Mystery Sabre

Thanks for looking! This is my worry – it starts to look like a rumoured paint scheme that has almost slipped into “fact” without any pictures to support it. I’m not encouraged! 🙂

Sad to say I have turned up zilch in the way of photo coverage. Typically I did find two or three of it as the Geilenkirchen WL aircraft however.

I’m fairly sure that I have a 1:72 scale decal sheet with markings for XB948.
There are a number of photos on the accompanying reference sheet; whether or not there is a photo of this aircraft is another matter.
When I get home, I’ll dig out the sheet and check for you.

Don

If I recall, the description of the markings came from crews who were at Jever. I have a large amount of RAF Sabre shots so will have a good look.

Thanks for the feedback. I’ve only managed to find drawings and written references to this machine, so I’m still unsure as to whether it really did carry these markings. If you find anything Sabrejet that would be great!

Perhaps well-known, but there seem to have been two Sabres carrying this serial. See http://www.mar.co.uk/cms/upload/@MAR.pdf

Well the old Alzheimer’s must be kicking in. It was a few years ago now, but I see I wrote the following:

Jever/122 Wing Leader. Wg Cdr ‘Hammer’ West had XB948 assigned. This aircraft carried a red and white checkered tail.

No photos I can find at the moment, but it does now ring a bell and I think I have a cine film somewhere showing it.

I just looked through my docs and I see XB948 was ferried 5 MU to 138 (Jever) Wing circa 13Apr54. It was then Geilenkirchen Wing Leader’s aircraft from 29Jul55 until returned to the UK in May56.

Maybe it’s not fictitious after all. I’ll have a look through my Sabre photos.

Looks like a fictitious version of Johnny Johnson’s aircraft: he had two or three with red tails.