Markings for Spitfire Story: The Sweeps 1/72

COL A

W3457, F/O James E. Johnson, No. 616 Squadron, RAF Tangmere, the United Kingdom, August 1941

“Johnnie” Johnson was the Commonwealth’s most successful fighter ace with 41 confirmed kills. After pilot training in August 1940, he was briefly assigned to No. 19 Squadron and transferred to No. 616 Squadron in early September. In the spring of 1941, Tangmere Wing commander Douglas Bader chose him as his wingman in his four-man formation. After Bader was shot down and captured on August 9, 1941, Johnson had the words BADER’S BUS Co. STILL RUNNING painted on the left side of the fuel tank cover of his Spitfire W3457. On the right side of the fuselage, W3457 bore the inscription CYNON VALLEY, referring to the urban areas of Aberdare and Mountain Ash Glamorgan, which had paid for this Spitfire through a fundraising campaign. Preserved photographs confirm the application of the new Fighter Command camouflage valid from August 15, 1941, in shades of Dark Green, Mixed Gray, and Medium Sea Gray.

COL B

W3817, S/Ldr Richard M. Milne, No. 92 squadron, RAF Gravessend, the United Kingdomn, August-December 1941

“Dickie” Milne became an ace with No. 151 Squadron during the Battle of Britain and was transferred to No. 92 Squadron based at Biggin Hill in mid-1941. Initially, he was serving as commander of A Flight but overtook the command of the entire Squadron in September. On January 19, 1942, he took command of No. 222 Squadron at North Weald and led it until May, when he ended his operational tour. In early January 1943, he was appointed commander of the elite wing at Biggin Hill. On March 14, 1943, after shooting down an Fw 190, Dickie was shot down by an Fw-190A-4 from II/JG 26 during a dogfight over Berck-Sur-Mer and was captured. After his liberation in May 1945, he was discharged from the RAF in 1946 as a Wing Commander. During his wartime career, he shot down 15 enemy aircraft plus one probably and damaged 11. The Spitfire W3817, which Milne flew as commander of No. 92 Squadron, was a presentation aircraft from Wellinborough, acquired with funds raised by the Northamptonshire Evening Telegraph. It already bore the new Fighter Command camouflage in shades of Dark Green, Ocean Grey (Mixed Grey), and Medium Sea Grey. On the left side of the fuel tank cover, it bore the inscription “New Yorklin” and under the cockpit there were 11 black and white crosses painted as killmarks.

COL C

BL973, F/Lt Stanislav Fejfar, No. 313 (Czechoslovak) Squadron, RAF Hornchurch, the United Kingdom, March-May 1942

Stanislav Fejfar, a member of Czechoslovak Air Force before the war, flew as commander of 45th Fighter Squadron based in Slovakia during the Munich crisis. He scored his first two kills during the Battle of France as a member of Armee de l’Air flying MS.406 with GC I/6. On July 12, 1940 he arrived in Great Britain aboard the ship Neuralia. On September 9, he started his operational career as a Pilot Officer with No. 310 (Czechoslovak) Squadron RAF scoring his first out of three kills claimed during the Battle of Britain. On July 21, 1941, he joined No. 313 (Czechoslovak) Squadron as a F/Lt in the position of B Flight leader. Stanislav Fejfar perished on May 17, 1942, in the cockpit of Spitfire Mk.Vb BL973 during the Ramrod 33 mission. He was shot down by Hptm. Josef Priller between Guines and Audebert in the northern France. A couple of days earlier Priller had also shot down Sergeant Karel Pavlík, author of Pluto the Dog nose art on Fejfar’s Spitfire.

COL D

BM124, S/Ldr Brendan E. F. Finnucane, CO of No. 602 Squadron, RAF Kenley, United Kingdom, April 1942

Spitfire s/n BM124 was a presentation aircraft donated to Britain by Queen Salote of Tonga and assigned to S/Ldr Brendan Finucane. It was delivered on March 14, 1942, and Finucane was flying with it continuously until June 18, 1942, when he hit the ground with the tip of the wing while landing at Redhill. The aircraft was severely damaged, and although it was returned to the unit after extensive repairs, Finucane did not fly it again. He scored his last victories in its cockpit. Finucane’s BM124, was repainted on the upper surfaces in Dark Slate Grey / Extra Dark Sea Grey naval shades. Under the front badge, he had his personal Shamrock emblem and the fuselage letter W painted on. For propaganda purposes, the inscription QUEEN of SALOTE was painted on the fuel tank cover in May. As it later turned out, the inscription was not written correctly, and the Air Ministry submitted an amendment requesting that the photographs taken be changed from QUEEN of SALOTE to QUEEN SALOTE. The word “of” was thus roughly scraped off the negatives. Out of respect for the origins and traditions of No. 602 Squadron, Finucane had the squadron’s emblem, a red Scottish lion rampant in a yellow shield, placed on the engine cowlings of the No. 602 Squadron Spitfires. During his wartime career, Finucane achieved 32 aerial victories, becoming the third most successful Spitfire pilot during World War II.

