Can anyone identify this RAF T-Bolt?

Here they are. The colour side view is by Mark Postlethwaite & the photo is credited to ‘A.S. Wilson’.

Geoff.

Excellent stuff, thanks very much. 😉

Just I was reading India…. it occurred to me that this livery looks very very similar to that applied to a Spitifire MK V at the OTU at Fayid, that Stan Colley had shared with us back in the summer.

Mark

Now THERE’S a colour scheme for a model…

Just a pity I don’t have a MkV kit to hand! :rolleyes:

😀

any chance of some please pics Geoff? 🙂

Here they are. The colour side view is by Mark Postlethwaite & the photo is credited to ‘A.S. Wilson’.

Geoff.

Thanks guys that helps a lot. Gonna have to find out more about the red/silver lightning bolt, any chance of some please pics Geoff? 🙂

In ‘Royal Air Force Thunderbolts’ by Geoff Thomas (AIR Research Publications) there is a b&w photo of this aircraft with the following caption;-

‘KJ348 (44-20508). This P-47D-30-RE, one of five delivered to Alexandria in October 1944 became the personal aircraft of the Chief Instructor at 73 OTU, Fayid. Painted black with ‘silver’ [sic] cowling and ‘lightning flash’, this Thunderbolt retained standard roundels outlined in yellow under the wings’ The photo is credited to ‘A.S. Wilson’.

There is a colour side view of the same aircraft on the back cover which also shows the areas which are red on your side view, as being silver.

Geoff

Just I was reading India…. it occurred to me that this livery looks very very similar to that applied to a Spitifire MK V at the OTU at Fayid, that Stan Colley had shared with us back in the summer.

Mark

In ‘Royal Air Force Thunderbolts’ by Geoff Thomas (AIR Research Publications) there is a b&w photo of this aircraft with the following caption;-

‘KJ348 (44-20508). This P-47D-30-RE, one of five delivered to Alexandria in October 1944 became the personal aircraft of the Chief Instructor at 73 OTU, Fayid. Painted black with ‘silver’ [sic] cowling and ‘lightning flash’, this Thunderbolt retained standard roundels outlined in yellow under the wings’ The photo is credited to ‘A.S. Wilson’.

There is a colour side view of the same aircraft on the back cover which also shows the areas which are red on your side view, as being silver.

Geoff

Is that image a homage to a banana?:confused:

Flood

Found the following on the web with a quick google, it would appear to be correct serial number.
Thunderbolt II fighters were from the
P-47D-25/-30-RE and the P-47D-30/-40-RA production blocks, and four
main batches were delivered–serials HD182 to HD301, KJ128 to KJ367,
KL168 to KL347, and KL838 to KL976.

Except for a few evaluation aircraft, these were all operated by the RAF from India for ground-attack operations, known as “cab rank” sorties, against the Japanese in Burma. They were armed with 225 kilogram (500 pound) bombs, or in some cases the British “60-pounder” rocket projectiles. The Thunderbolts remained in RAF service for a short time after the war, the last of them being phased out of service in October 1946.