[Tom Semenza]

Thanks again, Graham. After your initial posting I thought to take a look at Andrew Thomas' Spitfire Aces of North Africa and Italy. He also mentions the use of these single letter codes during Torch, but not in much detail. There are however several photos and/or profiles of such markings as follows:

242 Sqn. ER676 coded B-E (possibly dating from Dec. 42)
93 Sqn. ER979 coded J-J (early 1943)
152 Sqn. JG871 coded L-E (April 1943)

Photos of Spitfires used by RAF squadrons during Operation Torch seem to be rather rare. As indeed are official squadron records such as the Form 541 of the ORBs.

Also, in Those Other Eagles, Sgt. J.H. Watling's (242 Sqn.) first 2 claims are shown as being made with Spitfires coded 'B-C' and 'B-D'. I had thought that this was a typo, but now am enlightened!

As Brian pointed out, single letter squadron codes were used by several Malta based squadrons, however this has been well documented in a number of publications. We can only hope that more info on the use of such codes in North Africa will come to light.

Tom