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- #221
Gerry
Staff Sergeant
Thanks le_steph40, I was amazed to see this old thread getting a new lease of life! I wanted to check my facts before replying and have now done so.
The aircraft above is indeed BL 822. This was a replacement aircraft, prepared by the pilots of 602 Sqn for S/Ldr Finucane after his clash with two Focke-Wulfs on February 20 1942. During the battle, where Finucane was accompanied by P/O Lewis as his No 2, his aircraft BL 548 sustained damage from machine gun fire and Finucane was wounded in his thigh and suffered extensive blood loss before safely landing back at Kenley. Brendan was hospitalised and, along with convalescent leave, didn't return to the squadron until March 13th. In his absence BL 548 was sent for extensive repairs and then reassigned to 452 Sqn - Finucane's old unit.
It was during this period of leave that 602 Sqn prepared BL 822 in his personal markings and code. However, according to the Squadron Operational Record Books (ORBS) and Finucane's log books, He only ever test-flew BL 822 once, on March 19, for an Air and Cannon test. There is no notation as to what the problem was, if any, but he was known, by his ground crews, to be quite fussy as to the state of his aircraft and perhaps, this one just didn't feel right. BL 822 served with 602 Sqn only until 9/3/42 when it was transferred to 350 Sqn.
The Spitfire in your second post is definitely BM 124. This is part of a series of photos taken by a Life Magazine photographer at Kenley on 26 March 1942. You're right about Queen Salote - it's not on the cowling at this time.
BM124 was a presentation aircraft assigned specially to S/Ldr Finucane rather than the squadron generally - something very rare indeed. It was delivered on 14 March 1942 and Finucane more or less flew it continuously until 18 June '42, when he hit the ground with a wingtip while landing. The aircraft was badly damaged and, although returned to the squadron after extensive repair, was never again flown by Finucane.
It had been presented by Queen Salote and the people of Tonga. Sometime, probably during early June, a photo shoot was arranged by the MOI for propaganda purposes and distribution to the media in Tonga. It was for this, I believe, that the 'Queen of Salote' title was painted on the cowling. This, as it turned out, was incorrect. It should have read 'Queen Salote' The error was picked up by someone in the MOI in a memo dated July 1942. What happened then was that the 'of' was crudely scraped off the negatives. Three photos of this session are still held in the IWM collection and the 'retouching' is very obvious in all three. However, It's possible that BM 124 was flying with the incorrect title until the error was spotted.
Sorry to have been so long winded but I hope that this helps explain why the slogan doesn't appear on all photographs of BM 124 and, to be quite honest, I've only even seen it on the three photographs taken for propaganda purposes.
Gerry