| |
G4EBT > MARKS 16.12.05 12:13l 149 Lines 6615 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : EE1628G4EBT
Read: GUEST
Subj: Re: RAF launches? (Roundels)
Path: DB0FHN<DB0FOR<DB0MRW<OK0PKL<OK0PPL<DB0RES<DK0WUE<GB7FCR
Sent: 051216/1000Z @:GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU #:17712 [Blackpool] FBB-7.03a $:EE1628G4
From: G4EBT@GB7FCR.#16.GBR.EU
To : MARKS@WW
Jan, SM0WHH wrote:-
>At a model exhibition here in Stockholm, Sweden, I saw an RAF launch
>with the four-coloured roundel - yellow, blue, white, red - plus a
>four-figure number at the bows.
>It was flying the undefaced Blue Ensign, though, and when I enquired
about >it was told that "it was that flag in the drawings". I would have
expected the RAF Ensign.
>Which one should it be? Sorry to say, I do not remember the number but it
>was without a gun turret.
This is a very wide subject, which goes beyond the scope of packet.
Info on the history of the RAF roundel can be found at the RAF website.
The following link will take you straight to the roundel pages, but it's
also an excellent website for other RAF history, facts and pictures.
http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/hrafround.html
That site's Crown Copyright, so I won't clip anything from it and post it
on here.
I know Jan is talking about boats rather than planes, so I'm going off at
a tangent, which is nothing new. But below is an explanation of the extent
to which colour schemes and roundels on just one aircraft - the famous
Spitfire, varied:
The first Spitfire - the prototype K5054, was initially flown unpainted,
though later, a finish of "float-plane blue" was applied.
The first Spitfires to reach the RAF were painted in a camouflage scheme
of brown and dark green. The undersides were painted with one half black,
the other white , with the dividing line running from nose to tail,
sometimes only the underside of one wing was painted black, leaving the
fuselage underside white.
The idea behind this strange underside colour scheme was to aid
identification of RAF aircraft by anti-aircraft artillery. Later
in the war the entire underside was paint light blue, light grey
or duck-egg blue.
The brown and green camouflage saw the RAF through the Battle of Britain
and into 1941. With them now "taking the fight to the enemy", having to
cross the Channel or North Sea to do it, the brown part of the camouflage
stood out against the sea so was changed to dark grey, a scheme of grey
and green being equally good over land or sea.
Spitfires employed in a reconnaissance role employed special camouflage.
High altitude aircraft were painted a dark shade of blue overall (known as
PR blue). Low level aircraft were often painted pink. This unusual colour
proved very good at hiding the aircraft against a background of low cloud.
The RAF symbol of concentric red white and blue discs known as a roundel,
was carried on the top and bottom of the wings and the side of the
fuselage. The roundels on the top of the wing had the white missing
leaving only red and blue (the so called "type B" roundel). This helped
the aircraft be less easily seen, particularly if it was on the ground.
The roundels on the side of the fuselage and under the wing (the latter
not always present) were of the normal "A" type. The fuselage roundels
were then surrounded by another ring of yellow to make it stand out from
the background camouflage (this was known as the "A1"roundel).
From mid 1942 the roundels on the side of the fuselage and under the wings
had the white band reduced in thickness (called the "type C" roundel or
"Type C1" if it had a thin yellow ring around it).
RAF aircraft usually carried two sets of characters:
The first was in quite small black or dark letters near the tail on both
sides of the fuselage. This was that aircraft's own serial number and
would stay with it throughout its service life, the only problems arise
when one good airframe was made out of two damaged ones!
The other was a three (very rarely four) letter code in large light
characters arranged around the fuselage roundel. The first two letters
were the code of the Squadron the aircraft was with, for example "XT"
was 603 squadron in 1941.
The remaining letter was the individual code of that aircraft within the
squadron. So if you were with 603 squadron and were told to take off in
"baker" aircraft you would walk out to the aircraft with XT-B on its side.
Since most squadrons would only have 18 aircraft at most, there was no
need for any other letters, but on the odd occasion that a squadron
acquired more than 26 aircraft it started again with "AA". The squadron
markings
of an aircraft would change any time it was acquired by a new unit.
The RAF would change the squadron code if it ever thought the Germans
had managed to tie the code to a particular squadron, so the code of a
squadron might have changed during the course of the war.
The codes were deliberately painted on as large as possible so that pilots
could identify planes from their squadron so as to form up into formation
again after a dogfight.
The only exception to this code scheme were Wing-Commanders, that is the
officers who commanded a Wing of two, three or more squadrons, usually
flying from a common airfield, or "clutch" of airfields.
Thus the famous Douglas Bader was allowed to have the letters "D-B"
painted on the side of his Spitfire VA, because he commanded the Wing
flying from Tangmere Aerodrome. Bob Stanford-Tuck, commander of the Biggin
Hill Wing had a Spitfire with "RS-T" on it.
For D-Day and the invasion of Europe all Allied aircraft had black and
white "Invasion stripes" painted on the wings. This again helped identify
them as friendly to their own anti-aircraft guns, at this stage considered
often to be more of a danger than the all-but-defeated Luftwaffe.
In the Far East the roundel had the red centre removed to stop it
being confused with the red disk "Hinomaru" emblem of the Japanese.
In the Middle East Spitfires were painted with "sand and stone" upper
surfaces for operation over the desert. The under-surfaces were a much
darker blue, "azure blue" to suit the more intense blue of the sky in
that theatre of war.
Info sourced in part from John "Dinger" Dell's excellent aviation website,
whose copyright is acknowledged and respected. To see pictures of the
above planes to show how they differed to meet the differing circumstances
in which they were deployed, go to:
http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/spitmark.htm
"Dinger's" Aviation Pages has many other planes including the Hawk, the
Messerschmitt BF109, and lots of other info and aviation links. Go to:
http://freespace.virgin.net/john.dell/index.htm
Hope that's of interest, if not very relevant to Jan's query.
73 - David, G4EBT @ GB7FCR
QTH: Cottingham, East Yorkshire.
Message timed: 09:18 on 2005-Dec-16
Message sent using WinPack-Telnet V6.70
(Registered).
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
