Longest Spitfire raid of WWII.

[Wildcat]

On the 27th of Nov 1944, five spitfires from No. 549 sqn RAF and 2 spitfires from No.1 Fighter Wing, RAAF in conjuction with 4 B-25's from No. 2 sqn RAAF plus an ASR Catalina, attacked and destroyed a Japanese radar station at Cape Lore on Portuguese Timor. The raid was a round trip of some 850 miles taking 4.5 hours. The Spitfires were first to attack carrying out strafing runs on the installations resulting in the radar tower being destroyed. The B-25's then destroyed the remaining buildings once the spitfires were clear.
The spitfire pilots flying Mk.VIII's, were -

No.1 Fighter Wing
G/Capt "Black Jack" Walker DSO, RAAF
W/Cdr R Wilkinson OBE, DFM and Bar, C de G. RAF

No. 549 sqn RAF
S/Ldr E Bocock DFC
F/Lt W Wedd
F/Lt L Webster
W/Off A Franks
W/Off J Beaton

At the time the Australian media claimed this as the longest operational raid ever conducted by Spitfires in any theatre. My question is, is this claim accurate? (What of PR spits) and if so, did any other operations surpass this?

 

[claidemore]

PR Spitfires made longer 'sorties', but I wouldn't classify them as 'raids'.

From this site: The Spitfire - An Operational History - 5. The Fight Continues

To relieve the aircraft carriers from their ferry role, Spitfire Mk VCs were fitted with an extra internal 29-gallon tank and an external jettisonable 170-gallon tank. Armament was reduced to two machine guns. In this form, the aircraft were able to fly the 1,100 miles (1,750 km) from Gibraltar to Malta, where the extra tanks were removed and the armament refitted.

I wouldn't classify those ferry trips as raids either, but Sqn/Ldr Adrian "Warby" Warburton did shoot down a Ju88 while en-route.

 

[Juha]

Hello
PR Spits were able to cover Berlin, at least, from GB.

Longest Spitfire escort mission in ETO I'm aware was that made by 131 Sqn on 11 Aug 44 to La Pallice, 690mls and took 3 hours 50 min. They were flying Spit VIIs.

Juha