Thank you gentlemen.

Beaufighter VI

Apologies, I seem to have got my Fiats crossed, as it were.

DD

Further to the attack by the ITAF the inteligence report reveals that 85/16 MM6976 still carried 800 rounds of 7.7mm & 200 to 300 rounds of 12.7mm. No armour plate was fitted to the aircraft and it suffered 3 strikes on the port tail plane, three in the rudder and five in the stbd. side of the fuselage.
It hit the top of the railway embankment wiping off the u/c, skidded into ploughed field. Taken to Farnborough.

Are you sure it wiped its undercarriage off?

Somewhere I recall, possibly in an old RAF Flying Review, seeing a CR42 standing on its nose on a shingle bank with its tail in the air, but otherwise looking pretty much undamaged. I always thought that that was the Hendon machine. I do also remember seeing a photo of another Fiat as you describe, on its belly and badly damaged, but never associated this example with the one the RAF restored to flight.

DD

French Oscar

“Watched by a Japanese POW, an RAF officer gives a final briefing to a nervous looking Frenchman who is about to risk his neck in the rather tired-looking ‘Oscar’ ..”

Actually I’ve just made that up, but it could be true. Lots of former Japanese types on this site, nearly all seem to have been taken over by the French:

http://www.ww2shots.com/gallery/v/Weapons_+military+equipment/Air+Force/Japan/Japanese+Aircraft+Captured+by+the+Allies/France/Japanese+Aircraft+Captured+by+France-03-ww2shots-air+force.JPG.html

Pagen

3 Ki-43 ‘Oscar’, ‘D’ Armee d l’Air (?)

No doubt in my mind .

.DD

Bager 1968 explains it perfectly.

I would just add :

According to ” French Air Force, 1941-74″ , A. Van Haute, two fighter units were hastily despatched to Indo-China with their Spitfire IXs, but as the aircrew arrived at Saigon before their aircraft, they were compelled to start flying in captured Japanese planes. These took the form of 12 Nakajima Ki43 ‘Oscars’.

As for the Aeronavale ‘Jake’, a bit of googling came up with this, apparently Escadrille 8S had 4 of them :

http://www.postedeschoufs.com/aeronavale/1946_1962/5%20L’Indochine/l_indochine.htm

HTH

DD

Hope this is of use to others in aviation research and modelling on a era rarely shown.

http://www.vietnam-airsoft.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1795&start=80

Regards

Phil[/QUOTE]

Agreed, some of the pictures are not of French operated aircraft, but thank you for the ones of the Oscar and the floatplane which are in French markings. The floatplane is, I think, an Aichi E13A1 ‘Jake’.

A very interesting period, indeed, with plenty of make do and mend- not ideal in aviation.

DD

Carlos,

That’s a very interesting story on a great website.

I look forward to the forthcoming film on the shooting down of the KLM flight that was carrying the actor Leslie Howard.

Thanks for posting and Happy New Year.

DD

[QUOTE=pagen01;1836821]

On t’internet there are some pictures of a flying model Hunter with the yellow tail and wing bands (about half span), could that be one of the Brawdy aircraft?

I haven’t seen the pictures of the model that you mention, but from the description it sounds more like the scheme applied to some Central Fighter Establishment (CFE) Hunter F.6’s in the early ’60s. I believe the Revell 1/72nd Hunter F.6 kit box art shows this.

DD