Pacific/CBI Spitfires

[Jack55]

What Spit varients were common in the Pacific and far east late in the war?

[Guppy]

Originally posted by Jack55
What Spit varients were common in the Pacific and far east late in the war?

Late in the war? The Mark VIII was the major subtype, I believe.

[Karnak]

Spit XIVs were also used in the CBI theatre.

[Jack55]

Thanks.

None of the really late marks like the XIX, XXI, XXII?

[Karnak]

XIX is a PR Spit, unarmed.

The 21 only saw a little bit of service in Europe at the very end.  The 22 was post war.

BTW,  the RAF abandoned the Roman numerals once they reached 20.  So mark lists look like this:

Spitfire PR.Mk XIX
Spitfire F.21
Spitfire F.22

ect, ect.

[Jack55]

Thanks again.  It's a little confusing.  Is it fair to say the Spitfire F.21 is the best performing Spitfire of WW2?

[Karnak]

Yes, that would be a fair statement.

It should be noted that the Spitfire F.21 did not shoot any enemy aircraft down though.  If the Allies had been pressed the way the Germans and Japanese were it would have been used much more aggressively, much like the Ta152.

The best warplane Spitfre (in other words, best fighter, not most enjoyable to fly) that saw significant useage was the Spitfire Mk XIV.

[GRUNHERZ]

Of the dozen or so F21s that saw use in late April 45 one or two them sunk a german one man midget submarine.

[Guppy]

Wasn't the F.21 the mark which came in for heavy criticism of its handling qualities?

[thrila]

Spit 21 didn't even look like a spitfire anymore let alone handle like one.  It was more like the ugly cousin of the spitfire.