Last action of the Spitfire..

You might want to check out this website
IAF v RAF
It will give you an overview of the IAF vs RAF actions in 1949, here's a few pictures



And this website has a nice painting
ISRAELI AIR FORCE FIRST DECADE 1948 - 1958

I'm not sure of the timeframe, but Spitfires were also used in the Malaysian campaigns (early '50s?).

The final military sorties of the Spitfire were mock combats flown against RAF Lightnings in, if I remember rightly, 1962. They were brought temporarily out of retirement so that Lightning pilots could train against slower flying piston fighters as the RAF were preparing for the possibility of taking on Indonesian P-51's and fancied a bit of DACT, as it would now be called, beforehand. As far as I am aware this was the last time the Spitfire flew on military duty other than BBMF duties.

That would have been interesting to watch a Spitfire against a Lightning!
The Lightning was developed as an Interceptor to combat Soviet Bombers probing the UK's air defences. It had a tremendous rate of climb and was a fast jet. I thought it only carried air to air missiles - but could be mistaken? It would have to adopt a shoot and scoot tactic against a Spitfire or try to bounce it!
There are lots of threads which cover this same sort of differential in speeds in combat and the tactics needed to be successful.
Still would be fun to watch!

Yep, that's right Waynos - 1962. Results of the tests showed that the best way to combat a piston engine aircraft in a jet was to attack it from below and behind.

The Final Act
Air Vice Marshal John Nicholls CBE DFC AFC

In 1963 one of the few surviving airworthy Spitfires was flown in a battle trial against a Mach 2 Lightning fighter.

In 1963 I was the Wing Commander in charge of the Air Fighting Development Squadron (the successor to the earlier Air Fighting Development Unit) which was part of the Central Fighter Establishment at RAF Binbrook. Earlier, the CFE had taken on charge a Spitfire Mk XIX orginally intended for mounting on the station front gate: instead, she had been maintained in a flyable condition.

This was at the time of the Indonesian confrontation and, since the Indonesian Air Force operated a large number of P-51 fighters, we were very interested in discovering how best a Lightning might engage such an aircraft. In the RAF we did not have any P-51s but at Binbrook we did have our Spitfire with a performance which was, in many respects, similar. Thus it came about that our Spitfire came to be involved in a short battle trial pitted against a fighter which was her successor by three generations.

Of course, from the outset we knew that the Lightning could overtake the Spitfire by nearly a thousand miles per hour - there was no need to run a trial to prove that. But we did find that the piston-engined fighter presented a very poor target to infra-red homing missiles, especially from the rear aspect and since the Lightning would therefore very likely have to follow up its missile pass with a gun attack, a high overtaking speed would have made accurate firing very difficult. On the other hand, if the Lightning pilot slowed down too much he could end up playing the slower and more manoeuverable fighter's dogfighting game and lose.

None of this was new; we had learned the same lessons during trials flown between the Lightning and the Hunter. Another problem was that if the Spitfire pilot had sufficient warning of the attack, he could come around to meet it head-on - thus presenting the most difficult target of all.

In the end we evolved a type of attack that was the antithesis of all I had learned from my own operational experience of fighter vs fighter combat in Korea: instead of trying to get above the enemy and diving on him to attack, we found it best to use the Lightning's very high power:weight ratio to make a climbing attack from behind and below. From that angle the field of view from the Spitfire was poor, there was a good chance of achieving surprise and the infra-red source gave the best chance for missile acquisition.

If the Lightning pilot did not acquire the target or bring his guns to bear on his first pass, he could continue his steep climb - which the Spitfire could not hope to follow - and when out of range he could dive and repeat the process. Using such tactics, we felt that in the end a competent Lightning pilot could almost always get the better of an equally competent Spitfire (or P-51) pilot.

Almost certainly that trial at RAF Binbrook was the final operational act carried out in earnest in the Spitfire's long career.

Wonder if the best way to counter such an attack for the Spitfire would be to get down in the grass and force the Lightning to come down at him. Would create a very tricky problem for the jet.

timshatz said:

Wonder if the best way to counter such an attack for the Spitfire would be to get down in the grass and force the Lightning to come down at him. Would create a very tricky problem for the jet.

Click to expand...

I would imagine
the jet jock's task would be made nigh impossible by that move. They also don't disclose anything about the Spitfire/P-51 pilot's reaction to the failed first pass; he's not going sit there in his own little world waiting for the second pass to build up.

Great info mate! Had a feeling it was '63 too, but remembered it as '62....just goes to show, always trust your instincts!

Israeli Spitfire with Yugoslav Insignia
Spitfire Mk IXe, SL 632, of the Israeli Air Force. Here seen with temporary Yugoslav markings adopted for the route Prague-Nikšić during VELVETA II ferry mission in December 1948. The Israeli Spitfires were without armament, carrying a single 90 gallons slipper tank coupled with two 300 liters Erla tanks under the wings.

Source of the illustration: "Spitfajer" written by Aleksandar Kolo and Bojan Dimitrijević, published by Aero Art - Belgrade in 1997, artist: Viktor Kozlik



If you wish to read more about how some Spitfires were flown to Israel check the fallowing link (post #8 titled Operation "VELVETA"):
http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/aviation/yugoslav-airmen-their-aircraft-world-war-2-a-20232.html

The Israelis didn't use Spitfires in combat in the 1956 war. The Egyptians did according to their accounts, a Spitfire F22 of their training school was pressed into service as ground attack a/c on at least one combat sortie. See "Wings Over Suez" by Brian Cull, thorough blow by blow of that air war.

As far as the British, Spitfires were used in actual combat in Malayan Emergency as mentioned through early '50's. Also, there were overflights of Communist Chinese territory by recon Spitfires in the same period. For a more conventional war, Seafire Mk.47's were used in HMS Triumph's first deployment to Korea in 1950, first joint strike with USS Valley Forge v targets around Pyongyang July 3 1950. One Seafire was shot down by a B-29 in a case of mistaken identity later in July.

Joe

The last operational Spitfire sortie in the RAF was flown by PR.19 PS888 on 1 April 1954 over Malaya. Spit PR19s continued second-line service flying weather recce sorties with the Temperature and Humidity Flight (THUM Flt) at RAF Woodvale until 1957 when they were replaced by Mosquitos. The THUM Spits then formed the nucleus of what was to become the BBMF.

Hope this helps...

"Here seen with temporary Yugoslav markings adopted for the route Prague-Nikšić during VELVETA II ferry mission in December 1948 "
There are two mistakes in case of route: a place of take-off was not Prague, but a factory airfield in Kunovice and a place of landing was not Nikšić, but a landing ground about 3 km south of Titograd (since Apr 1992 officially called Podgorica again).

Interesting!