EwenS

This from Marshall & Ford's "P-51B Mustang. North American's sweetheart Stepchild That Saved the Eighth Air Force" Appendix A, 1 Wing Development. "The advanced shape of the wing and the extreme care taken in its construction (butt joints, flush rivets etc), plus wing surface preparation (including the application of filler over the first 40 percent of the wing, from leading edge past the spar, to smooth the surface, filling imperfect flush-rivet locations, then sanding, priming, and painting), did enabled the NACA/NAA 45-100 wing to achieve some actual reductions in parasite drag." This book is a pretty detailed account of P-51 development through to the P-51B.

From Hobbs “The Fleet Air Arm and the War in Europe” & Brown “Carrier Operations in World War II” Operation Tungsten Furious 801 6xSeafire Ib and 880 8x Seafire L.Ilc The Seafire fighter flight of 842 squadron was replaced in Nov 1943 with a Wildcat V flight in Nov 1943. Operation Mascot Furious 880 3xSeafire L.IIc Indefatigable 894 12xSeafire F.III Operation Goodwood Furious 801 with 12xSeafire F.III & 880 with 12xSeafire L.IIc Indefatigable 887 with 9xSeafire F.III & 894 with 12xSeafire F.III Edit. 887 squadron history here https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/SQUADRONS/887_Squadron.htm 894 squadron history here https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/SQUADRONS/894_Squadron.htm

There are a couple of photos on Flickr showing parked Lancasters outside the Victory Aircraft plant with the turret locations faired over. BUT they are also missing their wingtips. To me that casts doubt on them being ready for delivery. These strike me as postwar photos of late production aircraft in storage.

The main arrival point in the U.K. for new aircraft from the US and Canada was Prestwick, on the Scottish West Coast. Here is a photo taken late War (probably 1944 given all have Type B upper wing roundels) showing newly arrived Dakotas, Liberators and Lancasters. Note these aircraft all lack squadron codes. If you take a close look at the position of the mid-upper turrets they were in the forward location typical of the Martin turret fit and the turrets were already in place. https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:RAF_Prestwick_-_Royal_Air_Force_Transport_Command,_1943-1945._CH17840.jpg

The first 50 Lancaster B.VII received the usual FN50 upper turret as B.VII (Interim). The remaining 180 received the Martin turret with 0.5" guns. But the Martin 250 turret was also fitted to late production Canadian built Lancaster B.X. The last 275 were fitted with the Martin turret according to the Bomber Command Museum of Canada. Everything from KB855 onwards. https://www.bombercommandmuseumarchives.ca/s,lancastermidupperturret.html

The only operational USN units that operated Hellcats off CVE in the Atlantic / Med theatres were:- Kasaan Bay - VF-74 with F6F-3N and F6F-5 Tulagi- VOF-1 with F6F-5 Each Carrier also had a 2/3 TBM-1D. Tulagi, after being involved in ferrying aircraft to Africa, picked up VOF-1 in mid-June 1944, worked it up, participated in Operation Dragoon, then went back to the USA for a short refit and on to the Pacific by the end of Oct. Kasaan Bay, after ferrying aircraft, picked up VF-74 at the end of June 1944, and headed for the Med and work up for, and participation in, Dragoon. By mid-Sept she was back ferrying aircraft before going to the Pacific in Jan 1945. Neither unit used the ASW schemes as evidenced here. https://www.navsource.org/archives/03/072.htm As for Corsairs, US plans saw them go to the USMC in the Pacific initially. VF-17 worked up on Bunker Hill with them but in Sept 1943 the US Pacific Fleet decided to standardise on the F6F for logistical reasons. The next time a US carrier saw an operational Corsair unit was in Dec 1944 when USMC squadrons deployed to fleet carriers as an anti-kamikaze increase to the number of fighters carried. Corsairs (and Hellcat night fighters) were also deployed in the Pacific from the larger Commencement Bay class CVE in 1945 as part of their USMC air-groups. The USN operated Hellcats off the Sangamon & Commencement Bay class CVE in 1944/45. For various reasons the Pacific Fleet had top priority for the F6F in 1943/44. One result was that the FAA only got limited numbers via Lend Lease. It was perfectly possible to use both Hellcats and Corsairs from CVE. The USN did so to qualify pilots for deck landing in both the Atlantic and Pacific. From Dec 1943 the FAA began to operate Hellcats from the CVE Emperor. By the end of the war she had been joined by another 6 CVE. As well as for deck landing training, the FAA also put Corsair squadrons on 2 CVE, Arbiter & Slinger (1843 & 1845 squadrons respectively) in late 1944 / early 1945. The squadrons worked up on their passage to Australia. They never became operational as the carriers were needed to ferry aircraft to the fleet. The squadrons were stripped of their aircraft to provide replacements for the BPF fleet carriers.

