Hurricane Mk IIC flown by K..M. Kuttlewascher

[Nick Millman]

To be pedantic 'Interior Green' is a US paint designation. The MAP/RAF designation was 'Grey Green', referred to officially in some RAF documents as 'Cockpit Grey Green'.

 

The chronology of night fighter Hurricane schemes is complex but it is apparent from documentation that they were painted in Special Night both at unit/MU level and at the factory depending on the chronology of changing instructions. Officially Special Night required application over smooth Night which was applied over grey primer, with any previous paints/dopes to be stripped off first. I'm not sure that always happened which probably explains some of the tattiness seen. Without checking I don't know offhand where the delivery dates for BE500 and BE581 fit into the sequence of schemes and which perhaps might provide some clue as to delivery schemes and/or any re-painting. Also IIRC there was quite a good article on Hurricane night fighter schemes by Paul Lucas in Model Aircraft Monthly which might be worth re-visiting.   

 

Nick

[Flavio]

Yes Nick, of course the correct designation is 'Grey Green'.

 

Bob, I also I thought to Dark Green for the fuselage section under the rear of the canopy, however, at least for Kuttelwascher's BE581, the color appears too light, almost identical to that one used for the armour plate (thus Gray Green).

 

I also carefully read Paul Lucas's article in Model Aircraft Monthly...

 

"The new overall Special night scheme was included in DTD Technical Circular No 144 “Camouflage and Identification Markings” which was issued in March 1941. This stated that Night Fighters and Night Interceptor were to have a uniform colouring of Special Night over all external surfaces. This finish to DTD/RDM 2a was to be applied over a single coat of ordinary Night which in turn was to be applied over its usual primer. When a list of aircraft types and their camouflage finishes was compiled by the Ministry of Aircraft Production in April 1941, whilst the Hurricane Mk I and Mk ii were both listed as single-seat fighters, which required Day camouflage [at that time consisting of Dark Green-Dark Earth and Sky, ndr], a later handwritten amendment made on or about 7 May 1941, indicated that both types also required an overall Special Night finish. Whether the overall Special Night finish was ever applied to Hurricanes on the production line or by the ASUs is not currently known..."

 

According to the information available on the net, BE581 was supposedly delivered on the second half of October 1941 (this time the Day camouflage was Dark Green-Ocean Grey (or Mixed Grey).  I don't know if No 1 Sq. was its first assignment; in fact according to No1 Sq. ORB, the first operation flight of BE581 was on 21 January 1942 (must be said however that No 1 Sq. saw very little action in November/December '41).

 

Flavio

 

 

 

[Nick Millman]

That MAM extract is all correct but it was slightly more complex than that. AMO A.926 of 12.12.40 had already promulgated that night fighters were to be "coloured matt black on all surfaces". On 21.12.40 the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP) raised a query about this (amongst others):-

 

""Black" and "Matt Black". It is not clear whether this means Night or Special Night. Both are matt colours and the terms used in the order are too indefinite"

 

For whatever reason the AMO was not corrected to clarify that but the MAP intervention suggests that night fighters were being painted at production and there are clues in other documents (see below) which support that, including the phrase for Hurricanes "equipped as night fighters" . RAF Stores listings show both Night and Special Night.

 

When AMO A.513 was issued on 10.7.41 the terminology used for night fighter colouring was "matt black (special night)".

 

Dissatisfaction with the overall black scheme is apparent in documents from early 1941 but it is not always clear whether Type M (matt) Night or Special Night was being referred to. Trials had already begun in December 1940 to test a dark green against the "standard Black Matt finish" and these ran throughout 1941, expanded to trial more suitable disruptive schemes using a variety of non-standard colours. Finally from January 1942 a combination of NIVO and an unspecified dark grey was to be tested on one flight of Beaus in 11 Group and one flight in 10 Group. RAE had also waded in to observe that Special Night was never intended to be applied overall but only to the lower surfaces of bombers as an anti-searchlight measure.  

 

On 4.8.42 MAP instructed Resident Technical Officers (RTO) that night fighter aircraft were to have their upper surfaces finished in Temperate Land Scheme. This was further amended only two days later when MAP instructed that Ocean Grey was to be applied instead of Dark Earth in reference to a DOR memo dated 31.7.42 ref. S.7013. That requirement was reinforced by an Air Ministry postagram also issued on 6.8.42 which required night fighters to conform to the Day Fighter Scheme on their upper surfaces but "applied over an under-coating which is lighter in colour than the present under-coating in use" (there were three types of grey primer in use for metal but the Hurricane fabric parts would have been red doped). Under surfaces were to be Night - not Special Night. This instruction specifically includes Hurricanes. 

 

On 25.8.42 HQ Fighter Command issued instructions for the Dark Green and Medium Sea Grey scheme to be applied to all night fighters with the exception of night intruders. On 17.10.42 they issued another memo complaining that the night fighter re-painting was too slow, insisting that old dope had to be stripped off first and referring to a more efficient paint stripper to be distributed as soon as possible. On 26.11.42 RAE wrote to A&AEE stating that Type M and Special Night finishes were now obsolete "but aircraft that have not yet been repainted with Standard (Type S) finishes are still in service". Those documents demonstrate the caution needed when linking schemes apparent in photographs to official instruction dates.  

 

All in all there are three "black" contenders in the life of night fighter Hurricanes - Type M (matt) Night, Special Night and Type S (standard~smooth) Night. 

 

Nick

 

 

[MrB17]

Regarding Karel M. Kuttelwascher’s Hurricane IIc - mysterious camouflage. I have contacted Roger Darlington, concerning his thoughts about this. He is still confused about the camouflage, partly because he met with the late Don Parks, who was a flight mechanic for 1 Squadron at the time, and was adamant he saw nothing other than black. The book “Night Hawk”, was again published in 2017, in softcover. This new addition has additional text and photos not shown in the original hardcover edition. According to Roger, there are two other photographs of JX@E in the newer edition, (which I have coming from the UK, I’ll be lucky if I receive it before late September). The reason I contacted Roger was because of a photo I spotted in the Daily Mail. It shows Karel crouching on the port wing root area, and a ground crew member, also on the wing, with a 1 gallon paint bucket that has paint running down the side of it. To me it looks too light to be even matte black. Straddling the top of the can is a paint brush with the bristle end facing the camera. There is a fairly clear, hard edged demarcation running over the leading edge, roughly fore and aft. Now I can’t say what colour it is, but if it’s a demarcation and not a shadow, (note there are three areas of differing tones visible just on top, around the fuel cap?) Possibly the darkest area is black under shadow, which coincides with the underside and external tank, however the lighter area seems closer to the paint on the bucket. Now if this is taken on a day where paint was being applied, and if it’s camouflage we are seeing, the demarcation would suggest a B scheme and not the A scheme shown in every illustration since Goulding’s. There are two nice shots on BM here, I think posted by Troy, of an echelon of 1 Squadron Hurricanes in DFS? that apparently shows the last Hurricane JX@J in a B scheme? I’m just asking, I have no desire to be caught in a tussle. I haven’t seen the aforementioned photo discussed here, unless I missed it. Another  possibility is that the paint in the bucket is red lead paint for the exhausts, which was apparently applied by brush, and that makes sense. Incidentally I was an aircraft refinisher for Victoria Air Maintenance in the 90’s, so I am very familiar with camouflage and paint types. Getting back to JX@E, I am not trying to open a can of worms here, just noticed that photo and couldn’t help but wonder what this photo is telling us. There are other scans of the photo on blogs, which are poor at best, however the one in the Daily Mail is much better and from Roger himself, so I post the link and not the photo. I have contacted Roger, requesting permission to post the photo in question. Not being %100 percent clear on the rules concerning that. Scroll down, it’s unmistakable and let’s hear your thoughts about it. Roger is looking forward to any further developments, that come from this. Hopefully I will be able to post the photo itself, fairly soon.
BTW, any ideas on the colours of the cannon covers?
 

