Supermarine Spitfire

Politics also played a part; the supreme commander of the South-West Pacific theatre [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] did not want Australians or any other non-Americans to share in his triumphant return to the Philippines.

As a result of this, RAAF Spitfire Vs and VIIIs were increasingly used in the fighter-bomber role in mopping-up operations against the large pockets of Japanese forces still remaining in New Guinea, and some Australian based units did not get to see any combat at all.

The Australian pilots regarded the situation as intolerable and saw this as a waste of effort and lives, especially as many of them were experienced and battle-hardened.

By the end of the Pacific war [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] was based on the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Island in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Group assisting Australian ground troops in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

It was here that the so-called [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] took place.

In the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], the first Spitfire Vcs reached three squadrons on the India-Burma front in November 1943.

Spitfire pilots met Japanese for the first time on [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], 1943.

A pair of Spitfires piloted by Flying Officer Geoffrey William Andrews and Flight Sergeant Harry B. Chatfield attacked a formation of Japanese planes over [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Andrews destroyed a fighter and a bomber, damaging a second, while Chatfield shot down another two. On the last day of 1943, Royal Australian Air Force Spitfires destroyed eleven Japanese bombers and three fighters.

Churchill complimented the Australian Squadron for their "brilliant exploit".

These aircraft were replaced by the first Mk VIIIs, beginning in February 1944. In late February, they played a major part in thwarting the Japanese [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] offensive, an attack intended to isolate and destroy [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] divisions in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] province of Burma.

The Allies intended that transport aircraft (particularly the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) would drop supplies to cut-off formations, but in the early stages of the Japanese attack, large numbers of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (IJAAF) fighter aircraft flying from the airfield on [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] forced the first aerial resupply missions to turn back.

Three squadrons of Spitfires operating from new airfields around Chittagong gained air superiority over the battlefield after days of battling with [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Sixty-five Japanese aircraft were claimed shot down or damaged for the loss of three Spitfires.

The Allies were able to parachute supplies to the isolated forward units and the Japanese offensive was defeated with heavy losses.

Spitfires ensured that the Allies gained and held air superiority during the battles of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] from early to mid 1944, in which the Japanese attempt to destroy the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] and invade India was also defeated.

By 1945, when the Allies launched offensives into Burma, the Japanese were unable to challenge the Allies' air supremacy.

Postwar service


Following the Second World War, the Spitfire remained in use with many air forces around the world.

The main foreign air force to use Spitfire was France's Armée de l'Air that ordered more than 500 Supermarine fighters, Mark V, VIII, IX, and XVI variants.

Other main users were Dutch Air Force, that received 76 Mark IX, Turkey, with 273, Greek, with 242.

The Belgian Air Force received 134 Mark XIV plus 69 Mark IX and and XVI. The Indian Air force received 159 Spitfires and the Aeronautica Italiana, 140 Mk IXs.

The Southern Rhodesian Air Force received 22 Spitfire XXIIs from surplus RAF stocks in 1951.

Europe


Soon after the end of the Second World War, the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] equipped a photo-reconnaissance wing, F 11 in [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (just south of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]), with 50 Mk XIXs, designated S 31.

Several S 31 photographic missions in the late 1940s entailed flagrant violations of Soviet and, at least once, Finnish airspace in order to document activities at the air and naval installations in the Baltic and Kola regions.

At that time, no Soviet fighter was able to reach the operational altitude of the S 31.

No Swedish aircraft were lost during those clandestine operations.

However, by the early 1950s, Soviet air defences had become so effective that such practices had to cease.

The S 31s were replaced by jet-powered [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in the mid-1950s.

The [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] also used Spitfires for photo-reconnaissance in the late 1940s.
but it also received 71 Mark IXs as well.

In the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Spitfires played a major role, being flown by the RAF and [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] during October–December 1944, and by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] that received 242 Supermarine aircraft from 1946 to the end of the war in August 1949.


Of the 77 Mk IXs sold to Czechoslovakia in 1945, and flown there until 1951, a large number had been sold to Israel in 1948-49.

Italy


After the Second World War, eight flyable [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] Mk Vs were supplemented by 145 Mk IXs (obtained in two batches of 60 and 85 aircraft).