Belfast was mined on 21st Nov 1939 and didn’t return to service until Oct 1942. It was only on emerging from that rebuild that she gained any radar at all. So it wasn’t her. Edinburgh gained the Type 273 in the radar lantern abaft the director during her refit on the Tyne between 17 Jan and 4 March 1942. So those sequences probably date to 1941, which also fits with the aircraft markings. But NELSON was torpedoed in the Med on 27 Sept 1941 and was out of action until completing her repairs at Rosyth in April 1942. She had in fact left Scapa to join Force H at Gibraltar on 11 July 1941.

You are clearly aware of the book published back in 2001 giving the history of the Cocos Islands base - "Operation Pharos and the Cocos/Keeling Islands" by Ken Rosam. For everyone else, development of the airbase there only began in April 1945 with the arrival of personnel to build it. Prior to that the only aircraft visiting were IIRC diversions from the Australia/Ceylon air routes. It became known as RAF Station Brown and Transport Command No 129 Staging Post set up base there. The first aircraft to be based there were the Spitfire VIII from 136 squadron. These arrived in packing cases in April 1945 for assembly locally. These provided air defence but saw no action. A detachment of 7 Mosquito PR34 from 684 squadron arrived in late June with the first mission flown on the 2nd July. Aircraft included RG185/Z, RG186/G, RG184/X, RG187/H, RG191/M, RG203/E. 321 (Dutch) squadron with Liberator GR.VI sent a detachment of personnel out with the first operations also taking place on 2nd July. They were joined by a detachment from the similarly equipped 203 squadron. These were for anti-shipping operations. The main base for both these squadrons remained in Ceylon however. Some of 321 squadron's Catalina / Canso aircraft also seem to have been detached to operate from the Cocos (the book refers to them as Cansos but elsewhere the equipment is noted as Catalina during this period). I believe that these would all have been flying boats in this period and not the amphibian models with an undercarriage. 321 was unusual in that having been a flying boat squadron from Aug 1942, it acquired a Liberator flight in Dec 1944. Bombers in the shape of Liberator B.VI from 356 & 99 squadrons arrived in July to operate over the DEI. 217 squadron was in the process of preparing to move to the Cocos in August 1945 with its Beaufighter X for Air Sea / Jungle Rescue and anti-shipping work. Its deployment was cancelled with the end of the war. The Cocos base also became a diversion base for Liberators flying Special Duties operations over Malaya. At least one Liberator GR.V dropped in for such a visit.

From the thread on the secret projects site posted earlier this week about the Leonardo AW149 offering "If you'll permit me - the AW149 (not the 189) being offered is already a fully military helicopter from the ground up. The structure was redesigned (in the UK, interestingly, long before NMH) to meet stringent crash/battle damage requirements, and the aircraft is, as a result, more crashworthy and more survivable than a Black Hawk. It simply isn't an oil and gas 139/189 painted green. Nor would it be an 'orphan' - Poalnd, Egypt, Thailand and N Macedonia have all ordered or operate 149s. Moreover, a UK manufacturer is heavily involved - Leonardo Helicopters' Yeovil plant supports thousands of British jobs, and AW149 is critical to its future. Yeovil gives the UK an end-to-end capability, without which our ability to do UORs on Chinook/Apache/etc. would be compromised, let alone the ongoing trickle of export orders for AW101 and AW159." https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/raf-puma-replacement.35911/page-12

There are a lot of forest areas in Europe. About one third of Germany is covered in forest as are many other nations, with 46% of Europe being covered. While Finland & Sweden are around 70% the U.K. is only 13%.

