RAF 5 Group Squadron Codes

Interesting to see this idea that the word “dull” was dropped throughout the war, when several A.M.O.s (e.g. A.664/42) specified dull red for serials and code letters on day & night bombers, night fighters, ASR, AOP, plus sundry other a/c, while the roundels were just listed as red/white/blue/yellow, and the Keeper of Aircraft and Research Studies, at Hendon, J.M.Bruce, said, in 1976, “Matt Red and Matt blue were used both prior to 1942 and after the war,” which implies that dull shades didn’t start before that date.
Also, the C.O., of Fighter Command, after the dimensions of the fuselage roundels were changed, by A.664/42, asked if would be possible, on night fighters, to drop the white and yellow rings completely, and proposed that the remaining colours should be Dull; doesn’t sound, from that, that the dull shades were already in use, does it?
Edgar

A RAE ‘Note on the Camouflage Painting of Aircraft’ dated 19 March 1936 gives the colours as being Yellow VYl, Dull Blue VN.B.6, White VW3 and Dull Red VN.R.5. These ‘dull’ shades were those already in use on Night Flying aircraft and ultimately the ‘Dull’ prefix was dropped and the colours simply became officially named Red and Blue. These names were then retained until 1947.

NB. Dull refers to the shade of the colour, not to it being matt. That is they were different colours to bright shades used on non-camouflaged aircraft.

Diameters:- Dull Red 18″, White 24″, Dull blue 48″, Yellow 54″.
During the war, colours were simply given numbers “in H.M.G. Aircraft series,” for example Dull Red took over 11A from Matt Red, which seems to be a fine source of confusion. Matt blue was 12 & 12A, so Dull Blue might have become 12A, but I haven’t been able to find out, for sure. Yellow appears to have been 2; white remains a mystery. B.S. appears to be a post-war classification.

Does anyone know the dimensions/ proportions of the Yellow edged roundel and the BS paint codes?

Autumn 1944 is about as close as I can get. 617 Sq had them for their Russian flights in September.

Many thanks would October 1944 onwards be about right ?

Briefly, it was done after the commencement of daylight operations in 1944, in order to render them more visible.

Not sure about the exact date, though.