[Andy Fletcher]

Originally Posted by Icare9

I understood that the PR Spitfires were taken from a Turkish order, presumably had different equipment to "normal" fighter Spitfires so used for PR, Meteorological etc Flights rather than convert them to fighter standard....

Not the ones used this early in the war. They were initially modified from the standard fighter version (Ia) by the Heston Flight/No.2 Camouflage Unit/PDU and used for operational trials/development. The PDU/PRU were a bit of a law unto themselves, especially in 1939 and 1940 and even when the PRU became a more 'formal' unit it was still rather independently minded.

Best regards

Andy Fletcher