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Burma Hurricanes in Desert camouflage


ClaudioN

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In a recent thread about aircraft flown by Frank Carey,
http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234999538-frank-careys-aircraft/page-2#entry2306570

in post #27 by Tony O'Toole provided a picture of his model of a well-known 17 Sqn. Hurricane.

Interestingly, Hurricane BE171:YB-B is finished in TLS, as Tony explains: "It is often depicted as wearing a desert finish but this is wrong,...it was the TLS under bright lighting conditions and possibly faded a bit too, Some Hurri`s in 17 & 67 Sqn`s still bore traces of their Takoradi Route white markings on the rear fuselage and upper tailplanes as they were rushed across Africa and straight on to India, then Burma.."

Tony's model certainly looks like a faithful interpretation of the camouflage pattern seen in the photo of BE171. As I am a great fan of his research, I thought it could be interesting to look deeper into this subject and see whether some more details may come to light.

I believe the idea of desert camouflage on early Burma Hurricanes may have started with the Aircam/Airwar Special no. 23 'RAF Combat Units SEAC 1941-45', some fourty years ago.

I have just picked out a feature by Brian Philpott, titled "Oriental Warpaint", in 'Airfix Magazine Annual for Aircraft Modellers' (printed 1978...!), where Mr. Philpott discussed SEAC colours and the preparation of his book. About Hurricanes, he reported talking directly with Wg. Cdr. Stone, CO of 17 Sqn. at Mingaladon, who told him: "the first three Hurricanes for 17 Sqn. had desert camouflage (...) 45-inch 'A-type' roundels on the wing tops (...)". He mentioned there were orders to repaint them, but they were not carried out, as the Hurricanes were pressed into combat.

This agrees with "Hurricane Aces 1941-45" by Andrew Thomas: "The first four aircraft arrived at Mingaladon, outside Rangoon, on 23 January, and the pilots were immediately ordered to prepare for a strafe on Bangkok because the fixed ferry tanks fitted to their Hurricanes gave them the range to do so."

My copy of "Bloody Shambles" is currently out on loan, so I have no more details.

Now, the words of Wg. Cdr. Stone refer to just three aircraft having the 'desert-plus-odd-roundel' combination. Could it be the case that the use of 'A-type' roundels was actually more widespread?

From pictures, I have the following definitely showing 'A-type' overwing roundels:

BE171:YB-B

BE19?:YB-D

From a picture of 135 Sqn. aircraft being refuelled, the following are also possible:

Z5659:WK-C

xxxxx:WK-D

So, does anybody know how common the use of top-wing 'A-type' roundels may have been? There may indeed have been a (very) few Hurricanes in desert camouflage, but the fact that they wore 'A-type' top-wing roundels does not mean they must be associated to the known extant photos.

Claudio

Edited by ClaudioN
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Photographs can be misleading, and all too often are. On page 262 of Bloody Shambles vol 1, there's a photo of Z4726, described as one of the first three Hurricanes to reach Burma and flown by Stone on 23rd January 1943. It carries a large slightly florid 2 on the fuselage side,presumably from its ex-Takoradi ferry, and appears to have B roundels on the upper wing. This is difficult to judge but I believe the large A-type roundels seen on YB-B would be visible here. First impressions are that it has the low contrast of TLS, although the staining of the fuselage, and comparison with the light uniform of the figure standing next to it, makes me have some doubts. It does appear to be particularly light under the exhaust stain. It's impossibly to judge from the top of the fuselage because of glare, I feel that the upperwing roundels would have been changed at Rangoon rather than en-route. After all, they were not standard practice anywhere else en-route. That doesn't mean that Stone was also wrong about the colours. That he distinguished between the first three and later ones is convincing detail.

There is one problem with this photo of Z4726 and the established account. It lacks the underwing tanks. Yet this is the aircraft that Stone flew - still fitted with the fixed ferry tanks - and suffered so much damage that it never flew again. The other two were BG853 and Z5334. BE171 was the fourth to arrive, part of a second batch rather than a straggler from the first.

