Malta spitfires op bowery ( uss wasp )

[brewerjerry]

hi

From the link in the hellcat sparrow thread i found this, the spitfires being loaded and on board wasp

Cheers

Jerry

In raf standard camo being loaded onto wasp

http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=11380

http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=11382

http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/common/imagedisplay.php?irn=11381&reftable=ecatalogue&refirn=16044340

Nice shot in hangar lift

http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=11384

Great shot of spit on truck& trailer

http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/common/imagedisplay.php

Edited March 9, 2016 by brewerjerry

[Graham Boak]

Not Bowery but the earlier Calendar.

[brewerjerry]

Hi

the album might be captioned wrong maybe

but the spitfire serials show a/c delivered on the may flights which tie up with the bowery dates

http://collections.naval.aviation.museum/emuwebdoncoms/pages/doncoms/Display.php?irn=16044340&QueryPage=%2Femuwebdoncoms%2Fpages%2Fcollections%2FQuery.php

cheers

jerry

Edited March 9, 2016 by brewerjerry

[Graham Boak]

There are two very clear serials in this strip of pictures: BR226 and BP973. Both are Calendar aircraft. Examples of these photos have been used elsewhere to illustrate Calendar.

Which source are you using for serials/delivery links? I made a long and fairly painful attempt to sort the 1942 carrier deliveries over ten years back, and the result was published in Brian Cauchi's book. If you look in "Spitfire The History", you can trace the history of each aircraft from build through MUs to eventual listing as present on Malta. The examples that were delivered by the USS Wasp (and later by HMS Furious) lack the shipping information presented for the others that went to Malta via Gibraltar, so can be fairly readily extracted. The dates at which each aircraft goes through the MUs align with the two specific operations (and later the one with Furious). Supporting information for some is given by the loss dates, and from combat accounts in Shores' "Malta 1942: The Spitfire Year".

Photos of Bowery are much rarer, one of the hangar deck full of Spitfires, a pre-launch view of the deck, and a take-off (with Spitfires coded 3 and 4 - codes 1 and 2 were used on Calendar).

[Malta]

Not sure if this throws any light on which convoy, but BR226 was on Malta from before the 25/5/42.