Spitpics : Robert Stanford-Tuck's Spitfire after being shot down 28th Jan '42

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Cheers

Dave Kearton

Robert Stanford Tuck was my boyhood hero (this is some while ago, you
understand).

I never realised before that his aircraft carried his initials. That
must have made him something of a target for those who were gunning
for him. Like Adolph Galland, for example.

Just musing ...

andy

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:53:47 +0930, "Dave Kearton"
wrote:

"Dave Kearton" wrote in news:kdoPh.152536
:




His biography mentions that one his rounds actually
went down one of the guns of the flak battery that
shot him down and split the barrel apart. The soldiers
were so impressed they were more civil to him than was
usually the case.

Initials for plane codes on the rides of Wing Commanders was a comon
perk alowed by the RAF. Remember Bader's code?

Waldo.

On Sun, 01 Apr 2007 01:55:13 +0100, Andrew
wrote:

Robert Stanford Tuck was my boyhood hero (this is some while ago, you
understand).

I never realised before that his aircraft carried his initials. That
must have made him something of a target for those who were gunning
for him. Like Adolph Galland, for example.

Just musing ...

andy

On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 16:53:47 +0930, "Dave Kearton"
wrote:

Here's a bit of trivia. It's not apparent from the photo, but Tuck's
aircraft was in a rare colour scheme.

The classic fighter scheme during the Battle of Britain was Dark Green/Dark
Earth uppersurfaces with Sky undersurfaces. This was suitable for defence
over the UK, but stood out dangerously whenever fighters were required to
fly over the sea. Therefore on 15 August 1941 a new scheme was introduced -
Dark Green/Ocean Grey uppersurfaces with Medium Sea Grey undersurfaces.

All fighter aircraft that were already in the Dark Green/Dark Earth scheme
were reuired to be repainted. A problem arose in that stocks of Ocean Grey
were initially very hard to acquire. Medium Sea Grey was no problem as it
had been used for squadron code letters.

The answer was to mix a dark grey colour from Medium Sea Grey and Night
(black). It is this Dark Green/"mixed grey" scheme that Tuck's aircraft was
carrying. It should also be noted that the fuselage roundels were still the
Type A1 roundels associated with the Dark Green/Dark Earth scheme.

In common with many aircraft in the mixed grey scheme, the serial has been
overpainted. This aircraft was a Mk.Vb, BL366.

--
Enzo

I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.