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4587714/Night-intruder-flight-ace-s-amazing-story-new-book.html

 

Happy trails,

                     Jeffrey

Edited August 24, 2020 by MrB17
Typo

[Troy Smith]

35 minutes ago, MrB17 said:

It shows Karel crouching on the port wing root area, and a ground crew member, also on the wing, with a 1 gallon paint bucket that has paint running down the side of it. To me it looks too light to be even matte black. Straddling the top of the can is a paint brush with the bristle end facing the camera. There is a fairly clear, hard edged demarcation running over the leading edge, roughly fore and aft. Now I can’t say what colour it is, but if it’s a demarcation and not a shadow, (note there are three areas of differing tones visible just on top, around the fuel cap?) Possibly the darkest area is black under shadow, which coincides with the underside and external tank, however the lighter area seems closer to the paint on the bucket. Now if this is taken on a day where paint was being applied, and if it’s camouflage we are seeing, the demarcation would suggest a B scheme and not the A scheme shown in every illustration since Goulding’s.

Jeffrey, Interesting.  I avoided carrying on cleaning my kitchen and had a think, funnily enough I also pulled out my copy of Night Hawk this afternoon...

OK, this is quite a ramble,  so bear with it..

 

I suspect the new image is overall black. (or..see below)  Also, both photos look cropped? (and who knows what data that could yield)

 

 

Reproduced under 'fair use'  

Note the swastikas, also, look at the background,  both show the same 'fence' structure, and in the lower shot, bare trees.

 

 

 

the shot in the cockpit shows 8 kills.   The last two appear a different tone (probable? Damaged?)  from the list below, 

we have a probable, 6 kills and 2 damaged by the 16/17 april 1942, BUT 3 of those are from the 16/17th

The baackground doesn't look like summer, I'd postulate the photo is between the 18th April and 30th April, and taken to commemorate 3 in a night.  And the plane looks black, and by from April 1st all the kills are in BE581.

 

can't believe I didn't look at this before closely from 

https://fcafa.com/2011/01/01/karel-kuttelwascher/

Date Time Hurricane Action

02/02/41 II – Z2464 Bf 109 nr Bologne, probable.

08/04/41 II – Z3160 Bf 109 nr Cap Gris Nez

21/05/41 II – Z3449Bf 109 between Calais and Dunkirk

27/06/41 IIc – BE581Bf 109 nr Le Touquet

01/04/42 IIc – BE581Ju 88 on night of 1-2nd April, nr Melun.

01/04/42 IIc – BE581Ju 88 on night of 1-2nd April, nr Melun, damaged.

16/04/42 IIc – BE581Do217 on night of 16-17th April, nr St André.

26/04/42 IIc – BE581Do217 on night of 16-17th April, nr Rouen-Boos.

26/04/42 IIc – BE581Ju 88 on night of 16-17th April, nr Rouen-Boo, damaged.

(I assume that is supposed to 16, not 26)

 

30/04/42 IIc – BE581Do217 on night of 30 April/1st May, nr Rennes.

30/04/42 IIc – BE581He 111 on night of 30 April/1st May, off coast Dinard.

04/05/42 IIc – BE581He III on night of 4-5th May, nr St André.

04/05/42 IIc – BE581He III, 2nd, on night of 4-5th May, nr St André.

04/05/42 IIc – BE581He 111, 3rd, on night of 4-5th May, nr St André.

02/06/42 IIc – BE581Do 217 night of 2-3rd June, off Dunkirk.

03/06/42 IIc – BE581He III on night of 3-4th June, nr St André.

03/06/42 IIc – BE581Do 217 on night of 3-4th June, nr St Andre, damaged.

03/06/42  IIc – BE581Do 217 on night of 3-4th June, nr St André.

