Spitfire MkXIV vs Vampire 1 1946

Geoff,
This is interesting news to me. Does that mean one is able to get a copy of the movement card of any Spitfire? If so, how to go about it?
—
Allan

Allan,

All you need to do is email DoRIS at Hendon [EMAIL]research@rafmuseum.org[/EMAIL], giving them the aircraft type & serial number, and your address. It generaly takes about four weeks for the photocopy to come through.

Geoff.

I can recall reading about similar trials between a Spitfire and the English Electric Lightning. It seems there was a possibility of the Lightnings meeting some P51’s in combat and the Spit was the closest thing the RAF had at the time.
The results were quite startling. Having a very small heat signature the Spit wasn’t a good target for the Lightnings heat seeking missiles and if the Lightning pilot slowed down to dogfight using the cannons it could well end up losing! I seem to recall that was another of Alfred Price’s books.
—
Allan

This was discussed here not so long ago – a search might bring it up and fill in any gaps not filled here yet (I’d hope) – Nermal

Aircraft Movement cards – trust

You used to be able to view the original cards at the Air Historical Branch MoD
by prior arrangement. You probably still can

I am talking pre photocopier times here – early 1970’s. The cards had to be transcribed by hand and it was time consuming. Trust was involved.

With the forming of the RAF Museum all the cards were microfisched and this subsequently became a very convenient and superior access point.

A gentleman, who shall be nameless, took it upon himself to remove a large number of the important cards including those of the majority of the surviving Spitfires known at the time. 😡 Philistine! 😡

Thankfully myself and one other had transcribed the ‘missing’ Spitfire cards although there have been several occasion when I would have liked to re-check an original.

Mark

Makes you wonder how good the rest of the info is?

I would view any of the potted aircraft histories in ‘STH’ as suspect until you’ve had the chance to compare it with the relevant Aircraft movement Card. A lot of entries have been edited out, such as when an aircraft returns to it’s previous unit after repair – so you can’t tell if it went back, or on to a new unit. Some of the squadron/unit numbers are wrong, mainly due to misreading the Movement Card, i.e. 137 Sqn has been put down rather than 131 Sqn. I just use the potted histories as a rough guide until the photocopy of the Movement Card comes through from Hendon. I’ve built up quite a collection of Movement Card photocopies, & not just Spits in this way.

Geoff.

Long Melford!!! Now there’s a place, are you sure it was a bookshop and not an antiques shop?
Couple of good secondhand bookshops in Sudbury as well if you are in the area.

My brother lives in Sudbury and it was definitley a second hand book shop in Long Melford. We’d gone there for the book fair but it wasn’t on for some reason. My brother works for a KTM dealership in North Essex.

Spitfire v Lightning

Here’s the picture from page 158 of “Spitfire – A Complete Fighting History” by Dr. Price. Yes, it was to do with Indonesian Mustangs, although he says “. . . we felt that in the end a competent Lightning pilot could almost always get the better of an equally competent Spitfire (or Mustang) pilot.”

I have the complete history by Ed Shacklady and another bloke but I tend to use it as a reference work because lets face it its not an ideal bedtime book, because your arms start to ache trying to hold it up.

Who did the Documentary History and Spitfire at war Daz? I don’t like gaps in my Spitfire library. 😀

Funny, I read mine at bedtime when I was in high school! 😀

Alfred Price did both the Documentary History and Spitfire at War. I don’t have the latter two (and there was a part 3, too) but I do have the former. A look on e-bay should bring about one or other of them.

Allen I picked that one up in a second hand book shop in Long Melford about 3 weeks ago. I haven’t had much of a chance to read through it though. I think thats the one, its quite an old book isn’t it?

Long Melford!!! Now there’s a place, are you sure it was a bookshop and not an antiques shop?
Couple of good secondhand bookshops in Sudbury as well if you are in the area.

Allen I picked that one up in a second hand book shop in Long Melford about 3 weeks ago. I haven’t had much of a chance to read through it though. I think thats the one, its quite an old book isn’t it?

Yep – and I think the Vampire episode was in “Spitfire – A Documentary History”, and the Lightning trial was either in “Spitfire Story” or “Spitfire – A Complete Fighting History” (Spitfire at War vols. 1 & 2)

I have the complete history by Ed Shacklady and another bloke but I tend to use it as a reference work because lets face it its not an ideal bedtime book, because your arms start to ache trying to hold it up.

Who did the Documentary History and Spitfire at war Daz? I don’t like gaps in my Spitfire library. 😀

Yep – and I think the Vampire episode was in “Spitfire – A Documentary History”, and the Lightning trial was either in “Spitfire Story” or “Spitfire – A Complete Fighting History” (Spitfire at War vols. 1 & 2)

I can recall reading about similar trials between a Spitfire and the English Electric Lightning. It seems there was a possibility of the Lightnings meeting some P51’s in combat and the Spit was the closest thing the RAF had at the time.
The results were quite startling. Having a very small heat signature the Spit wasn’t a good target for the Lightnings heat seeking missiles and if the Lightning pilot slowed down to dogfight using the cannons it could well end up losing! I seem to recall that was another of Alfred Price’s books.
—
Allan

Was that in preperation for possible action against Indonesia? I remember reading that one myself, it was a hell of an eye opener.