Bristol Beaufighter torpedoes

[GiampieroSilvestri]

What colour are the torpedoes of Bristol Beaufighters?

 

Thank you very much

 

Ciao

 

Giampiero

[Selwyn]

live or practice?

 

Live warheads were light buff,  practice warheads  for drop training  red or yellow to aid locating the torpedo for recovery.  otherwise black for captive carry .

The torpedo body was unpainted  steel.

 

Selwyn

[dogsbody]

Some photos:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Duggy]

 

Edited November 1 by Duggy

[Troy Smith]

15 hours ago, GiampieroSilvestri said:

What colour are the torpedoes

 

14 hours ago, Selwyn said:

Live warheads were light buff,  practice warheads  for drop training  red or yellow to aid locating the torpedo for recovery.  otherwise black for captive carry .

The torpedo body was unpainted  steel.

 

Firebrand, with a orange practice warhead.

Blackburn Firebrand TF5      1945. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

again, practice,  note nose loop for recovery.

Avenger receiving a torpedo. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Bodies look black but this maybe due to being oiled.

 

HTH

[EwenS]

26 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

 

 

Firebrand, with a orange practice warhead.

Blackburn Firebrand TF5      1945. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

again, practice,  note nose loop for recovery.

Avenger receiving a torpedo. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Bodies look black but this maybe due to being oiled.

 

HTH

The second photo is odd and the scene seems staged to me, or it is being wheeled off to load on (probably) a Barracuda, given the time period.

 

The torpedo has the characteristics of a British wartime Mk.XII or XV, but the aircraft in the background is a Avenger. The bomb bay of the Avenger was too short to carry British torpedoes. The US Mk.13 torpedo was shorter and fatter than British torpedoes and had its propellers behind its stabilising fins.

 

Edit - Some Mk.13 were supplied to the RN was AFAIK were never used.

Edited November 1 by EwenS

[Phoenix44]

40 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

 

 

Firebrand, with a orange practice warhead.

Blackburn Firebrand TF5      1945. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

again, practice,  note nose loop for recovery.

Avenger receiving a torpedo. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Bodies look black but this maybe due to being oiled.

 

HTH

Orange?

45 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

 

 

Firebrand, with a orange practice warhead.

Blackburn Firebrand TF5      1945. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

again, practice,  note nose loop for recovery.

Avenger receiving a torpedo. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Bodies look black but this maybe due to being oiled.

 

HTH

OT, but what colour is the lower wing of that Avenger supposed to be?

[Graham Boak]

Yellow in my book.  The colour was rich on the red side but not as far as orange.

 

The Mk.13s were allocated to the BPF Avengers in case the Japanese came out to.play and the FAA were allowed anywhere near them.  The only possibility was the attack on the Kaiyo (or whichever small carrier it was) but they weren't used.

[85sqn]

On 11/1/2024 at 11:51 AM, Phoenix44 said:

Orange?

OT, but what colour is the lower wing of that Avenger supposed to be?

Your looking at the upper wings but for the lowers it depends on whether or not it's Grumman built or Eastern. Grumman should be MAP equivalent sky, Eastern should be ANA equivalent. Something weirds going on with the colours though, the green on the highlights looks odd.

[RJP]

Without knowing for certain, it sure looks colorized to me. I pulled it into a photo application and it looks so much better in black and white.

 

I recall an unnatural colorised photo of Frank Sinatra with brown eyes.  Old Blue Eyes should have been spinning in his grave.

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, RJP said:

Without knowing for certain, it sure looks colorized to me.

The colour shots are from @Etiennedup flickr of period colour.  Etienne has been collating British and commonwealth images for many years, and is careful to use genuine colour. He is interested in photography, and is also a modeller and the images do get processed and sharpened I think from previous posts. 

But this is why I use his collection, because it has been checked, and he does check.

I know colourisation is getting better, and new period colour discoveries are rare, mostly from American sources, which have a known provenance  so many period images are known anyway.  You do often find with official photography there are a couple of colour colour and multiple black and white of the same session and photographer, Charles Brown's work is a good example. 

HTH