[Saeta]

I see from the following HM drawing in Hawkonevodoo's site that the third Spitfire release of HM has a four-bladed propeller.



Is that correct ?
I always thought that all Griffon powered Spitfires were five-bladed. Would you know if this is so, or if I am wrong ?
Their first two releases were both also MK.XIV and both had five-bladed propellers, but JEJ is a Mk.XIVe variant and DW-E is a Mk.XIVc.
DL-F is apparently "just" a Mk.XIV. Could this be the reason, or is the drawing wrong ? Thanks for letting me know if any of you out there has the answer.

Also, H1V, would you ask if the D-Day stripes will be the standard black and white or just the white ones like in the drawing ? Will they appear on the wing surfaces too ?

[Andrew]

Originally Posted by Saeta

I see from the following HM drawing in Hawkonevodoo's site that the third Spitfire release of HM has a four-bladed propeller.



Is that correct ?
I always thought that all Griffon powered Spitfires were five-bladed. Would you know if this is so, or if I am wrong ?
Their first two releases were both also MK.XIV and both had five-bladed propellers, but JEJ is a Mk.XIVe variant and DW-E is a Mk.XIVc.
DL-F is apparently "just" a Mk.XIV. Could this be the reason, or is the drawing wrong ? Thanks for letting me know if any of you out there has the answer.

Also, H1V, would you ask if the D-Day stripes will be the standard black and white or just the white ones like in the drawing ? Will they appear on the wing surfaces too ?

No, it will be a 5 blade. Gryphons only had 5 blades i'm sure. Well production variants anyway. But I agree that the stripes should be black and white and I'm also hoping for stripes over and under the wings too

[jim]

In general it is true that the Griphons had 5 blade Rotol airscrew, however I believe that the first 100 Gryphon powered Spits had the 4 blade Rotol Jablo screw.

If my memory serves me well these were all MKX11s, ( based on MKV and MkV111 airframes).

[hworth18]

Originally Posted by Andrew

No, it will be a 5 blade. Gryphons only had 5 blades i'm sure. Well production variants anyway. But I agree that the stripes should be black and white and I'm also hoping for stripes over and under the wings too

The white stripes are NOT D-day stripes.. They are recognition bands used by some Polish pilots..

And yes, the prop will be 5-bladed....

Here is a Polish Spitfire done by Corgi which is very similar..
(pic courtesy of Tricatus)

[flyXwire]

Originally Posted by hworth18

The white stripes are NOT D-day stripes.. They are recognition bands used by some Polish pilots..

And yes, the prop will be 5-bladed....

Here is a Polish Spitfire done by Corgi which is very similar..
(pic courtesy of Tricatus)

Yes I agree, Harry IS right on the mark with regards to the 'recognition bands'.

[tank nut]

How offten did they use them on there planes ?? (the white strips)

[parsig9]

My Bernard Duperier Armour Spitifre has the same kind of markings. Never looked up the "why".

This number 3 Hm release is a sweet looking one for sure.

Click image for full size:

[Cruver Collecter]

Originally Posted by parsig9

My Bernard Duperier Armour Spitifre has the same kind of markings. Never looked up the "why".

This number 3 Hm release is a sweet looking one for sure.

Click image for full size:

Osprey Aircraft of Aces 21 on the Polish Aces of World War 2 has picture of Spitfire with these markings. Caption reads "The White Stripes (note that they are also present across the upper surface of the tailplane as well) were applied during this month (July 1942) possibly as part of an Allied exercise." That is pretty much the extent of the explanation from that source.

[Berkut76]

White bands were sort of invasion stripes painted on British planes (don't think they were just applied to Polish Squadrons) for disastrous Dieppe operation of 1942. That's it. My knowledge of Spitfires are meager, but this doesn't look right to me.

[Saeta]

Thanks everybody for the feedback, specially on the white stripes.

However, there seems to be more to it than meets the eye with this matter. It may be true that RAF Polish squadrons had it, but we see from the other pictures displayed in this thread that a Free French RAF squadron had them too, and Hawkonevodoo's site shows the squadron badge for this new Spitfire, and in it it lables the squadron as a Nigerian RAF squadron ( most likely not native nigerian pilots but white anglosaxon settlers ). Hence the one thing that all seem to have in common is that they were flown not by British pilots but by foreign pilots either from allied occupied nations in Europe or from their Commonwealth colonies. Why ? I have no idea.

The case for their use in the context of the Dieppe landings is not clear to me. These occured in 1942, and the Mk.XIV entered service in 1944. There should be no need to wear special markings well over two years after the event