"Make mine a Pint, a cold one"

Mods. If this is true it should maybe in Historical, however, I thought it was so ingenious, I put it here.;)

I was sent this info, together with photos in an email from a friend in the U.S. of A. and it looks genuine.

As a Nation of strictly none moaners,:D I was surprised that in WW11 our lads in Normandy made it known that they missed their pint of beer, as usual, being a Nation of very resourceful folks, the R.A.F. came up with the following. They got hold of aa one or two Spitfires, after the Brewery, Henger and Constable, offered our lads free beer, the only problem was delivery as the top brass said no, being typicaly British, the RAF used Mk1X Spitfires which had pylons fitted under each wings to carry ordnance,they were adapted slightly to carry one beer cask under each wing (Photo of said in email, but I am unaware if possible to post here).This idea went down well, pardon the Pun, so well, that altitude was made prior to landing to get the beer cool. A later mod, was to fit long range fuel tanks with beer, delivered, cleaned out and sent back to GB for a re fill. This was going along quite nicely UNTIL……………………..yep, you have guessed it H.M. Excise stopped it, under the guise of exporting the beer without paying taxes, W.T.F. these chaps were fighting for their Country, not sitting behind a desk.

I am informed that 65 Squadron were the main Bootleggers.and saviours of our lads.

True or not it certainly made me think, every cloud realy HAS got a silver lining, and the RAF has a great sense of being quick in coming up with a solution to any problems.
As I have said, my friend sent photos of the Spits with the beer casks fitted in flight, and also with the long range fuel tanks,The wooden casks left very little ground clearance, which is no doubt why they then used the L.R. fuel/beer tanks.
Jim.
Lincoln .7