Wildcat VI, 853NAS, FAA 1945 - Code Colours

[Wez]

With the forthcoming Arma FM-2 Wildcat in mind, I started looking through the decal stash to see what I had to go with this kit. 

 

I came across Eurodecals ED72102 "Interesting FAA Martlets/Wildcats" which has three Wildcats from 853NAS on HMS Queen in 1945.  The squadron was a mixed squadron equipped with Avengers and Wildcats.  The Wildcats escorted  the Avengers on the last air raid on the European mainland on the 4th May 1945.

 

The decal sheet features three of these Wildcats - JV661 Q-Y "Yvonne", JV735 Q-W "Wanda" and serial unknown Q-U "Ursula".  The code letters provided on the sheet are yellow which is what I associate with a 2nd line FAA unit e.g. a 7xx Sqn, to my mind, these codes should be red.

 

Can anyone confirm what colour they should be?

[Seahawk]

You're right that yellow codes are normally associated with 2nd line squadrons for FAA aircraft but I think yellow for Queen's Wildcat VIs and Avengers at that stage in the war is well attested.  Quite where it's attested, I can't recall for the moment.  However there is a series of (BW!) photos in the FAA Museum collection taken by one of the Wildcat pilots: maybe he recorded that detail somewhere.  BTW, from comparison with those photos, the Eurodecals codes are a little on the small side, but still just about acceptable in my opinion.

[85sqn]

One photo of these aircraft is in the Squadrons and Units of the Fleet Air Arm recent edition. I would say that they appear to be white. 'X' 'U' and 'W' are visible. Unless there is some definite evidence that they were yellow, I would say they are white.

 

Best regards

 

Nick

[Wez]

Thanks for the responses guys, I was wondering whether the codes may be sky, is that another possibility?

 

[85sqn]

In my experience, not really. Later towards the end of the war there was an order for sky blue. Certainly the FAA used white and medium sea grey and the red with white outlines. They also used red codes- particularly in the Aegean and Mediterranean. However, never say never and I'm wondering if there are some more photos around that might reveal more?