4 Group Halifax coloured tail markings

[Vicarage Vee]

Various articles have been published about the coloured tails worn by 4 Group's Halifaxes dating back to an Air Pictorial article in 1955 and including various others in Aircraft Illustrated, Air Enthusiast (reprinted in Flypast) and books by Chris Blanchett & Ken Merrick.  It is generally stated that the markings were applied for tactical operations in support of the invasion of France.  My question is, does anyone know of any pictures of aircraft sporting coloured fin and/or rudder (not tailplanes) positively dated before August/September 1944?

Edited February 21, 2017 by Vicarage Vee
Clarify late night typo.

[Graham Boak]

I thought that they were applied for the daylight raids into Germany in late 1944/early 1945, but am willing to be educated if that isn't so.

 

To my understanding, they were applied to the fins and rudders but not the tailplanes, which in normal British usage means the horizontal parts as compared to the mainplanes or wings.  If you want to avoid confusion you could refer to the fin and rudder as the vertical tailplanes, but I think that a bit forced.  I may have used it myself sometimes...

Edited February 20, 2017 by Graham Boak

[Vicarage Vee]

Thank you Graham, that is exactly the point that I am trying to establish.  In addition to the articles mentioned above there have been several threads on various fora which have also stated that they were first applied in the Spring and that there was a '4 Group order' issued that states this.  The trouble is, no one ever actually seems to have seen this order or has a reference for it.  I have looked in Group and several squadron papers at Kew and haven't found any surviving order.  There is much discussion about methods of forming the squadrons and base units up for daylight raids, even mention of Pathfinder aircraft leading formations with white-painted fins and rudders, but nothing on the 4 Group tails per se.  In addition, I can find plenty of photographs of Halifaxes in summer '44 that have 'normal' black tails and not a single one that can be positively dated to that time with coloured tails.  There are plenty from late '44 and '45, when photographs also seem more common.  The only reference that I have seen that suggests a later introduction is in Michael Bowyer's Bombing Colours which is based on contemporaneous notes.  The earlier references all seem to lead back to observations made after the war's end at the Halifax scrapping centres.

So without any official documentary proof of the time of their introduction, I was wondering if anyone had any photographic evidence to show that they were indeed introduced before August/September '44.

 

[Graham Boak]

I've had a quick look at some French sources, assuming them to be at least possibly independent, and there is artwork for as early as 6th August 1944, but unfortunately no photographs to back up any of the three examples given for August/September.  I'm left with the suspicion that an assumption has been made - something to bear in mind when I do a model.  Though I was intending to do a 1945 one anyway.  Looking in Merrick's last work, he places the introduction in his text for July's daylight raids, and lists the only squadrons known to have carried them.  He couldn't find any official instruction either, although argues that there had to be one to avoid duplication - something for Paul Lucas to ferret out, perhaps?

[Vicarage Vee]

Thanks again for your valued input Graham.  I tend to agree with what is written in that section in Merrick's book.  With respect to 158 Squadron though, I am pretty certain that the two forms of marking were the all yellow fin as the initial marking, which was then replaced by stripes around November/December.  All of the photos of the solid yellow tails that I have seen are, perhaps coincidentally, A flight.  But there are many A flight photos from January '45 and after which show stripes (and no 1945 ones with the solid colour).

As to the instruction to apply the markings, my suspicion is that it was in a 4 Group 'letter' and these don't seem to have been retained for posterity.

[Graham Boak]

A 4 Group letter would be consistent with their apparent lack on any of the RCAF units.  There are times when negative input is valuable.  Have you looked at Merrick's list and compared the squadrons mentioned with a full list of those in 4 Group, or tried to link colours/shapes to specific bases?

[Vicarage Vee]

Certainly there is correlation in the colours by Base, which suggests coordination at Group level:  42 Base wore red markings (with Gallic slant as necessary!), 43 Base yellow and 44 Base white. Geometrically, it looks like a bit of space for creative interpretation, with no real pattern emerging.

 

I haven't seen any photographs of markings for 10, 51, 76, 77 or 578 Squadrons, although Merrick has 51 Squadron as having used two variants of markings and one of those variants is described in Chris Blanchett's book on 4 Group.  Merrick also makes no mention of 10 and 76 Squadrons which have recorded tail markings illustrated as being in white in the Air Enthusiast article.  So the consensus between those two sources is that 77 & 578 didn't have them.

 

As an aside, I can't see which Base Burn was attached to, 43 Base?  If it were 44 Base then that would appear to leave one squadron from each Base potentially without markings.  Or maybe they just haven't been recorded?

Edited February 23, 2017 by Vicarage Vee

[Potato Pete]

Burn was 42 Base from Nov 1944 apparently

 

Pete

[Vicarage Vee]

Ah, thank you Pete.

[Michael51]

On 2/21/2017 at 9:13 AM, Vicarage Vee said:

Various articles have been published about the coloured tails worn by 4 Group's Halifaxes dating back to an Air Pictorial article in 1955 and including various others in Aircraft Illustrated, Air Enthusiast (reprinted in Flypast) and books by Chris Blanchett & Ken Merrick.  It is generally stated that the markings were applied for tactical operations in support of the invasion of France.  My question is, does anyone know of any pictures of aircraft sporting coloured fin and/or rudder (not tailplanes) positively dated before August/September 1944?

 

Perhaps the tactical operations rationale could be supplemented or even supplanted by the growing number of daylight raids, both tactical and strategic, that coincided with the emergence of the 4 Group 'daylight' markings.

 

I think this is inferred in Graham's initial response.

 

The emergence of 4 Group fin markings, in my limited view of things, was a product of the growing number of daylight raids.

 

462 (Australian) Squadron could serve as an interesting counter example to the idea of purely rational reasons for these markings.
 

The aircrew seemed to have liked them. 462 Squadron was re-formed in August 1944, well into the commencement of the 'tactical' stage. In December it was moved to 100 Group for RCM duties, but continued to keep its 4 Group fin markings.

 

As much as one might seek a causal, rational relationship between markings and an administrative order of some kind, there remains the possibility that it did not happen this way.

 

Michael