COL E

BM324, F/Lt Bernard Dupérier (Baron Léon Sternberg de Armella), No. 340 (Free French) Squadron, RAF Westhampnett, West Sussex, the United Kingdom, July 1942

Bernard Dupérier, whose real name was Leon Sternberg de Armella, enlisted in the Free French Air Force in New York on January 15, 1941 under his mother’s maiden name. Having served with No. 242 and No. 615 Squadrons RAF, in October 1941 he joined No. 340 (Free French) Squadron (GC II/4 Ille-de-France) as B Flight (Versailles) leader. As of May 1, 1942, he assumed command of the whole squadron. From December 1942 he served at FAFL Headquarters. From August 30, 1943, he was given command of No. 341 (Free French) Squadron (GC III/2 Alsace) and from September 1943 he commanded the Biggin Hill Wing. On June 25, 1944, he was parachuted to Bretagne where he acted as a commander of 3. Headquarters of FFI. On August 6, 1944, during the liberation of the city of Saint-Brieuc he was severely wounded. He returned to the duty in April 1945. After the hostilities he worked in several positions including Air France director. In 1958 he entered the world of politics and in 1962 was elected member of Parliament. The white stripes on the nose and horizontal tail surfaces of his BM324, in which he scored two victories, pertain to the cancelled invasion operation Rutter scheduled for July 7, 1942. This markings are mistakenly attributed to the operation Jubilee in which No. 340 (Free French) Squadron also took part.

COL F

BM564, P/O André M. A. F. Plisnier, No. 350 (Belgium) Squadron, RAF Redhill, Surrey, United Kingdom, summer - fall 1942

Spitfire Mk.Vb BM564 flew with No. 350 (Belgium) Squadron from April 30, 1942 till December 27, 1942. During this period all sixteen Spitfires of the unit sported presentation inscriptions from a list which allocated the inscription Léopoldville to BM564. This aircraft was almost exclusively flown by well-known Belgian pilot and ace P/O André Marie Alfred Frederick Plisnier who in its cockpit scored four kills, two during the operation Jubilee, landing at Dieppe on August 19, 1942 and two more kills later in November. His total score during the war was six kills. The presentation inscription Léopoldville is also included in the later list of the Belgium presentation Spitfires and allocated to AA720. This aircraft flew missions briefly, from June 6, 1944 till June 10, 1944 when the pilot F/Lt Alec Alexander perished in it. At that time this airplane certainly sported the invasion stripes and its windshield probably featured the integrated armored glass. Apparently it didn’t sport anymore the nose art under the canopy.

COL G

EN951, S/Ldr Jan Zumbach, CO of No. 303 (Polish) Squadron, RAF Kirton in Lindsey, Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, September 1942

Jan Zumbach, a grandson of a Swiss emigrant, Swiss citizen himself, served with No. 111 Fighter Squadron of the Polish Air Force from 1938. After Poland was defeated he fought in the ranks of the French GCD I/55. On August 2, 1940, he joined No. 303 (Polish) Squadron with which he scored eight kills during the Battle of Britain. On May 17, 1942, he was given command of No. 303 (Polish) Squadron. From the end of September till December 1942 he flew Spitfire EN951, the former personal mount of Don Blakeslee from the USAAF 336th FS, 4th FG. The aircraft sported Zumbach’s personal emblem in the form of Donald the Duck nose art, known in several versions from several Zumbach’s Spitfires. During the war, in which end he was shot down and briefly imprisoned, Jan Zumbach’s total score was thirteen confirmed kills and five probables. His life after the war is no less colorful than during wartime. He engaged in the international arm dealing, often illegal, and fought as a mercenary in Africa, in the service of the insurgent forces in Katanga and later Biafra. He died under unclear circumstances in Paris on January 3, 1986.

