to 1475 miles for the Seafire 47. Armament for the various
Marks of Spitfire. for MK I, and II . eight fixed .303 browning Machine
guns, for MK's V-IX and XVI two 20mm Hispano cannons and four .303 browning
machine guns. and on later Marks, six to eight Rockets under the wings or
a maximum bomb load of 1,000 lbs.
Designed
by R J Mitchell, The proto type Spitfire first flew on the 5th March 1936.
and entered service with the Royal Air Force in August 1938, with 19
squadron based and RAF Duxford. by the outbreak of World war two, there
were twelve squadrons with a total of 187 spitfires, with another 83 in
store. Between 1939 and 1945, a large variety of modifications and
developments produced a variety of MK,s from I to XVI. The mark II
came into service in late 1940, and in March 1941, the Mk,V came into
service. To counter the Improvements in fighters of the Luftwaffe
especially the FW190, the MK,XII was introduced with its Griffin
engine. The Fleet Air Arm used the Mk,I and II and were named
Seafires.
By the end of
production in 1948 a total of 20,351 spitfires had been made and 2408
Seafires. The most produced variant was the Spitfire Mark V, with a
total of 6479 spitfires produced. The Royal Air Force kept Spitfires
in front line use until April 1954.
Mission Accomplished by Philip West
17th May 1943, Sqn Ldr Frank (Jerry) Fray in his Spitfire PRX1 of 542
Squadron operating out of RAF Benson, Oxfordshire, returned alone and
unarmed to gather photographic evidence from 30,000 feet of the Möhne dam
having been breached earlier the same day by 617 Squadron Lancaster
bombers.
Mission Accomplished by Philip West
Signatures :
Flying Officer (Acting Flt/Lt) Bill Anderson
flew with 16 Sqn
from 1943 until the war was over. He trained in Georgia, USA,
before becoming attached to 16 Sqn at Benson, flying missions over
France and Germany. Bill flew many different types of aircraft
beginning with a PT17 Stearman in the USA; others include Tiger Moths,
Typhoons, Tempest, Harvards, Lysanders, Hurricanes and Oxfords.
Air Marshall Sir Alfred (Freddy) Ball, KCB DSO DFC
attended
RAF College, Cranwell in 1939 and joined 13 Squadron in France in March
1940 on Lysanders (Army Co-operation). He joined No 1 PRU Benson
early in 1941 on Spitfires. He commanded 4 PRU (later 682 Sqdn) as
Squadron Leader in October 1942 and flew out to North Africa for
Operation Torch, the Allied landings, flying Spitfires. He was
posted to the UK as CF1, 8PR, OTU Dyce, Aberdeen in September 1943 and
took over 542 Sqdn Benson in March 1944 (PR Spitfire Mk XIs and Mk XIXs).
In September he was promoted to Wing Commander and given command of No
540 Squadron flying Mosquito 16s and 32s. The Squadron moved to
France early in 1945 to support the Allied armies. In December,
Freddy was posted to Egypt to take command of No 680 PR Sqdn (later to
become 13 Sqdn), flying Mosquitoes and Spitfires. He was posted to
Staff AHQ East Africa in 1946 and retired from the RAF in April 1979.
Flying Officer Arthur H Brace joined the RAF in 1941.
After pre-elementary training he went to Canada for flying training, in
Neepawa and Moosejaw, gaining his wings in Oct 1942. Arthur then
went on to General Reconnaissance School on Prince Edward Island.
On return to the UK he completed an Operational Training course at Dyce,
Scotland, and was posted to Benson in Sept 1943, where, whilst awaiting
posting to a PR squadron, he joined No 309 FT & ADU which was
concerned with supplying the latest marks of PR Spitfires to our
overseas Squadrons; during this time Arthur ferried aircraft to Italy
and India. He joined No 542 PR Squadron in August 1944 and
remained with it until August 1945. He then spent a short time
with Meteological Squadron no 519 before being posted to No 16 Squadron,
BAFO, stationed at Celle, Germany where injuries incurred in a road
accident in March 1946 put paid to any further flying. he left the
RAF in August 1946.
Wing Commander James Gordon Cole DFC joined the RAF in 1938
and had his initial training at Reading, Uxbridge and Montrose. He
then went to France with No 13 Sqn, returning in May 1940. After a
spell with 231 Sqn in Northern Ireland he then went by destroyer (HMAS
Nestor) to Egypt to join 2 PRU until early 1944. He was then
posted as Liaison Officer with P.R. Group, USAAF at Chalgrove, and
subsequently flew P-38s (Lightning) on sorties over the D-Day beaches,
La Rochelle, amongst others.
Wing Commander Edward (Tim) Fairhurst DFC
received a pre-war
commission in the TA andvolunteered to switch to the RAF in May 1940,
and trained for Lysanders. In October 1941 he was posted to D
Flight No1 PRU (Spitfires), which later became No 541 Squadron. In
September 1942 he flew to Russia as OC PRU detachment and operated there
with red star markings in place of RAF roundels. He was promoted
to Sqd Ldr, converted to Mosquitoes and posted across the airfield as OC
A Flight 544 Sqdn. In September 1944 he was posted back to 541 Sqn
(Spitfires) as CO and remained there until the end of the war.
