Three Supermarine Spitfires

Number 1.

I now look back to when I was a teenager about my first love. I ended up being seduced by the contours and I had to touch them, plus the make up fitted the surroundings, and I had a life long love affair that toyed with my desires, that never ended over the decades, yes it was the Supermarine Spitfire aircraft.

The moment I have mentioned was cycling out to the local airfield to see the gate guardian. The base was called R.A.F. Turnhouse, near Edinburgh, Scotland and there was installed a Supermarine Spitfire L.F.XVI. RW393/7293M (Due to copyright, photos can be seen on the Turnhouse Spitfire page on the internet). The reason for this type of aircraft was because during WW2, R.A.F. 603 (City of Edinburgh) Auxiliary Squadron was based there and the little known fact is the first Luftwaffe aircraft to be shot down over Britain in WW2 was not in the South East corner of England but Scotland, which was a Heinkel He 111 bomber. This bomber was raiding the local major naval base at Rosyth a few miles from Turnhouse, and the squadrons aircraft were Spitfires. Another R.A.F. Squadron was based at another local airfield called Drem and they were the R.A.F. 602 (City of Glasgow) Auxiliary Squadron who were also flying Spitfires and as people in any two large cities in any country know they both had a great rivalry with each other as it is still disputed which one of these squadrons shot down the first enemy, as they were both involved on this occasion. Both 602 & 603 Squadrons went on to be very successful during WW2 with fine records. One unique (unless somebody knows others) thing about Turnhouse Airfield is to the North was a major road that had traffic lights to stop traffic crossing at the end of the runway while aircraft took off or landed and was controlled from the tower. This road is no longer there as a new runway was built when Commercial Airlines got bigger planes and needed a longer runway. This gate guardian aircraft started out being ordered on the 20/01/ 1944, being built at Castle Bromwich. Its first port of call was No. 6 Maintenance Unit on the 20/07/1945, then No. 203 Advanced Flying School on 3/11/1947. On 22/01/1948 its next move was the Fighter Command Control and reporting School to train fighter controllers. In 1949 the aircraft received its highest honour by being the personal mount of AOC Fighter Command Air Marshal Sir William Elliot GCVO, KCB, KBE, DFC & Bar, whilst on charge with No.31 Squadron at R.A.F. Hendon. The plane was painted white overall, with a red flash either side of the fuselage and made up with red crosses and blue serial numbers see the site of (http://www.sonsofdamien.co.uk/RW393.htm), in 1951 it was damaged by an unknown pilot and after repairs at 58 M.U. it returned to No. 31 Squadron. In 1953 it moved to No. 3 Civilian Anti-Aircraft Co-Operation unit. From July 1954 until Dec 1955 it was with no. 45 M.U. at Kinloss in Scotland. It was then allocated to No. 603 Squadron in 1955 as an instructional aircraft serial 7293, then No. 602 Squadron for one year and then returned to No 603 Squadron at Turnhouse for its longest home site as a Gate Guardian from 9/03/1957 (except being refurbished for one year between 1975/1976) to 1989. In 1995 it moved to R.A.F. Cardington for two months. On 1/05/1995 it was on display at the Aerospace Museum Cosford and on the 8/01/2003 it moved to R.A.F. Stafford for storage. Now comes the time it was transported back and forward by road between the museum at Cosford and R.A.F.M. Hendon, plus R.A.F. Stafford from 2005 to 2015 and now resides with the R.A.F. Museum Hendon in London in 2018. It is unfortunate that after being so long in Scotland, it would have been nice to have seen it at the local museum, based at East Fortune. Here history was made in 1919 when the R34 airship that was built by the Beardmore Company at lnchinnan, near Glasgow, Scotland, took off from East Fortune and heading across to New York, America and back again from the 2nd of July to the 13th of July 1919.

You find that in the U.K. the Battle of Britain was celebrated as the start of saving Democracy over Facism at the R.A.F. airfields around the country and all types of aircraft called in to Turnhouse, some that were still later versions of planes from WW2, including the U.S.A.F. At that time what seemed to be the only Battle in the world, was the Battle of Britain compared to now where others have become researched more and are celebrated by other countries for other reasons. This Battle is relevant to another story about the Supermarine Spitfire.

To be continued.