Late 1941 is a bit late for aircraft being delivered to the Middle East in TLS. It's a little difficult to believe that an aircraft in fresh TLS rushed out to Burma should have faded quite so much on its journey as to make a Far East veteran confuse them with the Desert scheme. Stone must have been very familiar with other aircraft painted in TLS, and how they would have faded under the tropical sun. The RAF Buffalos, Blenheims and Lysanders, and even the P-40s of the AVG operating from the same field.

Going to Vol 2 ,we have BG843 WK.E, a low quality photo with fairly indeterminate colour that could bias towards TLS. Then the classic photo of BE171 YB-B with A roundels. Then Z5659 WK.C, another poor distant shot. Then a close-up of "Tex" Barrick in his cockpit... then a few more. The one consistent feature of these is that the darker colour in the camouflage is always around the cockpit. (Unlike the two cockpit photos in Vol 1 of Stone and Story in their cockpits V1/269&271) but the light does seem bright on these...and Stone has his Sq.Ldr pennant painted on.) This is consistent with TLS rather than the more usual appearance of the desert scheme - although sadly this was not always consistent or the matter would be considered settled with what we've got. However, most of these views are not of the first three, so all the later ones can be assumed to be in TLS anyway.

Edited by Graham Boak
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Graham,

thank you for your reply. You summarise all evidence and I find it hard to disagree.

I 'd think exhaust stain areas are better left out of the attempt to guess at a colour scheme. I am also assuming airfields there must have been rather dusty, as some photos (e.g., Z5659:WK-C) show a lighter colour on the lower part of the rear fuselage, that looks much like dust thrown up by propeller slipstream.

In the end, this leaves the top fin and cockpit area to consider, which both point to TLS.

Two remaining doubts:

- Wg.Cdr. Stone made sketches and drawings at the time, eventually becoming an artist according to Mr. Philpott. We may perhaps assume he had an eye for colours?

- how were Hurricane finished in late 1941 - early 1942? TLS would be consistent with aircraft leaving the factory and reaching Takoradi in that scheme, to be repainted in desert colours at MUs in Egypt. In that case, any Hurricane diverted from Takoradi to Burma would remain in TLS.

A Happy Easter to all

Claudio

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Hiya Claudio & Graham,

From the research that I have been doing for modelling purposes it certainly appears that both 17 & 67 Sqn adopted the red white and blue A Type style upper surface roundels,......they were working alongside the AVG and this may also have had a bearing on this? Whether every single Hurricane belonging to these units had these markings is another thing mind you?

Without photographic evidence it is hard to say....but it is quite likely that some Hurricane`s which had already been painted in desert colours after arrival in Egypt were also allocated to join those being flown to India,.....but the majority would have just passed through Egypt en route to India without being repainted. At the time it was the aircraft itself which was important and required urgently,......what colour it was painted would have been an inconsequence I would suspect?

As for later,.....when tropicalised Hurricane`s were leaving the production line wearing desert finish,.....they would arrive in India painted in these colours and would normally be repainted prior to operations in the TLS scheme. I have a photo of a flight of Hurricane Mk.II`s wearing small SEAC roundels,.....probably from a training unit or operational unit that is working up in India,....and these still wear desert camouflage!

Many of the early SEAC Spitfire VIII`s appear to have entered operational service over Burma wearing desert finish too,..some with Sky fuselage bands,...but that is a discussion for another day,......as there is a possibility that some could be wearing faded TLS with the Dark Green covering the previous Dark Earth sections of the scheme.

All the best

Tony

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FWIW there is evidence of desert camo Hurris arriving in Burma/SEAC.

1. In his 'Jungle Pilot' (1946) Wg Cdr Barry Sutton DFC (136 Sqn and replaced Frank Carey as CO of 135 Sqn) describes ferrying those Hurricanes from the Middle East to Burma:- "The collection here, with their long range tanks and light-brown desert camouflage . . . "

2. There is anecdotal evidence from Japanese pilots who described "brown camouflaged" Hurricanes. It was one of the reasons that brown camouflage was dropped from the replacement pre-production Ki-44 aircraft of 47th Dokuritsu Hiko Chutai who were operating over Burma from Moulmein and attracting friendly fire.

