Supermarine Spitfire

The next most successful Spitfire was EN572 FY-H, flown by New Zealander [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (Biggin Hill Wing).

This Spitfire was a Mk. VC converted to a Mk IX by Rolls-Royce anmd was powered by a Merlin 61; it was delivered to 611 Squadron in April 1943.

When Checketts was posted to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in July 1943 he took EN572, which became OU-H. While flying EN572 Checketts shot down 13 enemy aircraft, with one probable and six damaged.

Checketts was shot down over France in this Spitfire on 6 September 1943, but escaped, returning to England seven weeks later.

D-day to VE Day

Normandy: June - August 1944

After the Normandy landings, some Spitfires (Griffon and Merlin engine marks) were retained in Britain to counter the V-1 flying bomb offensive in mid-1944 as part of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].


Supplies of a new aviation fuel, which was called "150 Grade", arrived from America in March 1944 and sufficient quantities were available to be used by ADGB fighters as the V-1 offensive started.

The new fuel enabled the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] engines to operate at higher boost pressures, especially at lower altitudes, for the duration of the anti-V-1 campaign.

The bulk of the Spitfire squadrons, which by D-Day were incorporated into the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], were progressively moved across the Channel, operating from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], close behind the front-lines.

From late August 1944, as the Allied ground forces over-ran German forces in France and moved forward into [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]
and parts of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], the Spitfire units of 2 TAF moved to new airfields in support.


By this time, as air supremacy had been achieved, and in line with 2 TAF's doctrine on the use of fighter-bombers most of the Merlin engined Mk IX and XVI units were used in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] role

This meant that these units concentrated on roaming over German territory, attacking ground targets of opportunity and providing tactical ground support to the army units.

In this role there were fewer opportunities to engage Luftwaffe fighters.

The Merlin's water and glycol cooling system, as with all liquid-cooled aero-engines, proved vulnerable to small arms fire, with one hit in the radiator or coolant pipes often being enough to drain the system, eventually causing the engine to seize or catch fire.

Although some pilots were able to gain enough altitude to glide back to a forward airfield, the low altitudes normally flown during ground attack missions meant that light (up to 30 mm) flak claimed most of the Spitfire IXs and XVIs lost while operating as fighter-bombers.

Just 21 of the 152 Spitfires that were destroyed or damaged from all causes from 1–30 June 1944 were shot down by German fighters.

A notable incident occurred on 17 July 1944, when a Spitfire of 602 Squadron attacked the staff car of Generalfeldmarschall [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], wounding him and removing him from command of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], who had flown Spitfires almost continually since 1941, flew Mk XVIs on fighter-bomber operations while commanding 'A' Flight of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] attacking [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] launching sites in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] :

In addition to our offensive patrols and interdiction sorties, we often carried out pre-planned dive bombing attacks on suspected rocket storage areas and launching sites. Sometimes such a target would appear, from the air, as no more than a ring of wheel tracks on some scrubby heathland; even a careful study of aerial reconnaissance photographs
often failed to reveal more.

The usual force to attack these small targets was four to six Spitfires, each with either one 500 and two 250 pound bombs or two 250 pounders and a long range tanks...

As we crossed into enemy territory we were liable to be engaged with predicted fire from heavy 88mm guns.

But in a Spitfire this was no great danger, provided one continually changed one's direction and altitude in a series of long climbing or diving turns... the V-2 targets were defended with light flak so when we reached the target area our approach tactics would vary...

Accurate bombing was dependant on accurate flying during the dive...the speed would build up quite rapidly, to a maximum of about 360 mph before the release.

When he judged the altitude to be about 3,000 ft each pilot let go of his bombs in a salvo, then did a 5G pull-up to bring the nose up to horizontal... the drill was to make a high-speed getaway using the ground for cover.

Air superiority fighter

In September 1944, with the end of the anti-"Diver" campaign, the Griffon-engined Mk XIV units [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Squadrons were transferred from the ADGB to 2 TAF and began operating from [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

At about the same time [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], which had been equipped with the Mk XIV, reverted back to Spitfire IXs. On the last day of September [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], also equipped with Mk XIVs, flew to airfield B.82, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Their arrival was timely as they, along with the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] units, were needed to counter the growing menace of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] nuisance raids.

In December the three Lympne based units flew to join the others on the Continent, eventually becoming part of 125 Wing. Further deliveries of the potent Mk XIV would be to fighter-reconnaissance units and, in February 1945,
610 Squadron was disbanded to help maintain the level of aircraft and pilots of these units.

Along with the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] squadrons, the Spitfire XIVs would provide the 2 TAF with modern fighters for air-superiority, with the Spitfire being the primary high-altitude fighter, while the Tempest fulfilled the low-to-medium altitude role.[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was equipped with F.R. Mk XIVs and, although its primary role was tactical reconnaissance, the unit also engaged in fighter sweeps resulting in successful encounters with Luftwaffe aircraft, including an attack on an Me
262.

