whirlwinds and temporary night finish ?
 

Hi All,
Seeing a profile in a modelling mag of a 400Sq Mustang, AL971, with night undersurfaces, jogged my memory.
I browsed my old files and found a reference to whirlwind's on night intruders, having a temporary night finish to the undersurfaces, this is only notes from a conversation ( I never saw any official records).
Just wondered if anyone had come across anything similar on other fighter comand a/c, or know of the FC order, if there was one ?
cheers
Jerry

Re: whirlwinds and temporary night finish ?
 

Hi Jerry,
I'm not at home today so I can't complete the information but there are some common colour pics of 23 Sqdn and I'm pretty sure I remember a reference in the Osprey Mosquito fighter/fighetr bomber squadrons book that they were painted this way before they went to Malta. There's also a colour drawing of a Havoc intruder with experimental 2-tone green uppersurfaces and black undersides in the old Ducimus Camouflage and markings booklet - there may be some words in there to shed more light,
Cheers,
Ross

Re: whirlwinds and temporary night finish ?
 

The official camouflage for night intruders included a black belly. This can be seen on 23 Sq Mosquitoes, as mentioned above, on 1 Sq Hurricanes, as the well known example of Kuttlewascher's machine shows, and on many other examples.

Re: whirlwinds and temporary night finish ?
 

Hi All,
Thanks for the replies,
I forgotten about the hurricanes.
I will have to look to see if i can find more info.
cheers
jerry

Re: whirlwinds and temporary night finish ?
 

Hi all,
Just came across this web site during a search, and remembering this thread and thought post it here, as it seems to add a little more weight to the theory of a black finish on whirlwinds.

Anyone have any idea of the airfield in question, or another other sources of whirlwinds in black finish, I would be most interested.


Selected text from the web page

.......Upon landing two Military Police jeeps screamed up either side of the aircraft as dad taxied between some sinister looking aircraft painted black with strange aerials sticking out of the nose....

.......This doesn't look like Bicester and they are funny looking Mosquito's "Their not Mossie's say's Mike..........

...... They had landed at one of the Westland Whirlwind bases and at the time radar in night fighters was experimental and a closely guarded secret......

.......Edward George Dean Served at 13 otu from April 41 till July 41......

http://www.wartimememories.co.uk/air.../bicester.html

Cheers
Jerry