Ok, here you go. I found the source, and put the base info together, since the text I have in Icelandic. Author is Leonard Mosley and the editor of Time-Life books. The book series go under the name World War II. First print in the US 1977.
Raid on London on the 29th of December 1940. At night of course.
Aircraft participating: 244. Incendiaries as main load.
Sunday night, Christmas season.
Many of the fireguards were with their families.
The roofing of many buildings in the City were from wood, - it was after all an old city part, - the heart of London. It had burned before, - in 1666.
The Fire brigades were remarkably quick to the scene, but the fires were quickly raging and an incredible amount of water was needed to fight the fires.
The autumn had been dry, so there litttle water in the Thames.
The pumps quickly emptied the river down to the mud, so just a little bit of muddy water came out of the firehoses.
Hundreds of historical buildings burned down that night, but St.Paul's was however saved."
Then the next one:
The notorious Spitfire Mk VIII
My speed specs go as 361 mph on the deck and 404 mph at 20200 feet. Climb to that alt is roughly 5 minutes.
It is very much in the same ballpark as the best of the IX's and the 109G2 basically. It climbs very well for the wight, however I do not have the load there, could be normal load.
What Quill sais:
Fuel capacity: 124 gallons internal, a four cannon wing (!)
Then, page 220:
"The Mk VIII, however, was by far the better aeroplane and because of it's tropicalisation, improved range, and other refinements it was allocated to the overseas commands while fighter command soldiered on with the Mk IX's in the tempered conditions at home.
P. 221
"I considered the extended wingtips of the early Mk VIIs (Typo?) entirely unnecessary. The aeroplane was not, in my view, a specialised high-altitude machine; it was an air-combat fighter of excellent all-round performance and destined of theaters of war where it would have to operate in a wide variety of cirkumstances. The extended wing tips did nothing for it except increase the lateral damping and spoil the aileron control. I complained incessantly to Joe Smith about them and did my best to get rid of them Eventually - thank the Lord - when the Merlin 66 engine was brought in on the Mk VIII, we reverted to the standard wing-tip configuration. We then had an excellent aeroplane which was very pleasant to handle and with perormance as good as the Mk IX with many other advantages added on"
Now, I remember an Izzy performance quotation, where as the Mk IX, just the infamous "JL" was used, so the Mk VIII is of course miles ahead.
Other Mk IX's have similar performance to the VIII.
Then I remember a roll rate quotation from Izzy as well.
Of course he used the wing-tip-extended Mk VIII to prove his point that the Spitfire's roll rate decreased through the war.
Well, enough of that, My Izzy-folder does not yet exist, - it would quickly become too big for my HD
