SPITFIRE F MK X11.MB882. photo & enquiry.

Zombie thread it sure but going thru Leif Lundstens logbook I noticed this one.

On the 21st of October 1943, Leif Lundsten took this brand new machine from Worthy Down (most likely?) to Hornchurch. Then he flew to North Weald to say hello to his former collegues. I would take a guess that anyone being there that day would be impressed by this new and slightly different looking Spitfire compared to the Norwegians IX and Vb versions. From North Weald he took it to Wolly Down.

That’s an improvement on your previous registration Mark 🙂

A close run thing.

‘X eleven’ to most…but to some. 🙂

Mark

That’s an improvement on your previous registration Mark 🙂

what have the Romans done for us?

Thanks for that JDK, Point taken. Please see modified titles on both pics. FH.

‘X eleven’ to most…but to some. 🙂

Mark

You can’t get the Romans these days, have you noticed?

“What have the Romans done for us?”

“Well, a truly impenetrable numbering system for the Royal Air Force…”

“Well, yes, but is that useful?”

You are obviously doing good work, Flying High, so excuse me if I offer a small correction of presentation. You can’t have the Arabic numeral ‘1’ in Roman numbers. It should be ‘I’.

This is an increasingly common error these days, and you aren’t alone, but I presume you’d prefer to get it right! Therefore it’s ‘XII’ or ’12’ (not used by the RAF for the types in W.W.II) but never X11. Likewise XIV or 14, but not X1V.

Just a thought.

‘X eleven’ to most…but to some. 🙂

Mark

You are obviously doing good work, Flying High, so excuse me if I offer a small correction of presentation. You can’t have the Arabic numeral ‘1’ in Roman numbers. It should be ‘I’.

This is an increasingly common error these days, and you aren’t alone, but I presume you’d prefer to get it right! Therefore it’s ‘XII’ or ’12’ (not used by the RAF for the types in W.W.II) but never X11. Likewise XIV or 14, but not X1V.

Just a thought.

SPITFIRE F MK X111.MB882. Photo & enquiry.

Many thanks everybody, your knowledge always astounds me. It makes these images so much more interesting to look at, when one knows the details. Will post a CB photo of Spitfire MK X1V RB140 and what I have managed to find out about that so far. Might tie it in with a question about old photo restoration and how far should we go.
Thanks again, FH.

The photo was taken by Charles Brown from an Oxford, midmorning on October 17, 1943 between Worthy Down and Keevil near Trowbridge.

This from a letter I have from Clive Gosling who is the pilot of MB882 in that picture. Obviously it was taken prior to going to 41 Squadron. The well known in flight photos of DP845 were taken the previous day with F/L Gosling flying DP845 on that sortie as well.

I tried blowing up a good copy of another photo from the same flight but I can’t make out what the handwriting is.

As for 41 history, go here:

http://brew.clients.ch/Body41.htm

Lots of info from lots of folks. Much of my Spit XII stuff is there. MB882 was a Flight Commander’s aircraft, first flown by F/L Don Smith RAAF and then F/L Terry Spencer when Smith went on to command 453 squadron. It had one of the last two Spit XII kills of the war when F/L Spencer shot down LW “Experten” Bully Lang and his 190 on September 3, 1944. MB882 took hits to the tail during that fight. Spencer downed a number of V-1s flying MB882 and it’s the bird he was flying when he ‘tipped’ a V-1, something difficult to do in particular with a clipped wing Spit.

Peter Cowell was flying MB882 at low alt over the Channel when he ‘bounced’ off the water, shattering evenly all 4 blades about halfway down on each. He barely limped back at full throttle. This was in June 44.

Get me going on XIIs and I can talk or type for days 🙂

Dan

It looks like someone was maybe a bit over-eager when filling the main fuel tank – there seems to be some pretty good streaking on the paint below!

MB882
Mk XII
c/n 4840
Factory High Post HPA
Griffon IV
FF 24-9-43
33MU 24-11-43
41S ‘EB-B’ 21-12-43
ros 15-5-44
FLS Millfield 20-9-44
NFT
http://www.spitfires.ukf.net/p061.htm

2 Cowling fasteners
3a Looks like paint has come off the door attachment countersunk bolts
3e Fastener lock markings for the Oddie fasteners on the armoured access panel