Subject: Long Range Spitfires???
From: Guy Alcala
Date: 9/9/03 1:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time
Message-id:

ArtKramr wrote:

I don't know much about Spits other than how they perform as fighter cover.
But
I am curious about the concept of " Long Range" as applied to Spits. I had
never heard that phrase during the war.Is it a phrase only used on this NG
or
is it a commonly used term about a special class of Spits?.

It's a term we're using on the NG, to define what mods would have been needed
to
improve the Spit's range for bomber escort in the late-'43-early '44 period.
Late
in 1944 -early '45 there were versions of the Spit with much increased
internal
tankage, but they were never (to my knowledge) referred to as long range.

And are we talking
long range as in Mustangs?

More like long range roughly equal to ETO P-47s. Getting a fighter Spit to
carry
combat fuel equal to a Mustang is probably impossible, and would definitely
take
too long for the time frame of interest.

Or to put it anohrer way, how long is long range as
applied to Spits?

For what's likely to be doable in the limited time frame, 300-400 mile escort
radius, vs. 150-175 miles typical of Mk. V/IXs. We'll take 250 miles for a
start,
which should definitely be achievable right out of the box by substituting
Mk.
VIIIs for Mk. IXs. 250 miles encompasses Emden and the Ruhr, Paris and maybe
out
to St Nazaire, from the nearest bases. 350 miles gets us to Bremen, Hannover,
Kassel, Frankfurt, and probably Kiel/Hamburg. 400 miles should take in
Brunswick,
and maybe Oschersleben, Halberstadt, and Schweinfurt.

Guy

Thanks for the clarification. But remember that in 1944 there were Spit bases
in Northern Belgium. We got fighter cover from those guys from time to time.


Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer