George Beurling's Spitfire

[jotter]

Guys,

I wouldn't bug you with this but I've researched and searched and searched and I'm getting different info on Beurling's T-L Mark Vb Spitfire. I've got one Osprey book (Malta Spitfire Aces) stating it's Malta Blue over sky blue. Then I have another Osprey book (Spitfire MkV Aces) saying it was Dark Earth over Middlestone. So, I went and purchased a gaggle of decal sets (cause they do research as part of their jobs) and again I get conflicting info. I'm not even arguing about the shade of blue anymore. Does anyone have a "real-deal" lead to send my way?

[Jennings]

There are some things in history that are, and probably always will be, unknowable. No amount of research will ever uncover every single fact. Malta Spitfire colors is, I fear, one of those things. Recording details of precise colors and camouflage schemes and markings wasn't #1 (or even #387) on the list of important things to do in Malta in 1942.

[Edgar]

Malta's requested scheme, dating from the days of the Hurricanes, was "sea camouflage," by which they meant Dark Mediterranean Blue over Light Mediterranean Blue. Whether they got the undersides in LMB is debatable, and it's possible they remained Sky (Sky Blue was never a colour advocated for the undersides of fighters.)

[martin_sam_2000]

Here we go again with a multitude of answers, but my understanding is that it was a Standard Trop. MkV's, Middlestone, Dk Brown over Azure blue, with the top overpainted with a Navy stock blue colour.

There were also examples where just the middlestone was overpainted and the brown left exposed.

Sean

[Jennings]

See the problem is, we don't *know* that to be true. Unless someone has uncovered some documentation that no one else in the world has seen within the past five years or so, there is *NO* conclusive proof of anything about these airplanes.

That's why I said that some things in history are probably unknowable. Much as we might wish that weren't so, sometimes it just is.

If someone has new information they're willing to share, I'm elated to be proven wrong.

[peter havriluk]

For what it's worth to have a comment come out of noplace special, I concur with the idea that nobody really knows how that airplane was painted and at the time nobody cared. These weren't garrison beauties, there's a war on and who knows what they were painted with. Or repaired with. Such applies, I think, to most wartime color schemes. They weren't 'schemes', they just happened, and whatever paint was usable was used. Nobody looked up anything in any painting guide. I'll take the bet if someone proposes that more than one Allied aircraft was painted with Germany's or Italy's finest paints, courtesy of an overrun maintenance shop. And we'll never know which ones, when, and how they were painted. Ambiguity abounds in combat.

[Edgar]

Such applies, I think, to most wartime color schemes. They weren't 'schemes', they just happened, and whatever paint was usable was used. Nobody looked up anything in any painting guide.

With as much courtesy as I can muster, I suggest you undertake some proper research, and cut down on the guesswork. Aircraft types were issued with specific camouflage patterns, and manufacturers were expected to comply with those patterns, as were MUs, CRO units and Service airfields. They were also given a list of acceptable paints to use.

I'll take the bet if someone proposes that more than one Allied aircraft was painted with Germany's or Italy's finest paints, courtesy of an overrun maintenance shop. And we'll never know which ones, when, and how they were painted. Ambiguity abounds in combat.

It would be interesting to know where a German or Italian paint store was overrun in Malta. Read "The War Magician," by David Fisher, about the desert war, and you'll learn how, far from using captured materials, the forces in the desert used whatever they could lay their hands on, like camel dung and Worcester sauce (unsurprisingly not on aircraft.)

And, of course, every modeller knows that you can slap any paint on top of any other, and it will take and behave perfectly. Really?

Can you state, preferably from a test report, that German and Italian paints were perfectly serviceable on top of the early cellulose, and later synthetic, paints that British manufacturers used?

It really is astounding how the belief has come about that in WWII British manufacturing was a completely lackadaisical couldn't-care-less system, when, in fact, everything was rigidly controlled and administered. Each factory had a Resident Technical Officer, appointed by the Air Ministry, plus an Overseer, usually of Wing Commander rank, appointed by the RAF, and any change in production (however small) had to be accepted and passed by the Local Technical Committee.

I realise that this will shatter some long-held fond beliefs, but, by 1942, every Squadron had an Aircraft Finisher on its books. These men, trained by I.C.I., were expected to retouch any damage by blending in the new paint (difficult if it's the wrong colour,) then sanding it smooth, and washing down with clean water. Also, spares were delivered unpainted, but in primer, so Squadrons (or, at least airfields) would have needed stocks of the requisite paint. There might be photos of Spitfires with replacement wings painted in the enemies' colours, but I've yet to see one.

To return to Malta, the first Spitfires were "hijacked" from a delivery planned for the desert, hence the wrong colours; also Malta had to have Spitfires with the large Vokes filter, which were normally in desert scheme.

While Malta were glad to get them, they requested that future deliveries should be in their sea scheme, in other words Dark Mediterranean Blue. Some Spitfires, which had been sent to Abbotsinch in anticipation of Wasp's arrival, were still painted in desert scheme, but later arrivals were in the required dark blue. From this, it seems likely that Wasp did not need to paint her whole consignment of airframes, and, if some were already blue, it makes total sense for Wasp's captain (as he was probably requested by the Air Ministry) to paint the rest in a similar colour.

Edited July 2, 2015 by Edgar