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D-Day naval artillery spotting


leyreynolds

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The unit was called the “Air Spotting Pool” and incorporated 3rd Naval Fighter Wing composed of 808, 885, 886 and 897 squadrons of the FAA plus a USN squadron. Aircraft types were

 

808 Seafire L.III and Spitfire L.Vb

885 Seafire L.IIc and F/L.III

886 Seafire L.III

897 Spitfire L.Vb

 

There was also a US squadron that converted to Spitfire L.Vb for the Normandy landings. VOS-7. If memory serves there was some discussion on here about it recently.

 

Spitfires were in normal Daylight Fighter Scheme and Seafires in normal Temperate Sea Scheme plus of course full D-Day stripes.

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Hello leyreynolds

There is an account by (then) Lieutenant Dick Law, 886 Sqn, about spotting for HMS Warspite on 6th of June and for USS Nevada a day later, published in Alfred Price's book Spitfire - a complete fighting history (PRC). After completing their work on the 7th, Law and his wing man decided to straf a German artillery emplacement, which turned out to be a 3,7-cm flak battery, and for Law mission ended with a belly landing on no man's land. I will try to dig out more as I think I remember seeing photos or at least colour profiles of aircraft from these units somewhere. Cheers

Jure

P.S.: There seems to be no shortage of photos of spotter Spitfires V when flown by US Navy VCS-7 pilots (here, here, here, here and here). However, while code letters are visible, serials are not. The only photo that also shows aft fuselage and tail (here) is too blurred to determine if serial is even there.

 

Edited by Jure Miljevic
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Air Spotting Pool also included No.26 and No.63 Squadrons RAF equipped with Spitfire V - they 'pooled their aircraft for the immediate D-Day period so that they could generate the maximum number of sorties from the available aircraft and pilots.  They continued naval gunfire direction duties for some period after D-Day and were later used in part in directing naval gunfire onto holdout positions along the French and Belgian coasts into 1945.  On the morning of 6 June, these were supplemented by Mustang Mk.I, Mk.IA and Mk.II aircraft from No.II(AC) Squadron RAF, No.414(RCAF) Squadron and No.268 Squadron RAF, which all operated deployed forward to Lee-on-Solent.  No.II(AC) Squadron was in the process of working up on its new Mustang Mk.II aircraft at the time so did not have the required number of serviceable and available aircraft on the day, so borrowed Mustang Mk.IA aircraft for the day from No.268 Squadron to help make up their numbers.  The three RAF Mustang Tac/R Squadrons flew dedicated naval gunfire direction sorties from early morning until mid afternoon, then being released back to conduct their usual Tac/R sorties in the area around the bridgehead.  There were instances in the afternoon of D-Day and following days that ad-hoc requests were made for naval gunfire direction of the pilots of Tac/R Mustangs operating in the bridgehead area. 

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One of the few books I have to hand while locked down away from base is "Aircraft for the Many - a detailed survey of the RAFs aircraft in June 1944" by MJF Bowyer. It gives plenty of details for the RAF units involved but only a brief mention of the naval ones and nothing for the US, Although serials and sorties are listed for the RAF units there are no code/serial tie ups.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Just found - while looking for something else - a 2 page article in Model Aircraft Monthly Feb 2007 called "Spotting for Uncle Sam" covering USN Spitfires at D-Day. PM me if you would like a scan.

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