03/06/42 IIc – BE5811 He 111 on night of 3-4th June, nr St André.

21/06/42 IIc – BE581Ju 88 on night of 21-22nd June, nr St André.

21/06/42 IIc – BE581Ju 88 on night of 21-22nd June, nr St Andre, damaged.

28/06/42 IIc – BE581Do 217 on night of 28-29th June, nr Trévières.

01/07/42 IIc – BE581Do 217 on night of 1-2nd July, nr Dinard.

01/07/42 IIc – BE581Do 217 on night of 1-2nd July, nr Dinard, damaged.

01/07/42 IIc – BE581Do 217, 2nd, on night of 1-2nd July, nr Dinard.

 

In three months of night intruder missions, 1 Sqd, achieved 21 Luftwaffe aircraft being shot down. Kuttlewascher’s contribution to this tally was significant – 15 shot down and another 5 damaged! In one memorable night, he achieved the destruction of 3 He III aircraft in a mere 4 minutes! For these outstanding achievements, he was awarded the DFC and later a bar within a time scale of 42 days. The wartime media dubbed him ‘the Czech Night Hawk’

 

Also

Kuttlewascher was posted to 23 Sqd., based at Ford, on 8 July 1942 where he continued flying night intruder missions but now flying de Havilland Mosquito Mk II’s equipped with radar.

 

The profile is dated 4th May 1942. 

 

Note the change from A to C type in mid May 1942

 

 

Further points

we don't know when this was taken, captioned on the IWM as 

 

"Groundcrew pushing Hawker Hurricane Mark IIC night fighter, BE581 'JX-E', to its dispersal at Tangmere."

 

Note the BE581 in this shot has no wing tanks.

 Final wild card regarding markings, and note the profile above of BD929/ ZY-S, and compare to this, note date

 

"look at this picture from "RAF Fighter Command victory claims" vol2 pag129. It is BD949 "JX-J" in February '42 after being shot down and recovered by Germans (P/O R. Marcinkus Pow), and it has the same fin top in light color."

So we know at least 1 Hurricane from the squadron had the lo visibility scheme.  

(a theoretical model of BE581 like this would turn a few heads) 

 

Finally, we know that 1 Sq Hurricanes got repainted in Day Fighter Scheme for, or by the  Dieppe Raid, which is 19th August 1942.

Kuttlewasher  transferred on 8th July 1942. 

 

 

Now apart from the black undersides and red code letters, the profile of BE581 matches these images, and note the underside colour

 

see

 

@MrB17,  perhaps you might like to send Roger Darlington a link to this thread,  as perhaps he could help with the chronology or comments.

 

For example, is there any mention of lo vis schemes being tested in the 1 Sq ORB?

Is there any mention of use of the Night Intruder scheme?  There is reference to 87 Sq being repainted in a rush before the Dieppe raid. 

 

what is the full history of BE581?  I'll put a @Geoffrey Sinclair  in here to see what he might have. 

 

I'm wondering if there is a known date for those 1 Sq formation photos....

 

[MrB17]

