BOXART STORY

#82158

Protecting the Bostons

The Spitfire of British fighter ace Ian Richard

“Widge” Gleed is widely known thanks to period photographs. This is especially true when

it comes to the aircraft with the Aboukir filter.

Gleed, however, used a total of four Spitfires

as Wing Commander, all with the personal

code IR-G. Two of them as commander of the

Ibsley Wing (Mk.Vb; AA742 and Mk.Vc; AB380)

and two as commander of No. 244 Wing

in Tunisia (Mk.Vb; ER170 and Mk.Vb; AB502).

All the aircraft Gleed flew had a drawing of

a black cat, “Figaro”, a character from the

story of Pinocchio, painted on the starboard

side below the windshield. The attractive livery of the aircraft as the interesting life

of Ian Gleed himself made an easy choice for the subject of the painting by Piotr

Forkasiewicz. After the initial discovery that

Gleed had not achieved any kills in Spitfire

Mk.Vc; AB380; IR-G, we needed to find an action for the subject of the boxart that would

add authenticity and dynamics to the drawing. We were intrigued by the date of June

3, 1942, for which Ian Gleed has written in his

flight notebook: “Circus No. 6, escort of six

Bostons over Cherbourg in conjunction with

a Czechoslovakian Wing which clashed with

Fw 190s.” The boxart of the Spitfire Mk.Vc thus

depicts Operation Circus No. 6, when the

Ibsley Wing under Gleed’s command escorted six Bostons Mk.III of No. 107 Sqn. Altitude

cover was provided by the Exeter Wing, i.e.,

aircraft from No. 310 Sqn, No. 312 Sqn and

No. 154 Sqn. This was the first encounter with

the enemy for the Czechoslovaks since the

August 2022

formation of the the Exeter Wing. On that

day, W/Cdr Alois Vašátko achieved a probable kill of an Fw 190A from III/JG 2. More to it,

F/O František Peřina shot down one Fw 190

and damaged one, P/O Karel Pošta damaged

two Fw 190s and F/O Ivo Tonder and Antonín Liška damaged one each. However, three

Spitfires did not return from the fight...

After tracking down all the information to

make the scene, there was still one little

thing to sort out. In mid-May, the British national markings on the fuselage, lower side

of the wing and the tail were revised from

A/A1 to C/C1 type. There are photographs

dating back to late May and early June 1942

showing Spitfires with various combinations

of these two types of insignia. It usually took

a few days to apply the new markings to all

the squadron Spitfires. For the boxart with

Gleed’s Spitfire, we ended up using the new

C1 marking type, however the kit also offers

an earlier version with A/A1 markings.

Ian Richard Gleed was born on July 3, 1916,

in Finchley, London. He learned to fly at Hatfield in 1935 and joined the RAF in March

1936. After completing his training in December that year he was posted to No. 46 Sqn.

In September 1939 he was transferred to

No. 266 Sqn as a squadron leader of this

Spitfire-equipped unit. While testing one of

the aircraft on February 18, 1940, a mysterious aircraft destruction occurred at 18,000

feet (5,500 m). Gleed was hurled unconscious from the cockpit and when he regained

consciousness, he found himself hanging

Text: Michal Krechowski

Illustration: Piotr Forkasiewicz

from the parachute. He spent time in hospital and rejoined his unit in late April. In May,

he was transferred to No. 87 Sqn as leader

of the“A” Squadron. He scored seven kills

in May during the fighting in France and remained with the unit throughout the Battle of

Britain, during which he increased his score by a further four kills. In late December

1940 he took command of No. 87 Sqn and in

November 1941 became commander of Ibsley

Wing. He commanded it until July 1942, when

he was posted to Fighter Command as Wing

Commander Tactics.

In January 1943, Ian Gleed was sent to the

Middle East where he was briefly assigned

to No. 145 Sqn and after gaining some experience there, he was appointed Commander of No. 244 Wing in late January. He

led the unit until April 16 when he was shot

down during an afternoon patrol over the

Cap Bon area. His probable defeater was

Lt. Ernst-Wilhelm Reinet, ace of JG 77. After

being hit, Gleed headed for the Tunisian coast

with the damaged aircraft. His Spitfire AB502

was found on the sand dunes near the sea on

the west coast of Cap Bon, but his body was

not found until later. In total, Ian Gleed’s combat records contain 16 kills, seven probable

and four damaged. During the war years he

wrote a book, "Arise to Conquer" (Gollancz,

1942), in which he summarized his experiences of fighting in France and in the Battle

of Britain. In 1978 Norman Franks published

Gleed's biography "Fighter Leader".

INFO Eduard

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