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Re: Mk. XX vs Mk. 20
The change actually occurred in 1948. You may be thinking of the introduction of role prefixes (as in F.IX) which occurred in 1942. As for the reason, I suspect it was just easier to write the Arabic numerals, especially when you got up to numbers like XVIII. Also easier to tell apart 7 and 8 than VII and VIII.
I should add that the RCAF switched earlier, in 1945. This was largely due to mark number blocks being allocated in the 10s and 20s for licence built British aircraft in Canada. Can you picture the problems with hand written correspondence requesting what part numbers to use for the Mk. XXIV, XXV and XXVI?
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