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Originally Posted by Graham Boak
I presume you doubt the use of Sky Blue in the Mediterranean, rather than its existence.
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Exactly
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Evidence for the latter can be found in many places, not least on relics from the BoB – though there were no Air Ministry Orders covering its use. It has been recorded on the undersides of aircraft delivered to Australia (Pentland), described on Spitfires destined for the Mediterranean (Barbic), and recorded (by noted artist Ron Belling) on the undersides of earlier aircraft in South Africa.
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I hope you will not mind if I point it out that you have listed three different categories of arguments: 'relics' (very strong argument, but refers to BoB so has little to do with Malta), 'recorded' (whatever that means; refers to Australia and South Africa), and merely 'described' when it refers to the topic we discuss here.
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It appears to be accepted that ME Command rejected the use of Sky as too light – presumably they first saw it on Blenheims.
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I find it a bit amusing that those authors/researchers who say:
"ME Command rejected the use of Sky as too light, so another colour must have been introduced soon" usually also claim that
"although Malta Command rejected the use of Desert Scheme as unsuited on the island, fighters continued to be delivered and used in this scheme for many months". Isn't it a case of dual standards, so to speak?
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Given that a light blue colour is mentioned, what could it be if not Sky Blue? It may have been the very similar Azure Blue, although I think that the date of introduction of this colour would rule it out for at least the 1940 deliveries. Even so, this is but another hypothesis, with perhaps even less in its favour.
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Much more in its favour, because Azure blue was eventually introduced in AMOs as one of the prescribed undersurface colurs, while Sky Blue was not.
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Occam’s Razor suggests we adopt the simplest solution that best describes the situation: to my mind this means Sky Blue.
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Well, I think it suggests the reverse: we should accept Azure, which eventually made it into official regulations, rather than Sky Blue which didn't.