Roger gave me the OK, however I see you posted the photo in question. I will send him the link also. I hope my photo works, as I can’t upload from my photo library. I circled the pertinent areas in red. The date of the photo is given as April 1942, this I found elsewhere and it is the least cropped I could find. Under Karel’s shoes you can see an obvious squiggly hard demarcation line. There are 3 shades visible, so is it all shadow? The sun inclination is as high as it might be for April, note the shadows on Mick’s face. The fuel tank is unquestionably black, and not dead flat, with leaded fuel spillage creating the lighter streak. The shadow beneath Karel makes the wing area appear black similar to the fuel tank, however there is also a smaller lighter area adjacent to the squiggly demarcation line just inside of the wing attach cover strip,(my hypothesis for the B scheme). The tone of the paint spilled over the bucket seems to match that on the wing area outboard of the demarcation in question. If this is overall black, is it two types of black or night? The reason I ask is because I can see in photos of Hurricane Mk.I night fighters, the black appears very dark and not so reflective, whereas Karel Kuttelwascher’s Hurricane shows quite a difference between the black on the upper area of the fuel tank exposed to the sun and the black on the top of the wing. Two different blacks? Where the topsides dead matte and the undersides closer to the earlier black used in 41? When I painted Warbirds, I developed a formula to add flattening agent to the right percentage to make the aircraft washable, yet not the high gloss seen on many warbirds. Richard Sugden’s HU-16 Albatross is an excellent example of the sheen of the paint. Dead matte/flat absorbs oils like a sponge, making cleaning pretty much futile. My brother and I painted the bosses T-28 in a spurious Vietnam era SEAC Skyraider scheme, in half a day using Flat Alkyd enamel right over the previous US Navy white and red, just wiped the oil off with gunwash ( low grade lacquer thinner), jacked it up, retracted the gear, masked the canopy and sprayed freehand using the USAF T.O. as a guide. A lot of comments on how real it looked compared to most other glossy aircraft. I added chipped paint around the cowling using aluminium paint and a sponge. He told me that the paint was chipping off already, I told him if it had, it would be red! Fooled him pretty good. I picked up this trick after observing the Hollywood paint on B-17F N17W after its return from England. (Boeing rolled olive paint over the C Cup nose art, deeming it unacceptable for the museum patrons), buggers! At any rate the light brownish grey exhaust seen in the only full photo of BE581 makes a marked contrast to the black application at that time, they must have been running lean to get the most out of it for the long duration, (no drop tanks in the photo), although if it’s post mission, they might have been dropped. That photo shows the black being quite matte and you can see the difference in light reflection by looking at the strake under the empannage where sunlight hits it compared to the shadowed areas. Where the drop tanks painted black seperately with a semi matte black? I noticed that the photos of 1 Squadron Hurricanes in DFS, were applied quite hurriedly as evidenced by JX@Y. The black is evident under the wings, probably due to no time for prep before the grey was applied and the cordite residue was not cleaned up first. I can see the tell tale running low on paint under the wings, as spraying with a standard spray gun with a 1 quart pot, facing upwards is annoyingly sporadic, especially if the pot is less than half full. Would JX@E have been eventually painted in this DFS ? What is the date of the photos? Many questions lead to more investigation in this controversy and hopefully we find out more. May just have to do it weathered black  One more thing. What colours are the cannon covers?

Happy trails,

                     Jeffrey 

 

Edited August 25, 2020 by MrB17
Figured it out

[Jure Miljevic]

Hello

Here is the photo of Karel M. Kuttelwascher, standing of the wing of Hurricane Mk.IIC BE581, JX-E:

 

 

I found the photo on this Czech webpage, dedicated to Kuttelwascher. I already posted the link in Stupid Hurricane question? thread here. Obviously not many noticed it.

To me top camouflage looks like field applied DG and SGM. It sounds reasonable that lower surfaces had been painted black. Now, all I need is another photo, showing red code letters, and I am happy. Cheers

Jure

[MrB17]

On 8/25/2020 at 12:38 AM, Jure Miljevic said:

Hello

Here is the photo of Karel M. Kuttelwascher, standing of the wing of Hurricane Mk.IIC BE581, JX-E:

 

 

I found the photo on this Czech webpage, dedicated to Kuttelwascher. I already posted the link in Stupid Hurricane question? thread here. Obviously not many noticed it.

