BorderWarrior
Airman
My Grandfather was a Cpl Aircraft Fitter in the desert during most of the war, amongst his many postings he was assigned to the maintenance of two secret Mk IX Spitfires that were modified to take out the German high altitude reconnaissance aircraft that flew over daily, and were out of reach of our aircraft at the time.
These Spitfires were stripped down to the bare minimum to save weight and the engines were tuned and operated from forward airfields and at the time were highly secret. The cockpits were pressurised to get to the same altitude as the German aircraft and no doubt shocked them as they were taken out, they sent over another three aircraft that were also shot down and the flights stopped for a while then they reappeared flying at an even greater altitude, which required further modifications to the Spitfires.
The next time the Spitfires engaged the enemy the guns jammed, this led to the discovery that the rounds were oversized and had blocked the breech the first time they were fired.
It also revealed that there was a saboteur in the USA where the ammo was produced who was deliberately making them to the wrong size and was subsequently arrested, their fate is unknown to me, maybe someone over the pond knows more?
My Grandfather recalled that it made there job a nightmare making up the ammo belts as each individual round had to be measured to ensure they were correct!
Eventually the reconnaissance flights stopped after they kept getting shot down, I dont know about the number of one of the Spits but the one in the photo is JK980 and I found the following info on her from the production pages:
JK980 IX CBAF M63 :15MU 28-3-43, 47MU 8-4-43, Empire Barrie(Cargo Ship) 2-5-43, Casablanca 17-5-43, Middle East 1-7-43, Armee de l'Air 25-7-46
So from this it can be seen that she survived the war and was transferred to the French, where it is possible she was one of the Spitfires sent to Vietnam to deal with the insurgents at the time?
Maybe someone has more info on these aircraft?
Hope the photos are of use.Grandad is on the right hand side, second in next to armourer and on the right in the frontal shot.
Steve
These Spitfires were stripped down to the bare minimum to save weight and the engines were tuned and operated from forward airfields and at the time were highly secret. The cockpits were pressurised to get to the same altitude as the German aircraft and no doubt shocked them as they were taken out, they sent over another three aircraft that were also shot down and the flights stopped for a while then they reappeared flying at an even greater altitude, which required further modifications to the Spitfires.
The next time the Spitfires engaged the enemy the guns jammed, this led to the discovery that the rounds were oversized and had blocked the breech the first time they were fired.
It also revealed that there was a saboteur in the USA where the ammo was produced who was deliberately making them to the wrong size and was subsequently arrested, their fate is unknown to me, maybe someone over the pond knows more?
My Grandfather recalled that it made there job a nightmare making up the ammo belts as each individual round had to be measured to ensure they were correct!
Eventually the reconnaissance flights stopped after they kept getting shot down, I dont know about the number of one of the Spits but the one in the photo is JK980 and I found the following info on her from the production pages:
JK980 IX CBAF M63 :15MU 28-3-43, 47MU 8-4-43, Empire Barrie(Cargo Ship) 2-5-43, Casablanca 17-5-43, Middle East 1-7-43, Armee de l'Air 25-7-46
So from this it can be seen that she survived the war and was transferred to the French, where it is possible she was one of the Spitfires sent to Vietnam to deal with the insurgents at the time?
Maybe someone has more info on these aircraft?
Hope the photos are of use.Grandad is on the right hand side, second in next to armourer and on the right in the frontal shot.
Steve
You have something there to be very proud of.
Oh, and welcome to the forum sir.