December 1944 to May 1945

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], D.F.C., a veteran Spitfire pilot of Normandy, took leave off operations (tour expired) in July 1944 and did not return to 2 TAF, until January 1945 when he joined 122 Wing in Holland.

He did not become operational until 8 March 1945 when he was posted to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] flying Tempest Vs

He was to write of Spitfire operations over Europe at the time:

The Spitfires were powerless. There was only one Wing of three Spitfire XIV Squadrons and the rest were equipped with Spitfire IXs or Spit XVIs (Spit IXs with Rolls-Royce engines built by Packard in the U.S.A.). In any case all the Spit IX Squadrons operated most of the time as fighter-bombers. The Huns, knowing the Spits quality in dogfight, carefully avoided taking them on, and the poor Spits had neither the speed nor the range to force the new German fighters to fight.

Spitfires took part in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] campaign, and were tasked with providing [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] bombers with fighter escort.

Targets ranged from German occupied Dutch territory into the heart of Germany.

The Second Tactical Air Force notes identified flak, and specialist "flak trains" as the main threat during this period.

In response the Germans developed special flak wagons to protect valuable transport trains from air attack and "set traps" for unwary Allied fighter pilots.

The Trains would be heavily tampered with to seem vulnerable and tempting targets, which would then open up its "wagons" to reveal powerful concentrations of firepower which inflicted inevitable losses on the Spitfire units

Pilots still had to be aware that they were still in hostile skies, and care had to be taken not to be caught by surprise.

On 8 December the 2nd TAF performed a number of sweeps over the Dulmen-Munster area.

While attacking a train they were bounced by a dozen German fighters, Fw 190s and Bf 109s. Flt Lt Harry Walmsley described the Spitfire XIV's performance against the Bf 109 :

They definitely caught us by surprise. I think they had been on patrol, or had been scrambled, and when they saw the smoke from the train they knew where we were and attacked out of the cloud. The Spitfire XIV is definitely better than the Me 109, as I could do a better climbing turn even with my drop tanks still on!

Spit V Trop

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During this engagement Walmsley dispatched his third, of his future total of 12 kills.

On a number of missions Spitfires were attacked in error by USAAF P-51s. On such incident came about on 31 December 1944, when 610 Squadron RAF was attacked. Using the Spitfire's "stunning" climb performance, pilots were "easily" able to escape and evade the Mustangs.

In December 1944, RAF Fighter Command lost 53 Spitfires on the western front to all causes. Just eight fell to enemy aircraft.

On 1 January 1945 the Luftwaffe launched [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Spitfire units took part in the heavy air fighting that day, destroying at least 32 German fighters for the loss of 13 Spitfires.

Of these, seven were shot down in aerial combat, the remainder were straffed on the ground.

Spitfire Spotters


During D-Day Spitfires were operated as Spotters by VCS-7 in support of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] cruisers and battleships bombarding land targets.

In this role the Spitfires would locate targets and guide the fire of the ships on to that target.

US spotting units normally used floatplanes, either [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] or [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], but because of their vulnerability against fighters, it was decided that 17 Cruiser Spotter (VCS) and Battleship Observation (VO) pilots aboard the heavy cruisers [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien],
[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien],
and the battleships [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] would be trained to fly RAF Spitfire Mk Vbs and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

This unit, along with two RAF squadrons, [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], also flying Spitfire Vbs and four [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] squadrons [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] , [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien],
[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] flying [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], provided valuable target coordinates and fire control during 20 days of operations.

On D-Day "pooling" of the spotting units' aircraft meant that all units flew either Spitfires or Seafires.

Seafire I

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Seafire double hélice

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Normally two aircraft were used; the lead aircraft functioned as the spotter while covered by a wingman, who kept a lookout for intruders..

The standard altitude flown was 6,000 feet, although poor weather often meant that missions were flown at between 1,500 to 2,000 ft or lower in some cases.

Drop tanks were carried and a sortie could last up to 2 hours.

Encounters against Luftwaffe fighters were rare, with four VCS-7 pilots able to evade attacks by Bf 109s and Fw 190s.

Flak accounted for the only operational loss.

After the bombardment of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] on 26 June Naval gunfire support missions were stopped because the battle had moved inland, out of the range of the battleships and cruisers. VCS-7 was disbanded.

During 20 days of combat operations, the aviators of VCS-7 were awarded nine [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], six [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and five [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in lieu of additional Air Medals. Ten VCS-7 aviators went on
to participate in the invasion of southern France and three others took part in the invasions of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in the Pacific during 1945.