To me top camouflage looks like field applied DG and SGM. It sounds reasonable that lower surfaces had been painted black. Now, all I need is another photo, showing red code letters, and I am happy. Cheers

Jure

Hi Jure, thanks for showing this again. I had seen it, but for some reason I neglected to save it in my Kuttelwascher photo album. Initially I thought it may be a shadow, however upon closer examination, the foreword demarcation line seems too sharp and irregular to be a shadow. I am looking at the angle of the sun hitting Karel’s back, and it just doesn’t measure up as being all shadow. Look at the IWM photo and you can see a shadow being cast, however the sun angle is completely different from the photo you show here again, yet how could it be all shadow on the side by the cockpit with the sun at his 5 o’clock. If it is DG, it also doesn’t fit with a standard A or B pattern, however if you look at the two 1 Squadron echelon photos, you can see that there is not much conformity between the aircraft. JX@Y is a perfect example, also we see two different styles of “J”, some have very tiny serials applied over the DF band, one has none, and one is standard size. JX@J at the end has a non standard C-1 roundel. No two Hurricanes are exactly alike, and all this leads me to believe that these were done in much the same fashion as 87 Squadron. I know this has been brow beaten before, however we have no known “complete” photos of BE581 in DFS or Dark Green and whatever grey, over black, additionally no photos of the nose art have yet been seen. Would Mr. Goulding have concocted such a detailed scheme just off the top of his head for the fun of it, or a cruel joke? Did he have any friends or family members who might have photos or detailed notes and are still with us? We do know that it was overall black at some point, because we have that photo from the IWM, (note the spinner is not entirely red either). However there is no photo of it in all black with C-1 roundels or red code letters either, yet this goes largely undisputed because we know that it eventually would have had a C-1 fuselage roundel, yet we accept that without a photograph. The red codes make sense, just as the red serial numbers.

I think I am going to change my tune as far as modelling BE581 is concerned and do the two versions of paint, included in the new Arma Hobby 1/72 Hurricane IIb/IIc kit.
 

Happy trails,

                     Jeffrey 

 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2020 by MrB17
New information

[MrB17]

Troy, I did send the link to Roger Darlington as you suggested. This was his reply.

Thanks, Jeff.

 

I'm going to have to leave this mystery to you experts to sort out.

 

I did all my research almost 40 years ago and essentially everything I know is in my book.

 

When you have an answer or some sort of conclusion, do let me know!

 

Best wishes.

 

Roger

[Geoffrey Sinclair]

On ‎25‎/‎08‎/‎2020 at 06:32, Troy Smith said:

what is the full history of BE581?  I'll put a @Geoffrey Sinclair  in here to see what he might have. 

Near Zero, starting at BA100 the delivery logs go from 15 to 100 per page so not a lot of room for notes, two examples of entire entries follow

BE581 IIC TOC 26 October 1941, built in 26th month of the war, reduced to spares 7 November 1942

BE589 IIB TOC 26 October 1941, built in 26th month of the war, Far East 9 November 1941, Category E 25 January 1942

[MrB17]

On 8/28/2020 at 2:01 AM, Geoffrey Sinclair said:

Near Zero, starting at BA100 the delivery logs go from 15 to 100 per page so not a lot of room for notes, two examples of entire entries follow

BE581 IIC TOC 26 October 1941, built in 26th month of the war, reduced to spares 7 November 1942

BE589 IIB TOC 26 October 1941, built in 26th month of the war, Far East 9 November 1941, Category E 25 January 1942

