Typhoon 137 Sq, colour photo, yellow codes, post war

[Troy Smith]

this has been posted on Etienne Du PLessis Flickr stream, it's a new one for me, not seen it discussed here.

I'm hoping Chris Thomas will be along to enlighten us on this soon.

were the rocket rails originaly this bright (unpainted?) , or is this parade paint?

orig post

https://www.flickr.com/photos/8270787@N07/27740593532/in/photolist-4RgZYK-pzqaT3-7S8FH7-7UjmtX-ah28uE-qToj42-bndkVG-7Gn7iu-e3ufY6-5FiHtM-9hM4eM-svW6cu-dqbkuh-JgkMZo-hWCHh8

and comments

Not sure, but this looks like a still from a cini flim that could have been taken after the war.

The use of yellow codes for non bomber aircraft is most unusual.......any thoughts?

Photo from Lynn Ritger's C R A P collection.

one comment

chek_16 2mo

Never seen that before - maybe SF-A is Sqn Ldr's aircraft and its post war. The Typhoon behind it has regular sky codes.

cheers

T

[Etiennedup]

Hiya Troy..........I have since found out that this image was taken at Kastrup airport, Denmark circa 1945(after war’s end)

As far as I can gather 137 Sqn. took part in a post war air show there.

This photo and two more originates from the Danish National Museum.

Apart from these there are a few other colour shots taken on the same occasion, plus some great Luftwaffe photos ..........quite a find!

Because of the lingo it takes a bit of scratching around to see everything.............. :-)

http://samlinger.natmus.dk/FHM/21142

Edited August 9, 2016 by Etiennedup

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Hi chaps - the RP launcher rails are MkIII lightweight ones - and going from memory they were unpainted metal ( I think the sun is just glinting off them in the pic rather than polished)

the link also has this pic http://samlinger.natmus.dk/FHM/17724

This shows SF-V ( SW426?) with what looks like very low contrast codes ( compare to SF-X in the background) so are these yellow too? If so - was this an experiment in colouring codes for different flights perhaps?

Here's some more background info too.

http://www.robertpeel.eu/kastrup.htm

Jonners - pleasantly intrigued

[Dave Fleming]

the link also has this pic http://samlinger.natmus.dk/FHM/17724

This shows SF-V ( SW426?) with what looks like very low contrast codes ( compare to SF-X in the background) so are these yellow too? If so - was this an experiment in colouring codes for different flights perhaps?

It does match the tone of the roundel yellow

Interesting he111G-3

http://samlinger.natmus.dk/FHM/15374

Edited August 9, 2016 by Dave Fleming

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

It does match the tone of the roundel yellow

This is the pic i was referring to

Jonners

[gingerbob]

Also in the original pic, the third aircraft might have yellow codes- you can see a hint of brightness.

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Also in the original pic, the third aircraft might have yellow codes- you can see a hint of brightness.

Yep, I' d agree Bob. heres a close up cropped from the downloaded original .TIFF file, and colour balanced

Jonners

[Chris Thomas]

Ooooh ... some Typhoon excitement!

I first saw these photos a few years ago, but they were of lesser quality and the yellow codes were not so intense. Reluctantly I put them down to a film/light aberration.

However, these new, better, images (no doubt tweaked?) seem unambiguous as yellow codes can be seen either side of a Sky-coded example. Further more, the photo of SF-K, seems to show white codes and the third photo seems to have SF-W and SF-Z with Sky codes.

The photos were taken on 1 July 1945 at Kastrup, at the display laid on for the Danish population. An amusing account of its organisation and execution can be found at the end of Johnnie Johnson's 'Wing Leader'. No clues there.

So I turned to 137 Sqn's ORB. Just Forms 540 by this stage i.e. narrative (peacetime so no 541 with serials and or codes). Pretty sparse narrative, no mention of colour schemes or repainting (which can be found in some other units records). But it does mention the display and the pilots who led each 'section' (i.e. 4 aircraft)

It names the three sections as Yellow, White and Blue. This seem more than coincidence to me! Could it be that the codes were painted to match the section colours to help the spectators follow what was going on? I think so.

It is frustrating that MI6 operatives carefully positioned themselves in front of the serial numbers. What I do know is that SF-A was not the the CO's aircraft. Sqn Leader 'Slug' Murray's aircraft was SF-M. ('Slug' was not any reflection on his personal habits but a shortening of 'Slugger' as he'd been a top Army boxer).

Thanks to the ORB we know Yellow section was led by Flt Lt Denis Luke, very probably SF-A was his mount. A check in the ORB for the last days of the war shows that he was flying SW403 - so that would be my guess (little more than that) for A's identity, for the moment at least. I did meet Denis on a number of occasions but his logbook was on display in the foyer of a Joint Intelligence establishment (in Kent?). Anyone know where it is now?

Mk.III RP rails were natural 'aluminium'.

Chris

[Etiennedup]

Hi there Chris.

 

Better late than never..........

Troy alerted me to your post (regarding the obscured serials)......... so I went back to that Danish site and found this enclosed photo of  SF-V

with serial SW 426...........hope it helps.