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I intend no disrespect to those Ducimus publications,they were and still are a good reference source,but they do show their age sometimes.
For example we have a much better understanding of how the "mixed grey" which was to replace the Dark Earth on upper surfaces evolved into the new colour Ocean Grey. Air Ministry orders certainly do not only refer to Ocean Grey,the one I posted clearly refers to "mixed grey" as does this document.
At the time of the changeover Ocean Grey did not exist,the search for a name was on.
The first references to the new colour do not appear until early 1942,as in this example.
Whenever colours are being mixed their is the potential for mistakes. It should be simple to take a gallon of grey paint,remove one pint and chuck in a pint of Night to give the correct mixed grey. Would you bet your house that it was always done correctly?
Another old chestnut is that squadrons were slapping their own versions of the new colour Sky on when that was introduced. Their was certainly confusion between Sky and Sky Blue,but the ministry very quickly realised that there was a shortage of Sky and issued an ammendment allowing aircraft already in service to continue to operate in the earlier Black/White underside scheme. It also issued clarifications explaining what the new colour was.
I'm not suggesting that there were not errors and mistakes but their was tight regulation at every level. It's also worth remembering that at this time aircraft in Fighter Command were operating close to home and authority. What happened thousands of miles away in Africa,the Middle East or South East Asia might be a different story.
Cheers
Steve
The top photo is a much better rendition but I notice the color behind the roundel has changed quite a bit.
Geo
Sky, which is confusingly called "Duck Egg Blue" in the first directive shown by Steve/Stona.