Sydhuey

From what I have found , 84 to 108 " seem to be the range with 102 - 108 being the most common reference.

There is also a website "Caribbean aircrew in the RAF during WW2", lots of info there. If you want a really interesting subject , Britain's first Black pilot , Robbie Clarke of Jamaica , flew RE8's with 4 Sqn over France .

Two books have a lot of info, "The Motherland Calls" and "Caribbean Volunteers at War" have a lot of detail, one Jamaican who should be more famous than he is is Arthur Wint, from Jamaica, flew Spitfires over Germany late 44 /45, became a Doctor after the war and won Gold in the 400 m at the 48 and 52 Olympics and silver in 800 at 48 and 52, the original Usain Bolt,went on to be the Jamaican High commissioner to the UK and ambassador to Sweden and Denmark, also became a renown surgeon. Another Jamaican Vincent Bunting flew Spitfires with Sailor Malon.

There are a couple of books on Blacks in the RAF and there is a Trinidadian pilot who scores victories flying Mustang III's , will see what i can find.

ADF blister and long tropical filter intakes are the main things.

There seems to be a few P-40 models with wrong info/scheme's/dates /locations, this one with date and location, GA-Jinx a long tail K has been portrayed as a short tail with fillet in decals, artwork and a model, Kitty IV's FX740 and FX-760 GA-? as a reversed Desert scheme , RAF museum , models both plastic and diecst ,and decal sheets. Just reinforces the action of research the model don't believe the box art/instructions.

Oct 43 , just after the invasion ,112 Sqn arrived in Italy mid Sept , a short tail "K" I'd say still in Desert Scheme, look at the video on youtube of 239 wing in Italy that is at Cutella (Jan to May 44) , that has short tail K's in Desert and TLS, long tail K's in both , L's in TLS , M's in TLS and N's in TLS (OD/DE), there is a short tail K with 112 getting refueled in the video still in Desert scheme. 112 still had short tail K's on strength up till April 44 , they had started to get M's in TLS about about Jul 43 the N's arrived in March 44 and they converted to Mustang III's in Jun 44. Though when you look up the history of FR295 GA-G it was shot down over North Africa in Mar 43 ??? "(FR295,GAG) 42-45885 to RAF as Kittyhawk III FR295 Jul 1942. Missing Mar 10, 1943, presumably shot down by Bf 109s NW of Foum Tatouine" I can not find the Sqn code GA-G being used again by 112 after this aircraft was lost.

Peter I think you meant Dark Earth and Dark Green for the original colour of A19-27 not Dark Brown. I didn't realise this was a 5 OTU machine before 30 Sqn so getting repaired in Australia may well have Australian colours applied, I don't believe the Australian colours Foliage Green, Earth Brown or Sky Blue were used on machines in NG (Beaufighters and Boston's) except for small patches/repairs and they stuck with Dark Green, Dark Earth and Sky with the MU in Port Moresby, you get oddities like 27 and 87 which may have been to AD's (in Australia) for 240 hrly's and repaints but I think they generally stayed in the basic TSS and TLS schemes. The DB-7B Boston's stayed in the DG/DE scheme till mid 44 when those left went to the allover Foliage Green scheme . But as we know the Beaufighters are a mixing pot of colours . The pics of "H" on 30 Sqn site are probably a mix of 8 and 27, something I hadn't picked up before

I think it is just in the std TLS scheme and just had a repaint and the painter did a wavy line like on the Bostons , though anything is possible with Beaufighters, but as Beaufighters and Boston's were maintained by the same MU in Port Moresby , I believe they just stayed in the std Dark Green/Dark Earth over Sky , I always though DK (Franta) was wrong with the TSS schemes below A19-54, he corrected that on his latter sheets, New Guinea aircraft were usually in the DG/DE colour scheme, it was 31 Sqn in Dwn with the strange maritime schemes, the 30 Sqn machine with the strange scheme is A19-87 "R" , this one was delivered in TSS scheme and got repainted , I think the Slate Grey (which fades very fast in the tropics) was overpainted with Dark Green with the original Extra Dark Sea Grey, which would have faded hence the high contrast colour.

Magpie 22 (Peter M) is the man to talk to about that.

112 Sqn , I believe a P-40K long tail Kittyhawk III I can't make out the aux intake grill fwd of the exhaust which would make it an "M" so a late "K" model with US 500Ib bomb, using the std pattern as a reference the shading over the nose thru the eye is darker and the demarcation line just under the teeth goes from a lighter shade to a darker shade, this would indicate a TLS scheme with the darker shade most likely being Dark Green and the lighter shaded colour being Dark Earth, if it was in desert scheme the shading would have been reversed. lower colour Sky Grey. If you want to watch a good 239 wing Kittyhawk clip watch, "RAF No 239 Wing Kittyhawk Cutella Italy DAF", 450 Sqn (OK) Kitty IV's on OD/DE over NG, 112 Sqn (GA) Kitty III (long tail K) in desert scheme, and TLS, 260 Sqn (HS)Kitty III (Short tail K) in desert scheme and long tails in TLS , 112 Sqn Kitty III (M) in TLS and 3 Sqn (CV) Kitty III (M) in TLS

Wow thanks Buz those pics are pretty definitive, Dark Earth over the original OD with Medium Green scollops.

