Model Forum / General / Models / April 2004

That might have been in Malaya. The last unit flying Spits as front-line
fighters was the Hong Kong Aux Air Force in 1955. The last official RAF
mission of any sort (unless you count memorial flights) was probably a
combat trial against RAF E.E. Lightnings in 1963 by a PR XIX, to prepare
the British for possible combat against Indonesian P-51s.

Mark Schynert

The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight has just painted one of their PR.19's
in the scheme worn by that Spit, complete with the nose art!  There's an
article in this month's Fly Past magazine.

Incidentally, the Met Flight at RAF Woodvale in Lancashire last flew a PR.19
on a weather sortie in 1957!  I worked with a very ancient RAF Warrant
Officer who fitted the cameras to it!

Chris

Right, let's try again, saving as we go... and this will bear no resemblance
to my previous, aborted post!

For reference, I'm using 'Spitfire - A Complete Fighting History' (it's not,
but it's got lots of good pics in it!) by Alfred Price, and the Scale
Aviation Modeller publication 'The Supermarine Spitfire  - Pt 2
Griffon-powered', No 5 in their Modellers Datafile series.  It's good - not
perfect, but good.  These will be referred to as Price and SAM respectively.

Caveat - I claim no great expertise in the Spitfire (I prefer Mr Hawker's
products) but these two books do seem to cover the topic under discussion
and I have a bit of time on my hands. So, here we go...

First, the Spit vs EEL combats. Price has a chapter written by AVM John
Nicholls, who was Wingco in charge of the Air Fighting Development Sqn in
'63 (no exact dates given), stationed at RAF Binbrook (home of the RAFs
EELs).  They had posession of a Spit PR Mk XIX that had been intended for
mounting as a gate guard, but had instead been kept flyable.  This a/c,
serial PS853 (from the photo, confirmed by SAM - now flying with the BoB
Memorial Flight, I believe), was used to simulate a P-51 as operated by
Indonesia at the time of the Indonesian Crisis, just in case the Poms had to
go to war against the 51s.  The upshot was that the EEL *could* win the
combat, just as long as the pilot was good and kept his head. Not that it
would have been easy - the Spit was a very poor infra-red target for the
early IR missiles, the rate of closure was such that it gave the jet-jock
very little time to fire cannon (works both ways) and the Spit could most
certainly out-turn the Lightning - at any speed! Best attack method was to
use the jet's superior (!) climbing ability to attack from behind and below
(poor vis from the Spit, surprise and the best infra-red sig). If the EEL
pilot missed, he could continue to climb away and turn around for another go
with cannon.  Although one would think that the Spit (or 51) pilot would by
that time have shoved the throttle through the firewall and made a very
swift dive for whatever cover may have been handy, pushing the old girl
downhill as fast as he could!  The EEL used in the trials (from the photo)
was XP695, an F Mk 3, which flew until 15/3/84, then was used as an airfield
decoy (oh, the shame) then scrapped in Sept '87 (from the SAM about the
EEL). It's interesting that the F Mk 3 didn't carry cannon - it would make a
second pass fairly pointless! These missions marked the last official
operational RAF sortie of a Spit, according to AVM Nicholls, although not a
combat op.

As an aside, in the summer of '65, F 3s from RAF No 111 Sqn managed to
intercept a U-2 out of Lakenheath, at close to the U-2s operational
altitude -quite a shock for the USAF! Enough on the Lightning - my fetish is
showing!

Back to Spits. Looking at SAM, we find that the last operational sortie of
an RAF Spitfire was with No 81 Sqn, in PR Mk XIX, PS 888, 1st April 1954,
with Sqn Ldr W P Swaby at the stick.  'In the Far East' is all it says, but
Price adds that it was a PR flight in support of the anti-terrorist (his
words) ops in Malaya, so a bit of research would tell you where in Malaya No
81 was stationed at the time.

