80Sqn & 33Sqn Camo, Greece 1941

[mimithem]

Hello friends,

I am opening this thread in order to ask about any ideas of the camouflage of 80&33Sqn Hurricanes MkI, after their arrival in Greece in 1941. Obviously, they carried the same colours and markings as the flew in North Africa, but it's quite difficult sometimes to recognize from B/W photos of that period, which were painted in Dark Earth/Middle Stone (standard N. Africa scheme) or Dark Earth/DarkGreen (if there were any). Did all of those Hurricanes carry the "Vokes" Tropical filter? Why some of them, even belonging to 80 Squadron, did not have the usual Squadron code "YK" on the fuselage, but were absolutely "clean" carrying only the aircraft's serial number?

Thank you for your time!

Themis

[Chris Goss]

I have 4 photos taken by a German airman in Athens Jun 41. Althought 2 photos show burnt out Hurricanes in a hangar, all have tropical filters. The photos taken outside the hangar show the port side of a Hurricane coded L-YK. Camouflage is hard to make out but is dark as opposed to light

[Graham Boak]

The majority of the photographs I've seen show the appearance normal for Dark Green/Dark Earth, which was the camouflage in which these aircraft were delivered into the theatre and often flown in combat without repainting. I can't bring to mind a single example of an aircraft in the Greek campaign that is clearly in the desert colours. Yes, they did have the Vokes filter, as this was fitted on the production line.

A few of the aircraft did carry the light leading edges and nose of what is commonly called the "spaghetti" scheme.

I know of no reason why the squadron codes were not normally carried, except of course for those arriving late in the campaign when other things were more important.

[mimithem]

Thank you very much guys!