Operation Calendar Spitfire

[Greebo]

Thank you to Lyric1 for finding me the info for this skin, which is an adoption of one first done by Kev367th in 2006.

The April 1942 the Anglo-American Operation Calendar was an attempt to use the American carrier USS Wasp to ferry 52 RAF Spitfire fighters fitted with long range tanks to Malta. During the voyage the aircraft had their brown desert camouflage overpainted with a USN dark blue paint to better camouflage them on the ferry flight. Their movable control surfaces were left alone to avoid the need to rebalance them. Although most of the Spitfires arrived safely on the island within a few days the Luftwaffe had destroyed them on the ground. As a result of this the island's governor was replaced and a similar but better organised ferry run named Operation Bowery later succeeded in establishing an effective air defence for Malta.

[Spikes]

Alright...that's awesome.

[oboe]

Very cool scheme.  Well-done!

[Devil 505]

Most Excellent.

[lyric1]

 

[Vraciu]

Very cool.  I recently finished reading "Malta Spitfire" by George Beurling.   Great book.

[whiteman]

Always wondered what the deal was with that paint scheme. Very cool!

[Guppy35]

For what it's worth, the debate about the paint scheme has raged on forever.  In 2005, one of the surviving Spitfires was going to be repainted temporarily for a flight down to Malta for an event remembering that battle.  While the suggestion was that it was USN paint, that too wasn't for sure as there were other theories thrown out.  I got to Flying Legends that year and actually was in on the discussion before the paint was done. While I'd love to tell you I had the answer, I did get to do the profiles for the Corgi Diecast version Some of the real life Spit experts were there for that.  What they determined was what ended up on this Spit Vb that went to Malta.

[Greebo]

There's often an element of guesswork for this sort of thing. My assumptions were based on the photo below which shows the lighter brown camouflage around the airframe number but also on the aileron. It seems reasonable to assume that if they didn't paint the aileron then they skipped the rest of the movable surfaces too. Rebalancing these on over 50 Spits during the voyage would have been a major undertaking with the ship rolling around. The actual blue colour used is anyone's guess but I based it on USN 5-N Navy Blue. My thinking was that the Blue Gray colour used on the upper surfaces of USN aircraft of the time was too light, Insignia Blue too dark, while Non Specular Sea Blue wasn't available until later. 5-N Navy Blue was normally used for ship camouflage but it was about the right shade and would have been available on the USS Wasp at this time. For the lower colour I went with RAF Light Med Blue as it looks too light for Azure Blue and I don't think Sky would have been used on a desert scheme.