126 Squadron Spitfires May to December 1944

Hi Edgar, thanks very much for that input.
Yes, I’d already got the 126 sqn Appendices to the ORB which did provide some snippets but nothing about the names. It was very useful for other things e.g. detailing aircraft loadouts for specific dates, such as on D-Day, all the aircraft were fitted with the 45 gallon jettisonable tanks.
I found a copy of ‘Gifts of War’ myself last week and did find that there were several Persian Gulf Aircraft which had previously been allocated to other squadrons. It listed ‘Bahrain III’ as a MkIXt (tropical?) and as you say, with the timings it doesn’t look like the same aircraft that was in the December IWM photo called ‘Bahrain III’. It also mentioned that aircraft were sometimes renamed or re-allocated and that regarding the Persian Fund names:- ‘There appears to have been no request that any of these names be applied to aircraft of No 126 (Persian Gulf) Sqn, equipped with Spitfires and later Mustangs’.
So I was starting to come to a similar sort of conclusion that perhaps the association with 126 Sqn and the aircraft might have only begun that December (unless a photograph showing a named aircraft is found).

There are, occasionally, appendices to ORBs available to view, at Kew, and (even more occasionally) they can include photographs; unfortunately, since the ORBs were only photographed and put onto negative film, all you get is a negative image of the original photo. There is an appendix for 126 Squadron, but I’ve never looked at it.
I was asked to look at this “Persian Gulf Squadron” business, for an American model company, and, according to the ORB, it was not named, as such, until the day of the presentation. In “Gifts of War,” there’s a photo of “Bahrain III,” allegedly EN137, but I would bet money that it’s a “ringer,” since EN137 arrived in Gibraltar 6-2-43, remained in the Middle East thereafter, and there’s a woman, looking remarkably like Lady Fowle (or Foule, according to the ORB) also in the photo, which points to the photo being taken during the presentation/naming ceremony.
I have this nagging suspicion, though I guess that evidence will be extremely hard to find, that the naming of the individual aircraft was only done just before the VIP’s visit.

…a collection of photos taken by Harold Bird Wilson…

There are one or two clips ‘taken’ by him in the gun camera film ‘collection’…
He was also in 64 Squadron – mentioned a few times by Tony Cooper when I went to visit him last year.

Thanks very much again Mark12, that’s brilliant. First time I’ve seen that one.
It looks like a crop from a bigger photo. Can you tell me the photo’s source at all please and does it have a date?
It certainly looks to have the same stripes/letter on the tail/partially obscured fuselage code letter, layout as the 5J-L photo and I’m guessing this would still be in June?
If it was before the 20th June (when John Plagis took over the Sqn), then this would still have been S/Ldr Swinden’s aircraft and there might have been a pennant on it either on this or the other side (I can’t make out for sure because of photo distortions if there is actually a lighter rectangle visible below and slightly forward of the windscreen, as in a pennant, or just a lighter reflection/staining on the fuselage as it curves?). Not sure if it’s an eye trickery based upon the power of suggestion or not.
I’m especially pleased to see a period photo of this one anyway, with it being still preserved in a museum today.

It would be really useful if a photo of ML214 ‘K’ surfaced from sometime around this era, showing the port side, as I have wondered what date the ‘Muscat’ lettering had been applied and a ‘white or grey smudge’ would be all that’s required in that case.
Also if any of the Squadron’s other aircraft displayed a hint of a name on the port side before December.
Thank you very much again, much appreciated. Bob.

MK923 5J-Z

Thanks very much for posting these Mark12. I have seen these before, plus another side-on view, but had (probably incorrectly) perhaps assumed (and I know that’s got to be a dodgy thing to do when trying to research something properly) that possibly because of the way the cannons were painted here (I don’t know if this was a 126 sqn normal thing or not as I’ve not come across any other shots except the crash landed 5J-L MK989 of W/O Hinten, RAAF, seen on the fundekals page link at the bottom, which has regular camouflaged cannon) that these might have been ‘perked up’ specially for the December Persian Gulf Fund presentation ceremony – which might make this ‘post presentation in December’ photo).

I’ve just been looking through the 64 sqn Operational Record Book (as 126 Sqn became their Wing partners after 611 Sqn, in July 1944).
They seem to have operated quite a few times jointly as a Wing on operations and also quite often went off to Ford, or Tangmere as a base for an op, only to return again to Harrowbeer in the evening or next day (so I’m hoping that some photos may surface from these locations perhaps?).

It also said in the 64 sqn ORB dated 24th July 1944, that there was a squadron photo in the morning and a Wing photograph in the afternoon. ‘Both of these ought to turn out well as they were taken in this glorious sunshine which we experience all too little round here’. I’d love to see those if they still existed somewhere.

Thanks again, Bob.

http://www.fundekals.com/spitfirePlagis.html

MK126 5J-G.