Glory and the Firefly in Korea

[Bruce Archer]

Hi All!

    I built the Airfix Sea Fury using HMS Glory's markings. I then saw a Pathe video chronicling some ops from Glory over Korea, which the markings in the Sea Fury kit  (155 R) were seen. Also seen were several Firefly FR.5s being launched, and none of the aircraft had the Korean Theater ID Stripes.

 

    I therefore bought a Firefly 4/5 from Special Hobby to go along with my Sea Fury. Markings came several sources but none told me what color the spinner was.

 

    So my question is what color were the spinners on the Firefly FR.5s? Especially VT368, R 207 .

 

Thanks!

 

Bruce

 

Bruce

[Graham Boak]

VT368 207/R belonged to 821 Sq.  I've a photo showing a line-up of 821 Sq just before joining HMS Glory in 1952 and they have light spinners which I would say was Sky.  Earlier Firefly units on HMS Glory were 810 and 821 which both had dark spinners which would have been Extra Dark Sea Grey.

 

There is one possible qualifier - VT368 previously served off Korea with 825 Sq on HMS Ocean and didn't join HMS Glory until January 1953.  The first (only) photo I can find of an 821 Sq aircraft in Korea appears to show a dark spinner (very difficult to be sure because of the angle of the shot).  It has full striping - I suspect the film without striping was not taken in Korean waters.  This may be simply a case of looking for more photos, and making sure that they are for the right unit at the right time.

 

But I'm pretty sure you are safe in saying dark spinners = EDSG and light spinners = Sky.

[Bruce Archer]

22 hours ago, Graham Boak said:

VT368 207/R belonged to 821 Sq.  I've a photo showing a line-up of 821 Sq just before joining HMS Glory in 1952 and they have light spinners which I would say was Sky.  Earlier Firefly units on HMS Glory were 810 and 821 which both had dark spinners which would have been Extra Dark Sea Grey.

 

There is one possible qualifier - VT368 previously served off Korea with 825 Sq on HMS Ocean and didn't join HMS Glory until January 1953.  The first (only) photo I can find of an 821 Sq aircraft in Korea appears to show a dark spinner (very difficult to be sure because of the angle of the shot).  It has full striping - I suspect the film without striping was not taken in Korean waters.  This may be simply a case of looking for more photos, and making sure that they are for the right unit at the right time.

 

But I'm pretty sure you are safe in saying dark spinners = EDSG and light spinners = Sky.

Thanks Graham. I appreciate it.

 

Bruce

[Graham Boak]

There are a number of photos of HMS Glory's aircraft in the Warpaint for the Firefly, including a line-up of 11 of the squadron's aircraft..  They all have dark spinners.

[Ingo Degenhardt]

I hope you don't mind me using this thread - I am currently building the Airfix FB.11 and wondered why "155" is labeled 'Korean War' and has no recognition stripes.

I always thought all Furys in theatre had them. It is not a mistake by Airfix, is it?

 

[Graham Boak]

I think it is worth your while digging through the site for earlier postings, as I feel sure that this matter has been raised earlier.  If not this particular aircraft, then another similar one.  Sorry that I can't be more precise.

[Whofan]

2 hours ago, Ingo Degenhardt said:

I hope you don't mind me using this thread - I am currently building the Airfix FB.11 and wondered why "155" is labeled 'Korean War' and has no recognition stripes.

I always thought all Furys in theatre had them. It is not a mistake by Airfix, is it?

 

Looking at my father's ship's account of Ocean's two tours of duty in the Korean War, not all planes were painted with stripes. However it does look as though if painted on, the stripes were painted on in Korean waters. 

 

Doesn't mean of course that follows for Glory or Theseus during ops in Korea.

[Graham Boak]

From what I've seen, aircraft loaded at Hong Kong on the way out did not have stripes, whereas those loaded at Iwakuni in Japan did.  Assuming the photos I've seen were typical.