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Is this the same fuel tank?

Jason

From just looking at the photos, then yes I think that they are the same type of fuel tank.
Here’s a photo of the tank again, but this time fitted to a Typhoon, showing the type of bracket that they did have detailed drawings of in the AVIA files at the national archives:-
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/Hawker_Typhoon_fuel_tank_fitting_WWII_IWM_CL_1725.jpg

Hi Edgar, thanks very much for that input.
Yes, I’d already got the 126 sqn Appendices to the ORB which did provide some snippets but nothing about the names. It was very useful for other things e.g. detailing aircraft loadouts for specific dates, such as on D-Day, all the aircraft were fitted with the 45 gallon jettisonable tanks.
I found a copy of ‘Gifts of War’ myself last week and did find that there were several Persian Gulf Aircraft which had previously been allocated to other squadrons. It listed ‘Bahrain III’ as a MkIXt (tropical?) and as you say, with the timings it doesn’t look like the same aircraft that was in the December IWM photo called ‘Bahrain III’. It also mentioned that aircraft were sometimes renamed or re-allocated and that regarding the Persian Fund names:- ‘There appears to have been no request that any of these names be applied to aircraft of No 126 (Persian Gulf) Sqn, equipped with Spitfires and later Mustangs’.
So I was starting to come to a similar sort of conclusion that perhaps the association with 126 Sqn and the aircraft might have only begun that December (unless a photograph showing a named aircraft is found).

Thanks very much for posting these Mark12. I have seen these before, plus another side-on view, but had (probably incorrectly) perhaps assumed (and I know that’s got to be a dodgy thing to do when trying to research something properly) that possibly because of the way the cannons were painted here (I don’t know if this was a 126 sqn normal thing or not as I’ve not come across any other shots except the crash landed 5J-L MK989 of W/O Hinten, RAAF, seen on the fundekals page link at the bottom, which has regular camouflaged cannon) that these might have been ‘perked up’ specially for the December Persian Gulf Fund presentation ceremony – which might make this ‘post presentation in December’ photo).

I’ve just been looking through the 64 sqn Operational Record Book (as 126 Sqn became their Wing partners after 611 Sqn, in July 1944).
They seem to have operated quite a few times jointly as a Wing on operations and also quite often went off to Ford, or Tangmere as a base for an op, only to return again to Harrowbeer in the evening or next day (so I’m hoping that some photos may surface from these locations perhaps?).

It also said in the 64 sqn ORB dated 24th July 1944, that there was a squadron photo in the morning and a Wing photograph in the afternoon. ‘Both of these ought to turn out well as they were taken in this glorious sunshine which we experience all too little round here’. I’d love to see those if they still existed somewhere.

Thanks again, Bob.

http://www.fundekals.com/spitfirePlagis.html