3. As late as October 1943 Air HQ India were complaining that "Some Hurricane aircraft are being received into India camouflaged with the desert scheme, and carrying UK identification markings with yellow borders." (ref: Postagram 6005/45/KNG dated 27th October 1943 from Air HQ India to 308 and 320 MU, RAF Liaison Officer ARU Santa Cruz, AHQ Bengal and 226 Gp HQ)

Nick

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Sutton's comment is particularly relevant. Whereas Stone refers to the three arrivals of the first flight as being in Desert Scheme, Sutton led the second flight (four arrivals). He was flying in BE171, which he had taken over en-route, and which became YB.B. So if we accept Sutton, then YB.B was indeed in Desert. This must have implications on possible interpretations of other aircraft in these photographs. If these were also in Desert scheme, just when did any in TLS arrive? It is specifically stated that Sutton's flight was despatched from Egypt, not "straight through" from Takoradi. (And therefore just what was that distinct "2" on Z2746?) Circumstantially, the spread of the serials would indicate a gathering of spare aircraft: a group passing en-bloc from Takoradi would be likelier to have serials close to each other. And, by implication, why do we not see photos of aircraft with the lighter colour around the cockpit? (I know, Hurricanes were not always standard, and we don't have enough photographs.)

We should also consider, if only to discard with extreme distaste, the suggestion that these aircraft were built during the brief time that Dark Green and Mid Stone were the official colours for the desert. So an aircraft arriving in this scheme would also be considered as being in light brown, yet have the darker colour around the cockpit as we see in these aircraft.

Given that the standard RAF camouflage already contained brown, it's a little difficult to understand the anecdotal evidence from the Japanese side, except perhaps as some indication of change. Yet we don't have any suggestion that the majority of RAF fighters were appearing in Desert, do we? Also, if the Japanese dropped brown because the RAF were using it, why hadn't they earlier dropped green? Perhaps in fleeting contact it was only darker colours that were noted, possibly as seen in RAF pilots' suggestions of black Oscars. Perhaps this aspect is one for optical specialists.

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Nice to have these photos, Tony. Your seventh photo, showing the "Takoradi" numbers, has the same style of 2 as seen on Z4726, photo in BS Vol 1 as described above (post 2), the source of the photo being Stone himself. So similar is it that I would argue that it is Z4726 and the date is wrong on your caption. Can you read the serial on your original print? I'd suggest that it does not have red/white/blue upperwing roundels at this stage. Z4726 was one of the first three, described by Stone as in Desert Scheme, collected from stock in the Middle East, leaving Cairo on the 14th January 1942 and arriving on 23rd January. So I'd suggest making the slight correction that although probably (almost certainly?) ferry numbers they were probably not Takoradi ferry ones. Perhaps a comparison of style with other Takoradi Ferry aircraft might help? Or just confuse?

As an aside: at least two of these aircraft, including Z4726 (if it is she), have the Mk.I-style tailwheel leg.

Edited by Graham Boak
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Just to confuse matters, BS v1 goes on to say that Z4726 (also) arrived on the 29th January. Which would at least permit time to get the tanks off and the photo taken, and lacks any statement that it was in Desert. At least so far. Making matters worse, Z4726 is a serial in a black-out block near the end of the last Hurricane Mk.I production runs. Another arrival on 23rd January was Z5334, which is listed as being shipped to the Far East on 1st February 1942. Tony is now going to tell us that the serial in the photo is something else altogether? It had better be.

Edited by Graham Boak
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Given that the standard RAF camouflage already contained brown, it's a little difficult to understand the anecdotal evidence from the Japanese side, except perhaps as some indication of change. Yet we don't have any suggestion that the majority of RAF fighters were appearing in Desert, do we? Also, if the Japanese dropped brown because the RAF were using it, why hadn't they earlier dropped green? Perhaps in fleeting contact it was only darker colours that were noted, possibly as seen in RAF pilots' suggestions of black Oscars. Perhaps this aspect is one for optical specialists.