No there is only a single pattern , there is the occasional oddball but as a rule a single pattern , the fixation with Desert schemes on Kittyhawks causes photo's to be misinterpreted in favour of the Desert Scheme, Dark Earth is in the same place for both Desert and TLS, in B&W photo's the Dark Earth is the dark colour and Middle Stone the light colour on Desert schemes and on TLS schemes the Dark Green/Olive Drab is the Dark Colour and Dark Earth the light colour. The ultimate misinterpretation and mistake on an aircraft is the Kittyhawk IV at the RAF museum , it is in the wrong scheme and reversed, it should be in a TLS scheme, Olive Drab where the Dark Earth is and Dark Earth where the Middle Stone is, fixation with Desert scheme caused photo's of this aircraft to be misinterpreted and the wrong reversed scheme was applied.

UH-1J is the upgraded version of the UH-1H , with nose, tail boom , tail rotor and main rotor blades from the 212 (UH-1N). Graft the nose from a UH-1N onto a UH-1H fuselage , and fit MR Blades from the UH-1N , and whole tail boom and T/R from the UH-1N and you will have a UH-1J , also called the Huey II or Huey + under skin differences are the T-53-17 (From AH-1S)replacing the -13 engine , Glass cockpit and other small things.

Dave , I think RAF P-40N's have like all RAF P-40's had the fixation on desert scheme , a few like Buz and Steve have tried to debunk the myth for awhile now with research on correct schemes with late model Kittyhawks over Italy, the TLS scheme applied to Kittyhawks over Italy was not a definitive set of colours but basically Green/Brown over a lighter Sky colour. new aircraft delivered in OD over NG had a Dark Earth pattern applied over the OD , latter many that went to MU's for OH had the NG replaced with British colours Medium Sea Grey and the OD with Dark Green, a bit of a can of worms but the main thing is Kitty IV's were not in Desert scheme over Italy.

Just one small thing , this is a Boston IV/V (A-20J/K) it ran 5 x .50's not .303's, martin turret with .50's. MPM (Special hobbies) have improved the model since first release, couple of small things but the most noticeable is the turret ring , it used to be solid now it is alot more realistic with the center cut out. Just a pity it doesn't have a machine from 88 Sqn on the decal sheets.

I found a PDF file on the history of 120 Sqn with Google, there is a photo in the text of 4 x P-40Ns (Q,H,Y &E) with center line tanks and 2 x 500 Ib bombs under each wing , you can make out the medium green scalloping on the wings of these aircraft

Yep, DB-7A Boston II

The top photo of AH435 is actually a Boston II with the stepped nose , it has the bigger wright cyclones and the big tail. So in the above line drawings if you take the nose off the Boston I at the top and put it on the Boston III at the bottom you will have the Boston II , not very common only 100 build and most converted to other thing's like 12 gun nose Havoc and Turbinelite

The area behind the cockpit is the dinghy storage , the area under the aft access panel is were the radios and nav aids were mounted , not fitted in this photo, a radio face plate the WAG could operate is just visible under the rear canopy were it is slid fwd, when canopy is closed had easy access, when canopy is open like this he put his hands under the canopy to play with knobs and dials and looked thru the perspex at it, though the main radio controls were on the R/H side of the gunners position just behind were the person in the back is .

ADF serials web page and the Quarterly newsletters by Gordon Birkett, he is THE Kittyhawk Man for RAAF P-40's. http://www.adf-serials.com.au/home.htm

That last colour profile , once again shows the fixation with desert colours on Italian based aircraft despite having changed to TLS scheme of Dark Green/Dark Earth, also thru 1944 Baltimores and Bostons got pushed to the night interdiction roles as Kittyhawk IV could carry the same bomb load and didn't need to be escorted.

Yes they are field fitted scoops to try and help evacuate the cheek gun bays, the A-20G's had a bad fume problem with the cheek guns when they were fired fumes leaked up into the cockpit so most pilots only fired the four nose guns which vented well and only used the cheek guns if they had to, the A-20G had gun switches on the armaments panel nose guns on/off and cheek guns on/off so they could fire 2, 4 or all 6 guns. This setup is one of many tried in the field the reverse scoop was attached to the cheek gun access panel to try and help evacuate the bay other set ups had a small scoop at the front of the panel into the airflow with a larger reversed scoop on the rear of the panel , an official mod came out to solve the problem , the cheek guns vented out the bottom of the nose under the success panel, a long pipe looking tube/duct was attached under the nose , this forced ram air down the tube past a small reversed duct causing a strong venturi to suck the fumes out of the cheek gun bays. there is a photo of the fitment on the RAAF A-20G thread of "Hilda Shane" with ground crew beside the aircraft, all RAAF A-20G's were fitted with this setup.

Chuck , Kitty's with Commonwealth Sqn's in Europe/NA are referred to by their Mk number, Kitty's serving with the RAAF in Australia/Pacific are referred to by their US letter, so A29-189 is actually a Kittyhawk P-40K-10.

Great video thanks Jerry, all 88 and 342 Sqn Boston IIIA's (A-20C's) almost all in OD over NG pre June 1944 not 1945 as the text says , both units had converted to Boston IVs (A-20J's) between mid June and end of 1944. , some had the very late multi pot exhaust engine cowls as fitted to Late A-20G's/A-20J's, as these aircraft were pooled in the MU that supported 88 and 342 lots of overpaints on them, note the overpaints of the 88 Sqn codes (RH) and overpainting of the French markings (OA and cross of Lorraine on nose) when they moved between the two units, also noticed the uniforms , Dark Uniforms are French or RAAF (depending on the rank on them) and the RAF guys in the lighter uniforms. The armoured windscreen were fitted to the Boston IIIAs , the earlier Boston III's (DB-7B's) had a std screen with a hinged armoured glass on the inside, also the black patch in the centre of the nose is for a ball mount for a .303 browning in the nose. I saw one 342 Sqn Boston IIIA (BZ235) in the older DG/DE over Sky at about 9:24 , these machines were repainted back to OD/NG when they went for Overhaul.