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PV181, W/Cdr Rolf A. Berg, No. 132 Wing, ALG B.79 Woendstrecht,
The Netherlands, winter 1944
RK889, S/Ldr Otmar Kučera, No. 313 Squadron, RAF Manston, Kent,
Great Britain, May-July 1945
This aircraft was used as a personal aircraft
by the commander of No. 132 (Norwegian)
Wing, W/Cdr Rolf Arne Berg. He had the pre-
war Norwegian insignia painted on it during the
autumn of 1944, and at the same time requested
approval from RAF officials to use them. However,
he found no sympathy and had to remove the
marking in January 1945. Berg’s fate was sealed
on February 3, 1945. He was at the very end of
his operational tour but decided to undertake one
more combat flight. However, he took a direct
hit to the wing from anti-aircraft artillery over
the Dutch Eelde and crashed fatally with PV 181.
His score thus stopped on six confirmed kills, two
probable kills and five enemy aircraft damaged.
The HF Mk.IX high altitude Spitfires with the
Merlin 70 were also produced with an E wing
with standard wingtips. An example of this
variant is the RK889 (RY
-
A) of Commander
No. 313 (Czechoslovak) Squadron S/Ldr. Otmar
Kučera DFC. The aircraft, manufactured at the
Vickers-Supermarine plant in Castle Bromwich,
was taken over by the RAF on October 6, 1944,
moving to No. 45 MU in Kinloss, Scotland. It waited
for its first allocation until May 10 the following
year. At that time it replaced the existing Kučera’s
Spitfire HF Mk.IXc ML148 at Manston, which bore
the same codename. The RK889 was donated
aircraft named “Edmonton II” and was the last
one purchased from fund-raising and assigned to
the Czechoslovak Air Force. With the new Spitfire,
S/Ldr Kučera took part in air combat training
with Americans flying P-51D Mustangs on May 23,
1945, at the 8th USAAF base in Debden, together
with other Czechoslovak fighters. The livery
depicts Kučera’s codename “A” with the
commander’s pennant under the cockpit from
July 1945, when round emblems with a hawk
appeared on the engine cowling and the propeller
cone was decorated with the Czechoslovak
national colors.
KITS 12/2024
INFO Eduard28
December 2024