I think the issue related to the brown being associated with RAF fighters which I agree is ambiguous. The 64th Sentai ace Yohei Hinoki stated that "Brown is the colour of enemy Hurricane" in refuting the notion that 64th Sentai Oscars had brown camouflage (which arose in controversy in Japan over the box art of the Nichimo kit). The climate and dust of the Burmese airfields during that 1942 hot, dry season might well have resulted in TLS Hurricanes appearing predominantly "brown" - the degradation of the Dark Green paint turning brownish + dust could have given an impression of two browns as it did later for TLS P-40s in China also described as being in "desert colours". Barry Sutton, however, ought to have been in a position to distinguish Hurricanes in temperate land or desert schemes unless the Hurricanes collected in Egypt were also very sun faded and weathered.

Given the dusty Burmese airfields in the dry season desert camouflaged Hurricanes might not have appeared so outlandish on the ground.

I have not come across any descriptions of Oscar I as being "black". The descriptions recalled are "brilliant green", "bright green and pale green", "jungle green" "light green", etc. Later RAF descriptions of Oscar II over Burma do include "black" and that term was also used to describe the first Zeros appearing in SWPA in the deep green black camouflage circa early 1943.

The photos above are in greyscale so I'm not sure how a definitive conclusion of TLS can be drawn unless the shaded/unshaded area specs of the DTD diagrams are considered absolutely infallible, which various amendment corrections in 1943 suggest was not the case.

Nick

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Thanks Nick, I was thinking of the later RAF reference. I'm not sure however why the Japanese airstrips wouldn't have been equally dusty.

I've certainly seen reference to Dark Green ageing to a chocolate brown, but also to a lighter green. I have no idea which is more likely on these Hurricanes, nor how long it might take to show. I suspect the Japanese comment implies the first.

I completely agree that over-reliance on the DTD diagram areas is mistaken, particularly on Desert Hurricanes, but when all the available photos from this period in Burma seem to show the same patterns of dark and light, where they can be distinguished, then this does bias the probabilities somewhat.

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Thanks all for the very interesting comments. I checked Mason, "The Hawker Hurricane", for aircraft serials, approximate delivery dates and movements.

Looking at the serials mentioned above, it turns out that Z5334 and Z5659 were Gloster-built MkIIb's, delivered within September 1941 and dispatched to the Middle East in October-November 1941.

Last digit of serial for aircraft number '2' may be '4', so the aicraft might be Z5334. Interestingly, no white distemper is visible on the top of its rear fuselage, whereas traces of it are visible on Z5628:YB-L (from the same batch, also delivered by September).

BE171 and BE19x were Hawker-built aircraft, among the first 300 of a production batch of 1350 aircraft delivered between July 1941 and March 1942. They were probably delivered at the same time as the former two.

There would seem to be some likeliness that Hurricanes with serials in the ranges Zxxxx and BExxx may have spent some time at a MU in Egypt, where they might have been repainted in desert colours.

BG843 and BG853 were part of a later contract with Glosters, deliveries starting in November 1941, so they may have proceeded more or less directly from Egypt to Burma.

It seems reasonable to assume the use of numbers during long ferry flights was learned from the Takoradi route, but I'd suggest not all of those seen are necessarily remnants of the ferry flight from Takoradi. (edit: this was already considered by Graham Boak in post #8)

Z4726 might have been transposed from Z4762? Still in a Mk.I batch but, at least, existent.

Claudio

Edited by ClaudioN
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Re-read BS - there is considerable comment on collecting these aircraft from Cairo, and HQ ME being rather unhappy (and slow) about providing more from their stock.

Z4762 has a known history, and is a Mk.I. It didn't go to Burma, and Z7462 was a Blenheim. I did look for the simpler transpositions, but no joy. One problem is that many of these aircraft are simply defined as Shipped FE, No Further Details. Sometimes with a date, often of delivery, but this will normally have been Singapore or Java.

