Matty's SEAFIRE: 7/7/09
Posted by Matty
on August 2, 2009, 23:24:36, in reply to "GARRY BEEBE TRIBUTE Build, '09"
Message modified by board administrator August 3, 2009, 9:06:31
Well, I did finish her:
Note I had not yet put on the red-white-and-blue tail flash decal (and much more; see below) when this pic was taken. However, before getting into the finished appearance, let me wrap up this progress log with the following, Saga of the Markings - which I would sum up, to paraphrase Winston Churchill, as:
Never before have so many, been so wrong, about so few facts!
Pursuing the modest objective of determining the appearance of a typical SeaFire deployed in Operation Torch, November 8, 1942, I had the great misfortune to start with the following, ubiquitously falsely attributed - quite possibly the most misrepresented - SeaFire pictures in all WWII history:
 
Click on Image to Enlarge At left, a drawing (top) depicts a real SeaFire; the same aircraft as in the photograph at right (top), published independently with the caption: "A Seafire MkI aboard HMS Formidable during Operation Torch...". And yet another source presented the computer graphic (CG) at right (bottom), depicting another plane from the same Squadron (identical code "Ø6"; signifying #885 Squadron), and identifying it as a "MkIb" - again, with green/gray camouflage; (conceptually) identical to the first drawing. Finally, a fourth source presented the photo at left (bottom), with the caption: "Seafires Mk. IB onboard HMS Furious...in support of Operation Torch...". So here are four independent sources, all mutually consistent in their depictions of MkI SeaFires deployed in Operation Torch, (at least some of them) in gray/green camo - so this must be correct, right? Wrong - on all counts! Firstly, to a plane they are all not MkI SeaFires, but MkIIs. Secondly - just as Donny tried to warn me (but it was already too late) - the green camo is almost certainly inaccurate; the correct colors should have been Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey. Likewise, the caudal stripe and light spinners apparently should have been sky blue, not white.
None of which would have been "deal breakers" for my build (I like the green-and-white and may well have gone with them, anyway). But a final - and crucial - inaccuracy stems from the definitive fact that neither of the two photos above, are from Operation Torch; during which all RN planes had white US (Army) Air Corps stars painted over their roundels. And it was our own, prior post on RN CVBs that (unwittingly) provided the proof:
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Click on Image to Enlarge At left and center, RN F4F ("Martlets") operate from HMS Formidable during Operation Torch; at left, the star insignia are clearly visible, while in both pics the RN tricolor tail flashes, left in place, are also clearly visible. At right (bottom), the Mission4today source also gets it right (though the green camo and tropical air scoop are still wrong). The Brits deliberately false-flagged their aircraft (to gain advantage over their French adversaries - as apprently they did; see below). But so rampant is the resulting confusion - among modelers and amateur historians still, today - over these markings, that one source states, "...American Spitfire Mk VBs were also used during (the Operation Torch) landings", and yet another, that, "...US forces also used Spitfire 5B's during these landings." - which is simply not at all plausible. Operation Torch was the combat debut of the SeaFire - from RN flight decks, not USN - for whom the Brits wouldn't have had any Spits to spare, in any case.
The first SeaFire to score an aerial victory was one of HMS Furious' 801 Squadron; shooting down a French Dewoitine 520 fighter on the first day (11/8). Clearly, this is the aircraft I would have preferred to depict. But, trying even to determine just the 801 Squadron Code Prefix - let alone the ID for the individual aircraft - was well-night impossible; the closest I could get (somewhere on WikiPedia, IIRC) was that, earlier, 801 Squadron had gone through the prefixes "U6" and then "A7". And, assuming a continuing, regular progression through the letters ("wrapped" back around the alphabet to get to "A"), as well as the numbers, the next pair would logically have been "G8" - which, intriguingly, is consistent with the first shipboard pic, above, and its foreground SeaFire which appears to exhibit an "8", in exactly the right spot.
However, when I went to "bash" some decal spares into the above code, the closest thing possible was "G9" - and the individual aircraft letter "O":
Click on Image to Enlarge So that's how I came to finish this Operation Torch SeaFire; with Code "G9*O", and USAAC stars laid over the RN roundels - just exactly like the real thing. I took lots of pics - in both RN markings and then again, with the USAAC overlays, and will put 'em up in a completed-build post, soon.
Cheers,
-Matty
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