COL H

EN824, F/Lt John Yarra, No. 453 Squadron RAAF, RAF Ipswich, Suffolk, United Kingdom, December 1942

Nicknamed “Slim”, Yarra was one of the most successful pilots defending the island of Malta during the hot summer of 1942. During the tough battles for Malta he scored 12 kills. In September 1942 he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant and assigned to the Australian No. 453 Squadron, part of the Hornchurch Wing, flying offensive raids over France. F/Lt Yarra’s fateful date came on December 10, 1942, when during the attack on a shipping at the Holland coast, his Spitfire EN824 was hit by AA fire and crashed into the sea. He tried to bail out of the damaged aircraft but was hit by the tail surfaces damaging his parachute, which did not fully deploy. Pilot’s body hit the sea surface falling from 300 meters. His brother Robert Ernest, fighter pilot as well, was also shot down by the AA fire and killed on April 14, 1944, while attacking the V-1 missiles launching pads at Ligescourt (operation Ramrod 735).

COL I

W3518, S/Ldr Count Franz F. Colloredo-Mansfeld, CO of No. 132 Squadron, RAF Newchurch, Kent, United Kingdom, September 1943

An American citizen, Harvard University graduate, Franz Ferdinand Count of Colloredo-Mansfeld, was born in Rome, the son of an Austrian diplomat, Count Ferdinand Colloredo-Mansfeld (1878-1967) and his American spouse Eleonor, born Iselin. After 1918 the family settled in the USA. Before the USA entry into WWII, Franz Ferdinand volunteered for RAF where he achieved the rank of Squadron Leader and on August 15, 1943, he assumed the command of No. 132 Squadron. On September 9, 1943, flying Spitfire Mk.Vb W3518 he participated in the mock invasion operation Starkey which purpose was to create fear of invasion in the German Command and lure the German troops out of Italy and the Eastern Front to the West. On that occasion the wing tips were painted with black and white identification stripes, predecessors of the later well-known invasion stripes used during the operation Overlord. S/Ldr Franz F. Colloredo-Mansfeld perished in his Spitfire Mk.IX near Berck-sur-Mer on January 14, 1944.

COL J

EN921, F/O Jackson E. Sheppard, No. 401 Squadron RCAF, RAF Biggin Hill, United Kingdom, October 1943

“Jack” Sheppard, originally a dock worker, enlisted in the RCAF in 1939 and till August 1940 served with No. 120 Squadron. In August 1941 he completed the pilot training at No. 53 OTU and in November 1941 was assigned to No. 43 Squadron. In December he volunteered for the convoy escorts. On February 10, 1942, he crashed into the sea in Hurricane Z4569 having been catapulted from a deck of a transport boat. In July 1943 he became an A Flight leader with No. 401 Squadron. In April 1944 he assumed command of a flight of the No. 412 Squadron and led the unit till August 2 when he was shot down by German fighters in Normandy. He managed to avoid capture and returned to the unit. On August 22 he was decorated with DFC and in October he returned to Canada. In February 1946 he finally left the military service. Jackson Sheppard flew Spitfire serialed EN921 on regular basis from July till October 1943. Even though he did not score any of his five kills in its cockpit, he flew this aircraft on many offensive sweeps including the mock operation Starkey on September 9, 1943.

COL K

EP829, S/Ldr John J. Lynch, No. 249 Squadron, Krendi, Malta, May 1943

John Joseph Lynch was born on February 3, 1918, in Alhambra, California. In 1941, he joined the RAF and his first assignment was with No. 232 Squadron. The following month, he was attached to No. 121 “Eagle” Squadron. This was followed by a stint with No. 71 “Eagle” Squadron, during which he shared in the destruction of a Ju 88 on April 17, 1942. In November 1942, he was transferred to Malta and assigned to No. 249 Squadron, with which he actively participated in its defense. At the beginning of 1943, he was promoted to Commander of the unit and recorded a number of victories over Axis transport aircraft supplying Tunisia. The Ju 52 kill came about on April 28, being the 1,000th kill recorded by the defenders of Malta. In July 1943, he was reassigned to the USAAF but saw no combat with the service. Spitfire EP829, with which Lynch flew from February to May 1943 as a member of No. 249 Squadron, was part of Operation “Train”, which represented the final shipment of Spitfires to the defenders of Malta, delivered by an aircraft carrier. EP829 initially had clipped wings and later flew with the standard span wings. The main fuel tank cover carried the Squadron Commander marking and seven kill markings that were recorded up to April 28, 1943. Below the windscreen, there was an inscription “Malta’s 1000”, in honor of that kill over Malta. Over his combat career, Lynch recorded 17 kills (ten individual and seven shared), along with a single probable and two damaged enemy aircraft.