The Spitfire went into service with 51° and 5° Stormo (wing) flying reconnaissance missions over the Balkans as well as acting in cooperation with the Italian Army and providing a defensive force.

Well-liked by pilots, the Spitfires were involved in several postwar air races and trophy competitions including the Zerbinati Trophy.

Italian P-51s and Spitfires were entered in the handicap race with P-51s penalized by a minute for speed, and Spitfires penalised a similar amount in climb rate.

The Spitfire Mk IX remained in service until 1950–1952 when 30 survivors were supplied to the Israeli Air Force (HHA).

Eventually, these ex-Italian aircraft were sent to [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in 1954–55.

Today, one ex-Italian Air Force Spitfire Mk IX, MM4084, is on display at Vigna di Valle, Rome.

On 21 October, IAF Spitfires shot down one Egyptian Spitfire and damaged two others. During this combat Jack Doyle, a Canadian pilot on the IAF's 101 Squadron, claimed the first ever aerial victory by the IAF.

In the last aerial combat of the war, on 7 January 1949, four IAF Spitfires engaged a force of 14 RAF Mk XVIII Spitfires from 208 Squadron and Hawker Tempest Mk Vs after an earlier flight of RAF Spitfires had allegedly infringed Israel's southern border.

The IAF claimed three Mk XVIIIs destroyed.

A Tempest was also hit and damaged. Two RAF pilots had been killed, with one badly injured and another taken as a POW by the Israelis.

This combat caused an attitude of "stunned dismay" in the ranks of the RAF and was the cause of some tension between the Israeli forces and the RAF pilots until the war officially ended in July 1949.

South Asia


Spitfires were employed by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] against invading tribals in Kashmir.

They remained in service with India until 1957.

Of the Spitfire Mk IXs that Israeli bought from Czechoslovakia in 1948-49, about 30 were purchased by the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] in 1954-5, where they joined 20 Seafire XVs, bought in 1952 direct from Vickers-Armstrong, and three Mk XVIIIs purchased from Air Command South-East Asia.

They were used on counter-insurgency missions against separatist forces, to strafe Communist positions in the north of the country as civil war replaced the struggle between British and Japanese.

The accident rate amongst local Spitfire pilots was exceptionally high. The aircraft remained in service until at least 1954.

Malayan Emergency: last offensive

RAF Spitfires based in the Far East saw action during [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

When [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (MCP) soldiers killed three British rubber-planters on 16 June 1948 at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], Great Britain declared a state of emergency.

On 6 July, 81 Squadron Spitfire Mk XVIIIs attacked an MCP camp with rockets.

The most intense attacks on enemy targets were made in late 1949; on 21 October, RAF Spitfires and Seafires from 800 RNAS flew 62 sorties.

The 16 Spitires from the two squadrons based in Singapore flew some 1,800 missions against Communist positions.

On 1 January 1951 the last offensive sortie made by RAF Spitfires was flown by a flight of four 60 Squadron Mk XVIIIs, led by Grp Capt [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien], in a strike against a target near [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

Fin du sous chapitre "Operational history"

La suite du principal sur Wikipedia.en.

Soon... [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir cette image]

Un Spitfire sur l'USS WASP

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Et un Seafire

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Et un autre Seafire

[Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir cette image]

Speed and altitude records


Beginning in late 1943, high-speed diving trials were undertaken at [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] to investigate the handling
characteristics of aircraft travelling at speeds near the [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] (i.e., the onset of compressibility effects).


Because it had the highest [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] of any aircraft at that time, a Spitfire XI was chosen to take part in
these trials.

Due to the high altitudes necessary for these dives, a fully feathering [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien] propeller was fitted to prevent [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien].

It was during these trials that EN409, flown by Squadron Leader J. R. Tobin, reached 606 mph (975 km/h, Mach 0.891) in a 45° dive. In April 1944, the same aircraft suffered engine failure in another dive while being flown by Squadron Leader A. F. Martindale, when the propeller and reduction gear broke off. Martindale successfully glided the Spitfire 20 mi (32 km) back to the airfield and landed safely.