Chris Thomas

The exterior camouflage colour was wrapped round onto the interior - so mostly Dark Green but with an Ocean Grey segment; note that a thin strip of the exterior Dark Green ran under the intake lip (in the factory finish).

This might help. The Typhoon prototype never flew with the triple ejector exhaust. They were replaced by the design used on production Typhoons before the first flight.

Typhoon is JP504 OV-Z, Sqn Ldr Jacko Holmes’ aircraft, 197 Sqn Oct 1943. See Wingleader Photo Archive No 21. Probably black/white. The light stripes could be tape - they follow a line of rivets that could be prone to corrosion. Typhoons sometimes had markings like this to facilitate identification of leaders and forming up prior to takeoff.🛫

Just looked at my old spotter's notes and I logged WH453 in 'natural finish and dayglo' ie as per the colour photo above, with 60MU at RAF Leconfield on 30 July 1966, (World cup day IIRC). CT

Correct. The Y goes in the centre of the flat front of the the dust filter.

Just to clear up a possible misunderstanding - 168 Sqn, although a former FR unit, did not fly FR Typhoons; they were standard fighter Typhoons and the 'recces' they flew were 'armed recces' - basically looking for targets of opportunity. To complicate matters - 268 Sqn flew FR Typhoons, in the FR role, from August to October 1944. They the handed them over to 4 Sqn who flew them alongside their PR Spits. The Typhoons were not ideal for the FR role, in a number of ways. I wrote about them in 2ndTAF Vol 2 and they will be in the third Wingleader Typhoon Photo Archive (currently under preparation).

Aah … complicated. But here goes … The first bomber Typhoons entered service in September 1942 and initially there were dedicated bomber squadrons. When the first TAF wings were formed in spring 43 they had two bomber squadrons and a fighter squadron that flew escorts and other fighter ops. LRTs became available from Aug 43 and RP Oct 43. Generally speaking the 83 Group squadrons were first to go over to fighter bomber role. 198 and 609 were the prime exploiters of the fighter role in Jan/Feb 44; despite dabbling with RP. Other units continued to fly fighter ops alongside FB OPS, sometimes providing their own escort fighters. However, the last fighter only Typhoons were 168 Squadron, a FR unit that, due to the shortage of Alison Mustangs, converted to Typhoons and flew escorts and armed recces, no bombs or RP, attached to the RCAF Typhoon wing, Oct 44 to Feb 45. i should also have mentioned 56 Sqn which continued with fighter Typhoons until May 44 when its re-equipment with Tempests was delayed. They had begun receiving RP Typhoons but surrendered then to 137 Sqn in exchange for their non-RP aircraft.

No photos I'm afraid Mike - a ZQ-coded Tempest is my Holy Grail of Tempest photos. What records that have come to light so far are incomplete and imprecise. Brian Cull quotes EJ524 ZQ-Y as most widely flown by Berry but I do not know his source. The FlU detachment was absorbed bt 501 Sqn, including their aircraft and 501's ORB quotes (EJ)520 as Y but the Form 78 card shows no allocation to the FIU or 501 but EJ524's shows it with the FIU at the right time before being reported under repair on 12 August 44. Another possibility is EJ553 ZQ-L which was one of the 3 Tempests used from the start of the the FIU's Newchurch detachment; when Berry transferred to 501 he flew SD-L more than any other. Please let me know when you find the photo ...

In fact 15 of the surviving Series 1s (ie the majority) were refurbished by Hawker and (between Nov 44 and June 45) returned to service in 287 Squadron - an AACU, based at Redhil and later Hornchurch. They had an 'establishment which included 11 Tempests and when they were nearly up to that figure, 501 Sqn - the last frontline Tempest V unit in the UK - was disbanded. I suspect that in addition to their role of exercising AA units around London. they were also a reserve available should the Gerrmans revive their V-1 assault.

