Spitfire Vb Serial Placement

Boy you know how to pick 'em. The serial appears to be in small black lettering under the tail planes. You can just see the last 3 between the sky band and the shadow.

The aircraft left the factory in the Temperate Land Scheme Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky. Before entering service it was repainted in the Day Fighter Scheme Ocean Grey/Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey. Ther being a shortage of Ocean Grey, Mixed Grey was used which was darker than Ocean Grey. Ocean Grey proper can be seen on the ailerons and upper engine cowling which are replacement items. When it was repainted it lost the presentation name 'WEST BORNEO I' on the starbord side when the Dark Earth was painted over. It remained on the port side where the Dark Green did not required overpainting. Note: what may look like Dark Earth is Dark Green, which depite its name is an olive hue and what looks like dark green is dark grey. The colour reproduction of the 'poster' kooks particularly bad. I have seen much better versions of the photo.

 

Wow!!! How did you see that?!?

Thank you... although it looks like I may just have to re-paint my Spit's green to grey.. oh dear ..or I might go with the factory colours, which I seem to have inadvertantly painted it in!

How did you find all that out, or shouldn't I ask a magician to reveal his tricks?

Many many thanks,

 Andrew

Er, no, that information is not correct.  The photograph, taken by Charles E. Brown, is often misprinted, probably due to the mistaken belief that the roundel red should be the late-war dull, dark, red.  In fact the fuselage, and fin flash, red is bright red; only the top-wing roundels have faded.  There is a good reproduction, of it, in "Camera Above the Clouds," vol.3, and it's possible to see that AD223 still retained her green/brown scheme, but the colours were the reverse, of the usual scheme, with brown where the green would normally be, and vice-versa.  The starboard wingtip, and both ailerons, are later replacement units, with grey paint on them, where there would, originally, have been green and you will see that the yellow band, on the wingtip, doesn't match the wing.  When this Spitfire was painted, there was a shortage of Sky paint, so the tailband, and spinner, were white.  Since the tailband obscured the serial no., it was repainted, in tiny black letters, above the fin flash.  When the photo was taken, it was the personal mount of Squadron Leader R.M.Milne; you can just see the S/Ldr pennant under the windscreen.

Edgar

That is a great pic of a wartime Spitfire. I'd found several pieces of info on it.

The Imperial War Museum gives this info: "Spitfire Mark VB, AD233 'ZD-F', being flown by the Commanding Officer of No.222 Squadron RAF, Squadron Leader Richard Milne, when based at North Weald, Essex. On 25 May, AD233 was shot down by Focke Wulf Fw 190s over Gravelines, while being flown by Squadron Leader Jankiewicz."

This pic on flickr was labeled with this info- can't confirm it but interesting:

"Spitfire MkVB, ZD-F, (AD233) piloted by Sqn Ldr R M Milne of No.222 Sqd, flying north-west towards Dunmow, Essex, on 4th May, 1942."

In "Spitfire: The History" it says it was named West Borneo I, it was assigned to 37 MU on Sep. 15 1941, then on to 222 Squadron  on Oct 1, only to be shot down a few months later. Record indicates it was on Rodeo No. 51 when shot down.

Interesting note on that fuselage number-

In researching it, I found that this Mk. V's ZD-F predecessor, a Mk. II, was purchased by the citizens of Wigan. Once the money was raised it was:

"Presented by the Wigan and District Spitfire Appeal with donations totaling 7,886-5-8 pounds, a Supermarine Spitfire MkIIb No P8244 was given the name of Wigan and District."

It ended up at No. 222 Squadron, coded ZD-F. It went missing 19th August 1941, the pilot managing to evade and escape. 

I've found info that a man named Otto Smik (Czech?) flew ZD-F for No. 222 from May to November of 1943, when it was a Mk. IX.

I love that pic- it's so nice a shot of a wartime bird. And the history on that code is so neat- be neat to do a build of those birds with their history.

Gotta love a Spitfire! 

AD233 was indeed shot down by FW 190s during Rodeo 51 and the Polish pilot S/Ldr Jankiewicz killed. It was one of about 100 Spitfires paid for by money raised from Dutch citizens in the Dutch East Indies. The original intention was for them to serve with Dutch squadrons but because the Dutch Government in exile refused to allow the training of Dutch pilots in Canada they had nobody to fly them. A good number were allocated to Polish squadrons. They were all given presentation names from the East Indies. The RAF allowed the presentation name to be painted in 2 inch grey characters on the fuselage forward of the leading edge of the wing. West Borneo II was AD231 which served with the 307th Fighter Squadron 31th FGroup USAAF. coded MK.K. West Borneo III was AB984, West Borneo IV AB982 and West Borneo V AB985.