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. Wing Commander John Freeborn DFC* Johnie Freeborn flew Spitfires with 74 Squadron over Dunkirk, and was in action throughout the Battle of Britain, he had been with his squadron longer, and flown more hours, than any other Battle of Britain pilot. He joined 602 Squadron in 1942, and commanded 118 Squadron in June 1943. In June 1944 he was promoted Wing Commander Flying of 286 Wing in Italy. John Freeborn scored 17 victories BEWARE OF THE LION BY GEOFF LEA 602 City of Glasgow Squadron patrol the Normandy beaches. Spitfire Special Delivery by Michael Turner  Flt. Lt. Raymond Baxters Spitfire Mk. XVI narrowly avoids a church spire as 602 Sqn. make a precision low level attack on the V1/V2 headquarters in The Hague on March 18th 1945. Combat Over Beachy Head by Nicolas Trudgian  Mickey Mount, flying his 602 Squadron MkII Spitfire, successfully attacks a Messerschmitt Me109 low over the cliffs of Beachy Head on the south coast during the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940. Spitfires and Me109s were so evenly matched at this early point in the war that the outcome of such contests were usually decided by the skill of the competing pilots.  Signed by Mickey Mount.  GAUNTLET BY ANTHONY SAUNDERS  Portsmouth August 26th 1940, the lone spitfire of Squadron Leader Sandy Johnstone breaks the ranks and picks off one of the menacing Heinkels only to encounter an equally determined attack from a BF109. Accompanying the artists signature are three signatures from pilots of 602 Squadron: Air Vice Marshal Sandy Johnstone, Air Commodore Micky Mount and Wing Commander Hector MacLean. Air Commodore Micky Mot, CBE, DSO, DFC   Flying Officer C.J Mount joined NO.602 squadron on August 8th 1940 after a brief conversion course on Spitfires. On August 18th his Spitfire L1005 was severely damaged in combat with JU 87's and BF109's over Ford. Micky was unhurt. he again escaped injury when his Spitfire X4270 was damaged landing at Tangmere. he served in many of the theatres of WW2 and he flew Hurricanes in Malta and North Africa and Wellingtons in the Middle east. Micky is now retired and lives in Ascot in Berkshire. Wing Commander Hector Maclean   Hector was flying with No 602 squadron before war broke out. A gallant young man, his fighter pilot days were drawn to an abrupt halt on August 26th 1940 when his leg was severely injured during battle, but the war was not by no means over. After his recovery he was posted to Rosemount for duty as a fighter controller, in the rank of Squadron Leader. hector is now retired and lives in Kilmacolm near Glasgow. Air Vice-Marshall Sandy Johnson CB, DFC, AE.   Sandy was in command of no. 602 squadron during the critical days of the Battle of Britain, flying with the squadron before the war though to 1941, when he was posted to the Middle east, he also served with 229 and 249 squadrons in Malta during the Islands most fateful days of the war. sandy is now a successful author living near Ipswich in Suffolk The Gauntlet Action South of Portsmouth 26th August 1940.   We were brought to readiness in the middle of lunch and scrambled to intercept mixed bag of 100+ Heinkel III's and DO 17's approaching Portsmouth from the South.  The controller did a first class job and positioned us one thousand feet above the target. with the sun  behind us, allowing us to spot the raiders from a long way off. No escorting Messchersmitts were in sight at the time, although a sizable force was to turn up soon after. then something strange happened. I was about to give a ticking off to our chaps for misusing the R/T when I realised I was listening to German voices. It appeared we were both using the same frequency and, although having no knowledge of the language it sounded from the monotonous flow of the conversation that they were unaware of our presence. as soon  as we dived towards the leading formation, however we were assailed immediately to loud shouts of  Achtung Spitfuern Spitfuern! as our bullets began to take their toll. In spite of having taken jerry by surprise our bag was only six, with others claimed as damaged, before the remainder dived for cloud cover and turned for home. In the meantime the escorting fighters were amongst us when two of our fellows were badly shot up. hector Maclean stopped a cannon shell on his cockpit, blowing his foot of above the ankle although, in spite of his grave injuries, he managed to fly his spitfire back to Tangmere to land with wheels retracted. Cyril Babbage's aircraft was also badly damaged in the action. forcing him to abandon it and take to his parachute. He was ultimately picked up by a rescue launch and put ashore at Bognor, having suffered only minor injuries. I personally accounted for one Heinkel III in the action (Sandy Johnson). No. 602 'City of Glasgow' auxiliary squadron was a household name long before WW11 began. It had been the first auxiliary squadron to get into the air in 1925, two of its members, Lord Clydeside and David McIntyre  were the first to conquer Mount Everest in 1933; the squadron sweeped the board in gunnery and bombing in 1935, beating the regular squadrons at their own game. It was the first auxiliary Squadron to be equipped with Spitfire Fighters as far back as March 1939 and it was the first squadron to shoot down the first enemy aircraft on British Soil. The squadron moved south from Drem airfield in east Lothian on August 14th 1940. to relieve the already battered no. 145 squadron at Westhapnett, Tangmere's satellite station in Sussex. the squadron suffered 5 casualties during the battle. The squadron remained at Westhampnett until December 1940 to be replaced by no. 610 auxiliary air force squadron. No 602 squadron itself remained active up until 1957 when it was put into mothballs.