Help plse with Spitfire ops in Cyprus 1943.

DJJ – my sincere thanks. I didn’t expect such a comprehensive reply! 🙂

A by no-means complete list to start you off, sourced from a very quick look at Jeff Jefford’s book on RAF squadrons:

127 Squadron operated from Cyprus (with Spitfire Vs [and Hurricane IICs for a bit) in 1943; with detatchments at Paphos and Nicosia;

274 had a det in Cyprus as well in August 43;

603 Squadron might have been there, but I can’t quite decide from the info I’ve got here at home whether they had their aeroplanes with them, or whether it was the ground echelon (but the squadron history will tell you);

74 Squadron was certainly there with Spitfire IXs (have a look at Bob Cossey’s ‘Tigers: The Story of No. 74 Squadron, RAF’ for more).

Hope that’s a small help to start you off – if you don’t get any further, Jefford’s book (‘RAF Squadrons’ pub. by Airlife) gives a list of the bases of every squadron, and you can cross reference the bases on Cyprus with the squadron numbers; you could have the complete answer to your question after a couple of hours of cross referencing between the list of who was based where and the squadron equipment list.