[Chris Thomas]

Hi McMullin. I was co-author of the 2ndTAF series. You can track the squadron movements in and out of wings in the Wings appendix at the end of Vol.3. By 1945 there were two Typhoon wings in 84 Group; 123 Wg which had absorbed the two 136 Wing sqns (ie. then comprising 164 (FJ), 183 (HF), 198 (TP) and 609 (PR)) and 146 Wing (193 (DP), 197 (OV), 257 (FM), 263 (HE) and 266 (ZH)). 257 Sqn disbanded 5 March 45.

All the 123 Wg units were RP-equipped. By Feb/March 45 all the 146 Wg units were bomb-carrying, except 263 that used RP.

One of the problems you have is that there are no detailed reports for close-support actions as for example, air combat. If you came up with a specific date it would be possible to find which units were involved from 2ndTAF daily summaries (at the NA, Kew), then going to the unit ORBs (NA) for, hopefully, more detail.

It might be better, certainly easier, to recreate a generic scene by reading up on the tactics employed by RP squadrons. I could supply you with serials and corresponding codes for any of the units in the correct time frame. If you can lay your hands on Vol.4 of 2ndTAF, there is a chapter on tactics, with others on weapons and markings which you might find useful. Markings at the time in question were pretty standard - all invasion stripes and the Sky rear fuselage bands were overpainted, spinners were Night (effectively black) and roundels in all positions were what are sometimes referred to as 'C1' ie. narrow white rings and narrow outer yellow rings.

One problem you might have, if illustrating several aircraft, is that the RP sqns in particular operated a mix of new and updated aircraft, so there were 3 and 4 bladers, large and small tailplanes, two different types of RP rail etc. I wrote an article on this topic in Model Aircraft Monthly, July 2009, Vol 8 Issue 7. If you cannot locate it drop me a PM with your email.
Chris Thomas