This list includes Z5334, which supposedly was not shipped to FE until after it is recorded in BS as being in Burma.

One possibility is Z5344 recorded as ME/FE Arrived 1.2.42 NFT.

Also Z5483, which served with 274 Sq before going to the FE: arrived 15.1.42 NFT. This at least is going to be one of the ones ferried from the ME

Incidentally, the only record for Z5628 is that it was with 2 IAF, and bellylanded at Thana 5.8.44. So that's one survivor of the Burma campaign.

For some reason, we do have Z5440 with 17 sq, forced landing Magwe 21.3.42. NFT

Z4952 (a Mk.IIA) India. soc 14.10.44. What a lot of help.

I haven't been through the BD/BE/BG serials. Perhaps the first thing to do is list all the ones mentioned in Shores, and then see what if anything is said about them. This is beginning to get like work.

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Is there a definitive list of Hurricane serials that were in SEAC? I'm looking for examples of IID aircraft that were with 5 Sqn, but the is a paucity of photos about 5 Sqn from any source I can find...

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Not a specific list, no. There is a collection of books produced by Air Britain that give the known flying unit history of every aircraft that ever served in the RAF, taken from the aircraft record cards. For overseas units the information is a little patchy - and for operational areas during a time of defeat and retreat very patchy if not non-existent. As shown above in the history of these 1942 Burma examples, where for many nothing was officially recorded. I did manage to pick out a respectable number of examples for 607 Sq, possibly not all but many, 5 Sq converted to the Hurricane at an even later date, so should be well covered.

Feel free to look through these books and produce such a list. I'm sure that your efforts would be appreciated if not rewarded in monetary terms. The Air Britain books do not give the dates concerned for transfers: for that you'll have to look at the individual record cards.

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Hiya Folks,

Here are a few pics from my own collection and elsewhere including Ventura Publications,;

17 Sqn- TLS,.....traces of the Takoradi scheme white still visible on the top of the rear fuselage and tailplane, note the red white and blue upper wing roundels;

A recent arrival but with 67 Sqn in Burma,....still bearing its long range tanks- TLS;

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67 Sqn, Burma,....GA Williams;

Another pair of 67 Sqn Hurricane in Burma, after replacing their Buffalo`s;

A 135 Sqn Hurricane;

Recent arrivals at Akyab in March 1942 still bearing their Takoradi route numbers,....went to 136 Sqn I think? Wearing TLS;

This Hurricane of 135 Sqn seen at Rangoon in 1942 also appears to have the red white and blue upper wing roundels;

And these Hurri`s from 135 Sqn including Z4654, WK-C look like they could have red white and blue upper wing roundels?;

And much later,.....a flight of Hurricane`s wearing desert scheme and bearing SEAC markings,.....seen in India while under training.

Cheers

Tony

Where did the piccies go? Saw them on my cell phone but when I came to look at them on my laptop, they'd disappeared. :(

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Your seventh photo, showing the "Takoradi" numbers, has the same style of 2 as seen on Z4726, photo in BS Vol 1 as described above (post 2), the source of the photo being Stone himself.

Looking at the photo in BS vol.1, I believe the numbers are similar in the two photos, but not the same. Number '2' in Tony's picture seems larger, while '2' in the picture from BS vol.1 (credited to Stone) is about the same size as the roundel.

Also, BS vol.1 reports twice on the arrival at Mingaladon of Z4726, first time on January 23rd as one of the first three Hurricanes there and the second time on January 29th, in this case one among a group of six Hurricanes.

Claudio

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I hope that Tony can come up with a serial for this "Z4726". On the 29th February 13 Hurricanes had been delivered to Mingaladon, of which two had been damaged beyond repair, but on the 1st March there were 10. Either this is an error, or the loss of another is missing from the text. After the 1st March Shores is much less specific about the identity of the aircraft arriving - we should be grateful he could find so much! After this he twice gives the number of aircraft available in theatre, up to a peak of 27 in three squadrons, but is frustratingly vague on the exact dates.