That wasn't strictly an offensive sortie, though.  That honour belongs to No
60 Sqn, flying  F Mk XVIIIs in Malaya.  SAM says that the last offensive
sortie by an RAF Spitfire squadron was on Jan 1st, 1951, when suspected
terrorist bases were attacked in the Kota Tinggi area of Johore.
Unfortunately, no individual a/c info is given, but a look at the squadron's
ops book should give you the details - have fun and let me know!

HOWEVER... welcome to the delights of research.  SAM goes on to say (in a
different chapter) that No 80 Sqn was transferred to Kai Tak, Hong Kong in
1949 (from Gutersloh, Germany), with their F Mk 24s. The  Mk 24s stayed
until Jan 1952, when No 80 re-equipped with the dH Hornet.  I'll quote from
SAM, and you can make of it what you will.

"No 80 Sq had been deployed to Kai Tak due to the increasing tension in
Malaya, and indeed on the Chinese mainland, as a result of the struggle
which saw the Communists, led by Mao Tse Tung take control and oust the
Nationalist government which  fled to Formosa. Such events caused grave
concerns in London as to the future of Hong Kong, then under lease to the
British Government, hence the decision to deploy No 80's sixteen aircraft to
Kai Tak. Despite the harsh conditions under which it was forced to operate,
the F Mk 24 proved itself to be more than able to meet the challenge imposed
upon it, with no losses being sustained as a result of operations, although
some were damaged in landing and taking-off accidents."

This seems to indicate that the a/c where flown regularly, but the lack of
combat details seems to mitigate against actual combat. More confusion
follows on from above in SAM. No 80 Sqn tranferred their F 24s to the Royal
Hong Kong AuxAF, who operated them from May 52 until Jan 15th 1955, when the
last official flight was made. BUT... I quote SAM again.

"However, three Spitfires, two F Mk 24s and a PR Mk XIX, participated in a
fly-past to celebrate the Queen's birthday on the 21st April. The flight
over, all three a/c returned to Kai Tak, with F Mk 24 VN485 being the last
to land. This flight is generally accepted as being the last FRONT-LINE
OPERATIONAL SORTIE (caps mine) undertaken by a Spitfire in any form of
British service."  But not an offensive or combat op. VN485 is preserved at
Duxford.

A lot of foreign nations used Spitfires after the war, but most were gone by
the late '40s. The French replaced their Seafire Mk XVs in 1950, Egypt used
their F Mk 22s until 1958, as trainers, Southern Rhodesia had F Mk 22s until
1955 and the Royal Indian AF kept theirs until 1957 (Mk XIV and FR MK XVIIIe
with No 14 Sqn). Burma(!)  kept their de-navalised Seafire MXVs until 1958,
replacing them with Sea Furies. There were others as well, mostly in the
smaller, poorer nations who kept them until about the same time. As far as
combat use goes, Sth Rhodesia may have had opportunity against insurgents,
Egypt certainly used their Mk IXs against British Mk XVIIIs (no contest,
really) in May of 1948 (quite a story, that one!) and India may have had a
go too. Details are up to you to fnd here!

To summarise, with everything in date order (RAF ops only):
May 1948 - Egyptian Mk Vs vs RAF
Jan 1st, 1951 - Mk XVIIIs of No 60 Sqn RAF in Malaya (anti-terrorist op in
Kota Tinggi area of Johore)
- Jan 1952 - Mk 24s of No 80 Sqn RAF at Kai Tak (probably no combat)
1st April 1954 - PR Mk XIX PS 888 of No 81 Sqn in Malaya (anti-terrorist PR
op)
15 Jan 1955 - F Mk 24 RHKAuxAF (Regular ops - no combat?)
21st April 1955 - F Mk 24 VN485 of RHKAuxAF (Queen's Birthday flypast - last
to land of three ship formation)
1963 - PR Mk XIX of AFDS at RAF Binbrook (mock combat with EEL)

You pick the one you think is the 'right' one. I hope this helps, if only to
add to the confusion. Have fun,

RobG

And I found these sites that may be of interest:

http://www.deltaweb.co.uk/spitfire/post_war.htm

http://www.csd.uwo.ca/~pettypi/elevon/gustin_military/spit/spit.html