The "commitment" was in a Parliamentary exchange on 5th Feb 2024. "The UK remains committed to 138 aircraft through the life of the programme." Which, as the following article points out, is a bit more positive than what was being said previously. https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-appears-to-recommit-to-full-order-of-138-f-35bs/ But with the aircraft being bought in batches with steadily improving capability how many that will translate into in terms of front line numbers will remain to be seen. And AIUI the unit price has been falling, but whether that will continue who knows.

IIRC it was Aug 1943 before AI Mk.IV radar began to be used over enemy territory in the Mahmoud sorties. In these a AI.IV / Monica equipped Mossie would offer itself as bait to Luftwaffe night fighters, then turn around and attack them. Centimetric radars were not cleared for use over enemy territory until Spring 1944.

By D-Day 610, 91 & 322 were all Spitfire XIV equipped and wore D-Day stripes. By VJ only 2 squadrons in India had re-equipped with the F.XIV and 1 with the FR.XIV. 132 & 17 received F.XIV in May & June 1945 respectively as replacements for their Spitfire VIII. Both flew high back fighter versions with full span wings (reportedly the CO of 17 squadron, J H Lacey, refused to have anything to do with low backed Spitfires which the squadron was initially to get!). 11 Squadron however received low back FR.XIV in June 1945 in place of Hurricanes. At least some of these initially had clipped wings as this fact was recorded in the ORB for July. On 5 July comparitive tests were flown between clipped & unclipped wing Mk.XIV. The former took an extra 100ft to become airborne. The difference in take-off distance was important as it was planned that all 3 squadrons would be flown off escort carriers during the forthcoming Operation Zipper (the invasion of Malaya planned for early Sept 1945). So all 11 squadron aircraft were modified with full span wings in July/Aug. Operation Zipper took place in modified form on 9 Sept 1945 as the fastest means of reoccupying Malaya. The CO of 902 Wing's personal Spitfire XIV, 10 aircraft from 17 squadron & 9 aircraft from 11 squadron were loaded onto the escort carrier Trumpeter at Trincomalee on 1 Sept and flown off to Kelanang Airstrip in Malaya on 9/10 Sept. The remainder of the aircraft flew in from India later. 132 squadron went aboard the escort carrier Smiter on 2 Sept, which was then part of the force diverted to Hong Kong, where it arrived on 11 Sept. The Spitfires were then lightered ashore rather than flown off, to reduce the risk of losses after the journey at sea. By the end of 1945 28, 20, 273, 155, 6IAF & 8IAF had all begun to receive Spitfire XIV.

As noted the FAA only used the wartime F4U-1/F3A-1/FG-1 built by Vought/Brewster/Goodyear respectively. The F4U-7 was a post war variant built specially for the French Aeronavale. First flight of prototype 2 July 1952. 94 built 1952/53. They were in service until 1964. Nobody else used that variant. The French also acquired some AU-1 which were later returned to the USN. So definitely a what-if.

There were two stages to the RP fits to the Banff Wing Mossies 1. 8xRP on separate rails. Trialled in Sept / Oct 1944. Banff Wing crews trained on RP in Oct and flew their first RP mission on 26 Oct 1944. 2. Twin installation plus 100 gal drop tanks. Mods for this were made on site starting 4 March 1945. First mission so equipped was 7 March. Beaufighters had been flying with RP from April 1943 in the North Coates Wing and later with the other CC Beaufighter sqns. What I was referring to was the type of warheads that the Dallachy Wing were using at this time.