Sqn. Ldr. Frank (Jerry) Frank DFC volunteered to join the RAF
in 1940 and commenced his flying training in the summer of 1941 at
Hullavington, Wiltshire. Following training on Spitfires he
volunteered to join the Photo-Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) and was posted
to RAF Benson, Oxfordshire in 1942. His first op was to Den Helder
in July 1942. On 15th May 1943 (his 36th op) he flew to take
photographs of the dams from 30,000 feet. He returned to the Mohne,
~Eder and Sorpe dams on 17th May to photograph the damage inflicted by
617 Squadron.
P/O Peter Harding joined the University of London Air Squadron
in 1937, Flying Tutors, Harts and Hinds. He received a VR
commission in June 1939 and was prohibited from joining up. In his
reserved occupation as metallurgical student at the Royal School of
Mines he failed his exam in 1940 and then wrote to the Air Ministry
saying 'failed exam - call me up'. By return post he was told 'get
medical, get uniform'. He was put through his training period and
passed out in Lysander in 227 Squadron. He was converted to
Spitfires by Wg Cdr Tuttle and then to 3 PRU Oakington and later to
Benson. During his 23rd op his enginestopped over Wilhelmhaven and
he had to bail out. He was a PoW from August 1941 to May
1945. After his discharge VJ + 1, he returned to his studies.
Flt/Lt Julian Lowe DFC joined the RAF in 1941 having escaped
from a reserved occupation, and, after I.T., he was sent to Southern
Rhodesia to fly on Tiger Moths and Harvards. From there he went to
74 OTU in Palestine flying Hurricanes. He was posted to 2 PRU
(later 680 Squadron) in Cairo and completed 86 ops over North Africa,
Greece and the Aegian. He was awarded the DFC in March 1944 and
returned to the UK to join 542 Squadron at Benson in October 1944, where
he did a further 30 ops over germany before the war in Europe
ended. After a short period in the RAFVR, he joined No 6 Air
Experience Flight and flew Chipmunks for 26 years logging some 2000
hours on that aircraft.
Flight Lieutenant Gwyn Parry DFC was called up from Oxford
University Air Squadron in August 1941 and was commissioned after
completion of training in Canada in June 1942. After a navigation
course at Squires Gate and PR, OTU he joined 140 Squadron based at
Hartfordbridge and later Northolt. The operations he undertook on
Spitfires were mostly at high level (up to 34,000 feet) over France and
the Low Countries, but also some in Mosquitoes at 12,000 feet over
French pre-invasion beaches.
F/Lt Ray Raby jojned the RAFVR in 1940. His flying
training began in the USA, where he was retained as an instructor with
both USAF and RAF wings. He qualified on his return for an Air
Navigators Certificate. He was posted to 519 Squadron, Wick, on
Spitfires prior to joining 542 Squadron, Benson PRU with Jerry Fray as
Flight Commander. In 1943, he was posted to Benson and survived 58
operational sorties until he was demobbed in 1946. In 1947 he
joined 605 (County of Warwick) Wsquadron, Raux AF, Honiley on Vampire
and Meteor jet aircraft as flight commander until disbandment in
1957. His total hours flown are 3265.
Squadron Leader T.N. Rosser OBE DFC volunteered for pilot
training early in 1940. After training in England he was
commissioned and flew with Spitfire and Hurricane squadrons in England
and Bengal from August 1941 until December 1942, when he joined No 3 PRU
(later redesignated 681 Squadron) in Calcutta for photographic
reconnaissance operations in Japanes-occupied Burma, Thailand, and the
Andaman Islands. (At that time the squadron was equipped with
converted Hurricanes and North American B52s, and three PR Spitfires,
the only Spitfires of any kind in India. A year or so later it had
a full complement of Spitfire Mk XIs and 684 Squadron, equipped with
Mosquitoes, had been formed). After his operational tour ended in
July 1944, he commanded the PR training Flight in 74 OTU in Palestine
until VE Day when the OTU was disbanded. He later formed and led a
temporary squadron of Spitfire fighter/bombers based in Egypt for
internal security duties in the Middle East. He was demobilised in
late 1946 after administrative appointments in Air HQ Egypt, and at
Cranwell.
Flt/Lt Jimmy Taylor joined the RAF in 1941, received his pilot
training in the USA under the Arnold Scheme and instructed American
cadets on the Vultee BT-13a from 1942 to 43. He took the PRU OTU
course at Dyce and joined 16 Squadron, part of 34 PR Wing in 2nd
Tactical Air Force, at Northolt in August 1944, flying blue Spitfire XIs
and pink Spitfire IXs. He moved with the Squadron to A12 airstrip
in Normandy, then to the airfield at Amiens - Glisy and at the end of
September, to Melsbroek airfield outside Brussels. On 19th
November, he suffered engine failure over Germany , baled out and landed
in a field in Holland. after evading capture for five days he
reached the Rhine, but was spotted by an alert German officer and spent
the rest of the war in Stalag Luft I on the Baltic. He returned to
instructing, on Harvards, until he was demobilized in 1946.
Thereafter, he followed a career in education. In 1989, he took up
gliding and found it more challenging than flying with an engine.
In 1990, he learned from a Dutch archivist that four Dutchmen had been
executed as a result of his landing in their village. This was a
great shock and he returns each year to lay o wreath on their memorial.
Fl/Lt G A White volunteered for the RAF in January 1940, aged
19. He trained as a Wop/Ag and from October of that year, flew on
86 operational flights on Lockheed Hudsons of 206 and 279 Squadrons of
Coastal Command, totalling 923 operational flying hours. On one
occasion, in November 1941, after successfully bombing and sinking one
of three German mine sweepers off Ushant at low level, the port engine
caught fire from the intensive return barrage from all three
ships. "With the pilot, Sgt John Whitfield DFM, of 206, we
somehow managed to make it back to Predannock in Cornwall, smoking all
the way!". Commissioned in May 1942, and after an official
suggestion, as a result of his operational experience, he volunteered to
fly Spitfires without guns. Qualifying as a PR pilot, he joined
682 Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron in May 1945 at San Severo,
Italy, where he took part in high level photography up until VE Day in
Mk XIs. In August 1945 he became Staff Photographic Officer for
Desert Air Force until his discharge in 1946.
