Excuse my ignorance

I’m not sure what ‘changing roundel’ means, it’s always been blue outside, red inside, ever since they changed it from the Union flag near the end of 1914.

Excuse my ignorance…

…the comment in the first post re the changing of the roundel has piqued my interest, can anybody supply a brief overview of this as i’ve not registared it previously.

Thank you folks I knew I could rely on this forum for a sensible answer. I could not believe how long it took to get one though. Normally questions posted on here go unanswered for about an hour at the most. I guess the people with the answer to this one have been away from their computers for a while. I suppose we all need liquid refreshment occasionally.

It’s one of the little-spoken of facts that at around this time the British military began to be wary of the French, and war with France seemed most likely to be the next major european conflict.

There’s still time 😉

As written by Bruce Robertson:-
15 Aug.30 Notification that R.A.F. aircraft would have the order of rudder striping changed from blue, white and red from the rudder post to red, white and blue. Contractors notified that this would be effected from 29.Sep.30. Aircraft in service were to be re-painted with two coats of bright red and bright blue, on the existing blue and red stripes respectively, and finished with one coat of clear dope by 31 Oct. 30.
Edgar

Actually, the wariness vs France is quite understandable, considering the rising of numerous Fascist groups in France in the 1920s & 30s.

Google:
Action Francaise
Jeunesses Patriotes
Faisceau
Cagoulards
Croix de Feu
Parti Populare Francais

Add in the fact that the Cartel des gauches {French for Left-wing Coalition} (the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO)) twice won general elections (in 1924 and in 1932) placing France under the control of a potentially hostile, borderline communist government.

Thus, the constitutional monarchy of the UK saw France as a definite possible opponent, if either extremist faction became firmly in control of the country.

I think Bager’s post can best be summed up as “What happens when someone with a decent brain says the things that you were trying to say”! Thanks Bager, you sum it up rather better than I did!

Actually, the wariness vs France is quite understandable, considering the rising of numerous Fascist groups in France in the 1920s & 30s.

Google:
Action Francaise
Jeunesses Patriotes
Faisceau
Cagoulards
Croix de Feu
Parti Populare Francais

Add in the fact that the Cartel des gauches {French for Left-wing Coalition} (the governmental alliance between the Radical-Socialist Party and the socialist French Section of the Workers’ International (SFIO)) twice won general elections (in 1924 and in 1932) placing France under the control of a potentially hostile, borderline communist government.

Thus, the constitutional monarchy of the UK saw France as a definite possible opponent, if either extremist faction became firmly in control of the country.

I’m by no means a member of the ‘Roundal Police’, but I thought as there hasn’t been much comment on this I’d chip in. IIRC the colours were swapped in the late 1920’s, there are pics of various 20’s types such as the Flycatcher and Gamecock with blue-white-red, but go forward into the 30’s with types such as the Hart and it swaps round to Red-White-Blue.

It’s one of the little-spoken of facts that at around this time the British military began to be wary of the French, and war with France seemed most likely to be the next major european conflict. This continued to be the case until Hitler became a serious threat in the late 30’s. I think the swap of fin flash colours was to ensure that they didn’t look like the French ones, and later in the 30’s fin flashes were done away with entirely for a while.

This ‘war with France’ thing was also the reason why RDF (Radar) stations were placed along the south coast, aswell as up the east coast, which is why Fighter Command ended up with RDF stations that were so handily placed in the summer of 1940…

That’s my tuppence worth!

I believe it was done during WW1 to distinguish British aircraft from French ones but which year??
Jim