The RAF Syerston Spitfire Gate Guard

I first studied and photographed this Spitfire at RAF Henlow in 1967. TE384 had been delivered to Henlow in February 1967 from Syerston where it was to be converted to a ‘Markaddie’ for taxi work in the Battle of Britain film.

At the time I did not take particular notice of the unit codes, XT-C on the port side and C-XT on the starboard side, in white.

The puzzle is that in the intervening 47 years not one image has surfaced of TE384 painted in these white codes on Syerston gate.

There are plenty of other shots on the gate, in all over sliver, in camouflage with red XT-C codes, some dated as late as mid 1965.

So with Newark Air Museum and Neville Franklin, editor of Control Column magazine, so close, why is this?

Can anybody solve the mystery?

Mark