KITS 11/2021

PR805, No. 33 Sqn, Butterworth, Malaysia, 1951

One of the last operational Tempests Mk.II served with No. 33 Squadron during their operations against Malayan Communists

(First Malayan Emergency) from October 1950 to the end of May 1951 (Operation Firedog). Tempests conducted air-to-ground

attacks against the Malayan guerillas using 3-inch RP (Rockets Projectiles) as their primary weapon. Towards the end of its operational use PR805 was repainted in the new Long-range Day Fighter Scheme. However, it was withdrawn from use at the end

of May 1951 and delivered into storage at Seletar (Singapore). Later on, this aircraft was sold to Pakistan.

PR772, S/Ldr G. T. A. Douglas, No. 152 Sqn, Risalpur, India, November 1946

The wartime No. 152 Sqn had disbanded in March 1946 but was reformed in May 1946 by renumbering No. 136 Sqn (Spitfire-equipped). However, the newly reformed unit was planned to receive Tempests Mk.II and the first of these arrived at Risalpur in July

1946. The following month, the unit received a new commanding officer, S/Ldr G. T. A. Douglas, along with its full complement

of 16 Tempests. The squadron’s activities were severely hampered due to the lack of both air and ground crew and of Tempest

spares. S/Ldr Douglas adopted PR772 as his personal Tempest and it was coded UM-D; it was camouflaged in the DFS at this

time. However, at the beginning of September, Douglas was posted to Delhi and F/Lt D. J. M. Coxhead assumed command in his

absence. Meanwhile UM-D was repainted in the Aluminium scheme; it also gained the colored spinner and squadron badges

when it and five other Tempests from the unit took part in a fire-power demonstration for the Staff College at Quetta on November 10, 1946. By the time No. 152 Sqn was disbanded at the end of January 1947 its Tempests had been flown to No. 5 Sqn at

Peshawar, for transfer to RIAF units, but PR772 was retained by No. 5 Sqn RAF, becoming OQ-R, once again a CO’s aircraft.

PR782, No. 16 Sqn, F/O D. W. Baldock, RAF Fassberg, Germany, 1948

After the 2nd TAF was renamed British Air Forces of Occupation (BAFO), the main task for units deployed in Germany changed

from keeping an eye on former enemy to safeguarding the West from its former allies in the east. In a period of great reorganization, a Spitfire fighter-reconnaissance unit, No. 16 Squadron, was disbanded at Celle (Germany) on April 1, 1946, but was

reformed at RAF Fassberg on the same day, by renumbering No. 56 Squadron. The unit used Mk.V Tempests until August 1946,

when they began conversion to the Tempest Mk.II. On August 6, F/O D. W. Baldock flew his Tempest V, EG-V, back to the UK and

collected a brand new Tempest II, PR782 which he flew back to Fassberg, via Eindhoven, the next day; it would also be coded

EG-V, his allocated aircraft. On September 14, he flew it back to the UK, along with eight other Tempests from his squadron, to

take part in a massive Battle of Britain commemorative fly-past over London. PR782 would serve with the squadron through to

December 1948 when it was replaced by a De Havilland Vampire jet. PR782 then flew for three months with No. 26 Sqn before

transfer to No. 33 Sqn, who took it to Malaya in August 1949; it was scrapped there following a flapless landing at Butterworth

when it overshot the runway and the undercarriage collapsed.

INFO Eduard - November 2021

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