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Info Eduard - August 2011

HISTORY

eduard

Info Eduard - August 2011

This machine was the sole example remaining in British service after the Second World War.

It is currently on public display.

These colorful machines were used post-war as drones during atomic tests.

aboard the La Fayette in May 1953 and then

began its conversion to Vought F4U-7s. Mea-

nwhile, Flottille 1F had been renumbered 11F.

This unit returned to Indochina aboard Arro-

manches for combat operations from October

1953 until after the fall of Dien Bien Phu on 7

May, 1954. Flottille 11F lost four of its Hell-

cats during operations in support of the Dien

Bien Phu garrison.

Hellcats were operated at Hyeres by the

Section d’Entrainement at la Chasse de Nuit

(SECN), which had a number of radar-equi-

pped F6F-5Ns; and by Escadrilles de Servi-

tude 3S, 54S, 57S, and 59S. The last Hellcat

operations were in 1960 when four-aircraft

were sent to Algeria in 1960 in an attempt to

intercept guerilla supplies across the border

with Tunisia. After these operations, the re-

maining Hellcats of the Aéronautique Navale

were used by ‘Marine’ l’Ecole de Rochefort as

instructional airframes

Ten F6F-5s were transferred to the Argen-

tine Aviacion Naval after the war. Several

of these machines were later handed over to

Paraguay. A handful of ex-Argentine F 6F-5s

saw limited service with the Servicio de Aero-

nautica de la Marina of Paraguay. Ten F6F-5s

were ferried from the United States in April

1952 to Uruguay and received the serials

A-401/A-406 and A-451/A-454 in service

with the Aviacion Naval.

After the End

Hellcats were mostly removed from military

service in early 1960s and after that a num-

ber of them found places in various museums

and private collections. We are also fortunate

to have have a number of examples in air-

worthy condition. There was even one attempt

to t a Hellcat with chemical tanks for crop

dusting, but this proven uneconomical so the

idea was dropped.

Mark Nankivil

An F6F-5N in French service. These post-war French machines may easily be identied by their additional cannons.

BUY F6F-3 1/72

Info EDUARD