Johnson's Normandy Spitfire

The overwhelming majority of profiles and other illustrations of MK392 are basically EN398 with the serial number changed and black and white stripes added. The real MK392 had Js with flat bottoms, not rounded, no maple leaf badges and pennant. There are two known photographs of MK392 now published in 2nd Tactical Air Force volume four. One photo was taken in late summer 1944 with partial D-Day stripes and the other in winter 1945, no longer with the D-Day stripes and the Sky fuselage band painted out and spinner painted black.

You can see one of the photos here:

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/ISL/Water%20Mark%20Decals/48001-48010/48004/WM48004.htm

Many Thanks, yes I have all the 2nd TAF books and wish to build an accurate model of Johnsons MkIX. Victory Productions in the USA are one of the few decal manufacturers to get the look of the codes right,unfortunately they are currently out of print. My problem is with the armament of MK392 which the newly discovered photos do not show. As I said all photos of Johnson in Normandy show him posed against an E wing MkIX with .50 cal yet all current thinking has him flying a c wing with .303 machine guns outboard.

MK392 – C or E wing?

I know this is not specific – and the Winco’s kite may be a special case – but the 2nd TAF Orders of Battle show which Wings were equipped with ‘Spit.IX LF 0.5’. Neither of Johnson’s Wings (No 144 which was disbanded in July, nor No 127 to which he subsequently transferred) show as having anything but standard LF.IXs. Eventually, 127 wing re-equipped with Spitfire LF.XVIs in October 1944.

Johnson may have been trialling the 0.5 of course, or just thought he’d jump the gun (sorry) in the re-equipment programme.