Looks very much indeed like a PR Spitfire . I just wonder if this is southern Italy ( with something like a 221 Wimpey in the backgound if it was Foggia or Grottagli?) Just a muse. Anybody got anything firmer?

Lets keep the pot stirred. #9 David Burke raised the very pertinent perspective ref. Volunteer Museums.
I cannot agree more about the rights of individuals to preserve what they like and I would hate to be thought to be advocating a sort of “preservation police” .
However, 🙂 look at the chaos with Vulcans and other expensive heavy metal, including Concordes. The cost to preserve these machines, over any length of time is pretty frightening, requiring huge hangarage and other support assets . Let’s be brutal; do we need to waste a lot of time, expense and effort , inevitably failing in the long term, attempting to preserve half a squadron of Concordes? We have 2 TSR2’s, yet only one Valiant. The early Comet series ,for example, is not well represented for the long term yet surely is of enormous significance technologically. My point is that this big stuff needs to be looked at carefully and preservation assets applied judiciously . Would not such a policy surely then free up assets for many other less grandiose projects , involving partnerships and volunteer groups?

The/A + Tu 154 was destroyed in a Mid-air off West Africa ( C141? by memory ) whilst taking a sports team to RSA.
The Brits put forward an Andover in the early days with the US C-135 (s), again by memory.
All very much a political programme, deliberately with a low capability in real terms and pretty much eclipsed in the open arena by the evolution of Commercial Hi-Res Satellites.

I was only aware of one ex-Norwegian 115 based in Malta which was destroyed fairly early on by a direct hit on its hangar, and one other, again ex Norwegian, used briefly from Woodhaven in the U.K. before being broken up. There were certainly a fair number of aircraft of German origin used by the RAF and its allied air forces in various guises e.g. SAAF Ju 86s
In the Mediterranean and African region many captured aircraft were pressed into service as hacks or used as personal or squadron trophies before being written off, or , in the case of some Italian trophies, even handed over to the co-belligerent airforce.
Some aircraft “came across” , by fair means or foul , and probably the full story will never come out in many cases – e.g. the Ju 88 in RAFM. There are also many unproven stories of aircraft flying in and out of U.K. from Germany on “peace” missions in the early part of the war.
A lot of the K.G. 200 story has been somewhat exaggerated, largely through an unfortunate fictional book of some years ago. Keeping large numbers of captured aircraft flying covertly is not a realistic exercise on logistical or security grounds. Nevertheless there is a lot that hasn’t come out for sure so this should be an interesting thread to follow!

Brilliant!! 🙂 Very enjoyable and well suckered!

No idea how the Shackleton name was picked
One story is that there was a Chadwick family connection………….( by memory on the female side)

Jagx 204 .Once the owner checks the size out – agreed. That was my only reservation.

Long shot – CR 42 oil cooler radiator intake wing root fairing??