The last question is the easiest to answer ... AFAIK no Series 1 were retro-modded to Series 2. One Series 1 Tempest, JN730, was used for LR tank trials and therefore had what would be a Series 2 wing but photos show it retained other Series 1 characteristics, such as the longer-barrelled cannon and converted Typhoon rear fuselage monocoque. A number of the surviving Series 1's were refurbished by Hawker in late 1944 but retained the original wings; apparently uneconomic to convert to LR tank capable due the shallow depth of the wing (compared to the Typhoon). This is what I wrote in the Eduard Tempest V album on the origin of the 'silver' Tempests. On 3 July 1944, soon after the RAE had reported on the difficulties of achieving a good high speed finish on service aircraft, a Tempest V, devoid of any paint finish, even national markings, was flown from the Hawker factory at Langley to Gloucester, between 1,000 and 5,000 ft altitude, by a Hawker test-pilot, measuring speeds in level flight. The results appear to have been inconclusive and EJ592 was retained by Hawker for various other trials unrelated to its temporary ‘silver’ finish. The next step came from the unit that prepared ADGB fighters for service, 3501 Servicing Echelon at RAF Cranfield, which stripped the paint from a pair of Tempests for trials with the Fighter Interception Unit. However at the end of July the FIU detachment was absorbed into 501 Sqn which was trading its Spitfires for Tempests and which would specialise in anti-Diver operations, day and night and in all weathers. The unpainted Tempests were transferred to this unit and the only photo to come to light is the well-known squadron group photograph that shows black code letters ‘SD’ and part of an individual letter that could B, D, P or R. Profiles have been published illustrating this aircraft as EJ533/SD-R but records show that EJ533 was actually US-E of 56 Sqn and was badly damaged on 4 October 1944, spending the next 6 months under repair. Furthermore, there are photos Note that the silver Tempest in Mason's book was identified as SD-R EJ533. It would seem that the serial EJ538 for SD-R comes from the 501 Sqn ORB which records it in use from 5 August 44. The 'movement card shows that it had been with 3501 SE before that and could well be the 'R' in the photo. EJ558 was the next 'R' and arrived with 501 at the end of August. Unfortunately 501 stopped recording serials in September and just logged codes so we do not know when '558 took over from '538. So ... 1. EJ538 SD-R is my best guess for one of the silver jobs. 2. see above 3 My best guess for the other silver job with the FIU/501 is JN876 - the stripped Tempest V operated in 1946/7 by ACM Roderic Hill - it went through 3501 SE at the correct time and then there is a gap in its history which could be filled by FIU/501 use. It had a silver spinner in 1946 and that would be candidate for the appearance of the two stripped Tempests. Stripped of paint - why exclude the spinner? The serial JN876 does not appear in 501's ORB but there are four ex-FIU Tempests it used still with FIU codes - ZQ-L, U, Y, and Z, for which the serials are not recorded, so it could have been one of them. CT

Yes, black spinners and Sky bands were introduced early in January 1945 but, although spinners were officially Sky before that, there were a lot of variations to be seen. 121 Wing (of which 245 Sqn was part) shared its airfield in Normandy with the RAF Film Production Unit so there are plenty of refs on film. It is apparent that there were one or two black spinners at D-day but the rest of the wing adopted them in July. Quite possibly to make them less obvious to the German artillery spotters who were only 4 miles away. Strangely, 124 Wing, nearby, the other RP unit in France at the time stuck with its Sky spinners.

Yes it would. It even may have had the underwing stripes for a short time - it is first recorded with 245 Sqn on 19 August and the order to remove the underwing stripes was dated 25 August.

Just to bring a little clarity to this difficult topic - production Typhoons left the factory with two landing lights until early 1944, when the starboard light was deleted; this was the practice until the end of Typhoon production. Typhoons rebuilt with sliding hoods and RP fittings also had their port lights removed. RP began widespread use about this time and it was usual practice to cover the lights on both sides, but exceptions have been noted. Typhoons in bomber squadrons could also be seen with both lights covered. Clearer? Mmmm. In short, you need a photo to be certain, and it is amazing how few photos show both light positions!

MN666 arrived at 121 Wing on 20 May 1944 so would have had no stripes for about two weeks. It still had them until damaged by shellfire in Normandy in July and was returned to the UK. It was repaired at 3501 Servicing Echelon, Cranfield, and stripped of paintwork and polished (believed for trial purposes). It was then issued to the Fighter Leader School for use by instructors and was known as the Silver Bullet. MP197 was with 245 Sqn for a year from late August 1944. It would have had a black spinner and initially D-Day stripes under the rear fuselage only. In January 1945 stripes, including the Sky band were over-painted in camouflage colours, and ALL roundels were modified to C1 style, i.e. with narrow white inner ring and an outer narrow yellow ring. Shark mouth is believed to have been added shortly before the end of hostilities.

Hi Guys. The comments about my efforts are much appreciated. The current prices I can't do much about but I could 'pin' copies of several of my articles from MAM and Airfix Model World which might help. How do I go about that?