[23enigma61]

Does anybody know if hawker typhoons were ever used in night ops during ww2 and would the allies have painted them black.Any info would be appreciated,photos would be useful too.

[Hornchurch]

Originally Posted by 23enigma61

Does anybody know if hawker typhoons were ever used in night ops during ww2

and would the allies have painted them black.Any info would be appreciated,photos would be useful too.

Yes; Hawker Typhoons WERE DEFINATELY used at night, over enemy occupied territory.

These were the (earlier) "car-door" type canopy I.B's operated by 609 Sqdn.

The Sdqn Ldr of 609 was (the great) Roland Beamont, who was chiefly responsible for keeping the Typhoon in service when many in the Air-Ministry, & most 'Top-Brass' wanted to get rid of it.
He 'championed' it's cause & made sure the much-maligned fighter stayed in service & acheived results out of all-proportion to the numbers built.

He approached the (then) AVM. Saunders (in charge of 11.Group) & proposed using it at night, as an interdictor/strike aircraft, as Beamont claimed it was...."an easy & safe plane for night flying".......(well, at least; it WOULD BE if the Napier-Sabre didn't pack up ¬! ).
This was in Late 1942 (December) onwards.

On the 1st mission, Beamont flew alone, using his regular a/c "PR*G" (subject of the Corgi 1/72 model).

He flew from Manston, in Kent to an area he was very familiar with (Abbville/St.Valery); having been a Hawker-Hurricane pilot, during the 'Battle of France', with 87 Sqdn.

Using Moonlight, he destroyed a Train carrying troops, as there was plenty of small-arms fire in return from the carriages.

A Belgian pilot, called Van Lierde accompanied him on the following night.

Thereafter, Beamont asked his flight commanders (& their pilots) to become "fully" night-operational.

Pilots were rotated around (due to day-ops' too).

Attacks & sorties were ONLY made during MOONLIGHT periods.

In answer to your question about paint; A.F.I.K. they ALWAYS wore their Daytime camouflage (as given by Air-Ministry directive) & I've never seen any Typhoons painted either black, or, with black undersides.

You have to remember that 609 were one of the Sqdn's committed to destroying "tip-&-run" Fw.190's, as the Hawker Typhoon I.b was the fastest thing around to counteract them, esp' at lower levels, where the 2,000 + Napier-Sabre engine & those HUGE 3 x prop-blades clawed the Typhoon along at a vast-rate.
THAT's probably why they never wore dedicated "Black" paint/Night-schemes.

That's as I understand it (& I've a reasonable knowledge of the Typhoon/Tempest family).

Shame; as an "all-Black" Typhoon would have looked rather sinister

[jim]

Excellent reply Hornchurch, concise and to the point.

The Typhoon had a very shaky start and was very nearly cancelled.
The speed at which planes were developed during the war often meant that problems cropped up in service, (Spitfire ailerons come to mind).
The Typhoon certainly had more than its fair share.
Weak structure and a very state of art engine caused many fatalities but as is often the case, with a few tweaks a dog can be turned into a racehorse and the Tiffy certainly proves the point.

Btw, I checked through all the info I have and came up with the same result, no Tiffy had a black scheme.

[ZS-VAN]

Great responses guys, you really learn lots here!