I've started making a list of all the serials I can find, but have not yet begun analysing them. One interesting feature offering a possible modelling opportunity is that near the end of the campaign 136 Sq was reformed with 9 Hurricane Mk Is, though only the serials of two are given. No codes, however. They are said to be from No.10 OTU, which is not true as that was a bomber OTU in the UK. I suspect this to be a mistake for 70 OTU in Egypt. There was no dedicated OTU in India until No.151 OTU was formed, after the end of this campaign. Presumably these also would have been in Desert Scheme?

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I'm a huge admirer of Chris Shores (and Brian Cull and Yasuho Izawa) but I take all the serial number identifications in "Bloody Shambles" with a large pinch of salt. I haven't studied the Hurricanes in detail, but the Buffalos suffer from all sorts of problems, including entirely serials that weren't even in the Buffalo production run. I think a range of issues crept into the book and untangling the mess took a lot of time and effort gathering and comparing as much primary source material possible to determine the most likely fate of almost all Buffalo airframes. Solving the Hurricane problem is harder - at least with the Buffalo, I knew exactly how many aircraft, and which serials, were sent to Singapore. The Hurricanes came in different batches from different places and arrived right when things were getting messy, with the result that primary source material is even more patchy (tough to maintain documentation when you're constantly under attack).

If I get chance (unlikely this week, alas), I'll take a look at Cull's "Hurricanes over Singapore" in case that provides any additional details.

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I don't think Cull's book will help here, other perhaps than identifying some of the aircraft that didn't go to Burma (and perhaps, from their dates, linking others). I suspect strongly that widening the search will increase the number of gaps, rather than closing things up. However one of the next steps is to look at the Buffalos in Burma - because I have a total official loss of 22 fighters and knowing how many of those were Buffalos will help. However, my initial look suggests that the Air Britain lists will be of little help. No help for any at Mingaladon, precious few for the Northern fighting, and just too many options once we get back to India. Even there, there are many gaps. Shores has an identity for (about) 23 Hurricanes, out of at least 45, mainly at Mingaladon, which presumably is an artefact of surviving logbooks.

But whilst this has some interest, it isn't really helping with the matter of the thread, which is the existence of the Desert scheme.

Edited by Graham Boak
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I think an interesting outcome of this discussion is that overwing 'A type' roundels are most likely unconnected with the possible desert scheme. If anything, this widens the choices rather than sharpening the focus.

Was the 'A type' roundel a local recognition aid for 17 and 135 Sqns in the air fight over Rangoon? The idea is tempting.

Claudio

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It turns out the "Woodpeckers" of 136 Sqn. have a Facebook page with lots of interesting pictures.

A very surprising list of serials, seemingly from 1942:

https://www.facebook.com/188578681175384/photos/a.549288841771031.92152535.188578681175384/1156989864334256/?type=3&theater

including a number of Mk.I's !?!... one of which is Z4326.

A six-page feature on 136 Sqn appeared in "Aviation News", the authors being no less than Andrew Thomas and Christopher Shores, and...

...'2' is given as Z5334

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In mid-March, 136 reformed at Akyab with 9 Mk.Is, supposedly "fit for training only", and one Mk.II BG853. In 136's initial combat on 23rd Z4650 was shot down. LIke other Z4xxx Hurricanes, this was not a particularly old machine, suggesting that the fitness applied to the Mk.I in general, rather than the individual airframes being worn out. The board shows only two Mk.IIs, both serials being familiar from earlier actions, so should postdate this. Following the first combat 17 Sq's B Flight handed over their eight Mk.IIs to 136. There was another raid on the 27th, where seven Hurricanes were destroyed on the ground, one Hurricane (unidentified) was shot down and V7758 returned. Despite the lack of V7758, I suggest that board may show the state of 136 Sq after this raid, possibly just before the evacuation of Akyab. Or, indeed, just after. In another raid on 5th April, unserviceable BM930 was destroyed on the ground.

Z5334 was a member of the first ferry.

Edited by Graham Boak
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