azure blue over white pru spitfire?

[ElgerAbbink]

hello

I saw a (very small) profile picture of an azure blue over white PRU spitfire. did that really exist? it seemed quite exotic. does anyone know where it was used?

[stefaan]

Hi Elger.
Please clarify.Was it upperside white/azure underneath or Azure disrupted over all over white???
Can you post the pic small on your reply??
I may have info
Stefaan

[ElgerAbbink]

here it is

[Graham Boak]

This is in Jon Freeman's recent book, and is as described in a letter to him from the pilot (? or at least someone involved). Lacking any other direct information, it is difficult to comment. Was his correspondent working entirely from memory or from comments/notes made at the time? Was he familiar with the specific colours in detail or just describing them in general terms? Jon gives us no guidance here.

Working from other known data, and relying on memory of what I've read, neither Azure Blue nor White were used by the UK PRU. By itself, pure white seems to be an unlikely colour, whereas PRU Pink is described as an off-white colour. A very light grey was also used by the PRU. PRU Blue is not very distant from Azure Blue. The combination of PRU Blue uppers and PRU Pink (or off-white) undersides would seem a logical suggestion but is not otherwise recorded.

However, the PRU were given a free hand to develop their own colour schemes and combinations. Just because the colour combination seems a little unlikely does not mean that it never happened.

Your call.

[Kutscha]

PRU Blue is not very distant from Azure Blue.

Not according to the chips in the book put out by the RAF Museum on British Aviation colors. PRU blue has a green component while Azure Blue has a white component.

http://www.venturahobbies.com/paint-mm2.html

This shows PRU blue as a 'dark' blue and Azure blue as 'light' blue.

[John Beaman]

In one of the old Aircam books (perhaps early Spitfires), there was a photo from about 2 o'clock of a PR IB Spitfire. It was in the desert and appeared to be a blue or dark grey over white. Some said it was just shadow as the sun was very low in the sky. However, the so-called "shadows" on the entire upper fuselage and wings could not have been present just from the sun.

[ElgerAbbink]

thanks for all the responses. so the most likely theatre of operations would have been the desert?

[Graham Boak]

Not with the LY code. That was used by the unit in the UK. It is possible that some aircraft may have transferred and retained the code.

[sjmacke]

They are photos of several airframes in the Desert with the scheme described by Graham. There is also some info on them in an OLD issue of the publication that was put out by IPMS South Afrika.

One of the machines which is known to have carried this scheme is BR416 (an interesting airframe as there are also photos taken at different times of it in the overall PRU Blue scheme and later all natural metal).

In my opinion the scheme in North Africa is Grey over White (i.e a standard coastal command scheme as used on a number of types) which would have been appropiate for use in anti shipping recce sorties in the Med.

And no the scheme is not a trick of the sun as several Spits have been photographed similarly painted in North Africa.

Steve Mackenzie

[Graham Boak]

The obvious suggestion, then, would seem to be that PRU Blue a/c had the undersides overpainted with a lighter colour - white or an off-white.

This doesn't make too much sense, given that HQ ME believed that darker underside colours were more appropriate in the ME, replacing Sky undersides with Mediterranean Light Blue (itself quite close to PRU Blue, and often mis-called Azure Blue, which is indeed somewhat lighter.) Also, the ME mixed a colour sometimes called Bosun Blue for its PR Spitfires, which was darker than PRU Blue. See Geoff Thomas's Eyes of the Phoenix for more details.

So can we perhaps assume that the aircraft was used for low-level dawn/dusk missions, akin to the use of PRU Pink in the UK? Or just that local commanders were permitted to exercise their imagination?