Great info from @Geoffrey, thank you for that, and @Troy as well. So if Kuttelwascher left the Squadron in July, BE581 was still around until November. More possibilities arise from this information. I have noticed that most of the illustrations of BE581 in camouflage, seem to be based on the Goulding illustration, meaning that they do not have any kill markings shown. Is it possible that the kill markings were over painted after Kuttelwascher left? Did it stay with 1 Squadron? They changed to the Typhoon in July also. So did someone photograph it, knowing the significance of that particular Hurricane, before it was reduced to spares, and this is what Mr. Goulding used as reference? Would this be why we see the red doped patches on a war weary BE581, before it was reduced to spares? Is the date given as May 4, 1942 accurate? I don’t know what RAF protocol was regarding retention of kill markings, after the pilot left the Squadron. Also noticed that in the echelon photos, JX@J out on the end, seems to match illustrations of BD949, the mount of F/L Marcinkus, who was shot down on February 12, 1942. If so, the photos predate that. Although I can not see the serial at all on ‘J’, to confirm this, it may have the tiny serial like ‘S’ and ‘Y’. ‘I’ has a  regular size serial, while ‘B’ has none. Also noticed that ‘Y’ shows evidence of poor adhesion on parts of the original codes that were gone around with the application of the camouflage. So, was Kuttelwascher’s Hurricane painted as such at the same time, later on having the black underside reinstated and red codes applied? The BBMF Hurricane was painted as having all of Kuttelwascher’s kills on it, no doubt as a tribute, this seems to be replicated on diecast models. While we’re on the subject of BBMF’s Hurricane does anyone have an explanation for the improperly mounted antenna mast (raked aft) at the time? I have noticed it has since been corrected. I am sure I am not alone in noticing that little annoyance in photos, as well as the bright white jet jockey bone dome spoiling the effect completely! Back to BE581, Roger Darlington related to me that he spoke with the late Don Parks, who was a flight mechanic with 1 Squadron, and stated that he only saw all black Hurricanes. What period of time was he with 1 Squadron, as we see photos showing otherwise? Roger did his research over 40 years ago, so Mr. Parks memories would have been roughly 40 years after the fact. I know from my time as an airframe tech in the late 70’s, that very few of my mates were aircraft enthusiasts in the way us modellers are. I worked in transient servicing, and we got a lot of NATO visitors, so I heard a lot of “hey Dick, what kind of airplane is that”? What I am saying is that not everyone notices the details, like a modeller or aviation buff. So saying he only saw black, meant he wasn’t there with 1 Squadron for the duration, or that is what stuck in his memory. When @Troy posted the photos of JX@Y, it was very evident that the 1 Squadron Hurricanes had been black prior to the photos. So this brings up more possibilities for BE581, other than the single photo of it in the earlier all black scheme, and the unfortunate piecemeal photos of parts of it, with some questions as to what we are seeing in an old poor quality print. Another thing I have noticed, is that some of those photos, including the IWM complete one, show a very light reflection on the left side of the photo. Where these photos or scans taken of original photo prints, that may have had a bit of a curl on the left side? Are we seeing just a part of a larger photo? Where are the original ones other than the IWM photo? I am trying to be like Von Daniken, posing questions from what little evidence we have, only to bring to light, the possibilities concerning BE581. The quest for the Holy Grail continues.

 

Happy trails,

                     Jeffrey  

 

[MrB17]

I have been racking my brain about Karel M. Kuttelwascher’s Hurricane IIc markings for some time, as have many others as well. I received a PM from Grzegorz Cieliszak, @Bigos who did a lot of hard work and research on the subject of colour schemes for Kuttelwascher’s Hurricane, included in the new Arma Hobby Hurricane IIb/IIc. I am very pleased with what Arma Hobby and Grzegorz have come up with regarding the later scheme. I had thought from a single photo of Kuttelwascher and a ground crew member on the wing of his Hurricane, the possibility of the camouflage represented by Goulding in the old Profile publication. Now I believe the paint bucket on the wing in the photo, is most probably the lead paint used on the exhaust to suppress the glow at night, since there are no exhaust glare plates fitted to BE581. This I surmised, since learning of the research and facts presented by Grzegorz. I am both pleased and confident about the later scheme represented in the new Arma Hobby Hurricane IIb/IIc. If you follow the link below, you can read the explanation for the markings provided in the kit. I know the Kuttelwascher Hurricane is controversial, but I think the Arma Hobby kit, gives the most reasonable interpretation of his Hurricane during his string of kills. 

http://armahobbynews.pl/en/blog/2020/10/13/karel-kutterwascher-the-most-effective-hurricane-night-fighter-pilot/

 

Thanks to Grzegorz Cieliszak @Bigos

Also thanks to Roger Darlington, author of Night Hawk.