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.
