Hurricane Mk XII 133 RCAF Squadron s/n 5389

[Crimea River]

Hey guys.

I'm appealing to the masses for some help to nail down some facts to help with our Hurricane Mk XII restoration (http://www.calgarymosquitosociety.com/aircraft.htm). Our Hurricane was built at the Canadian Car and Foundry Company and is known to be s/n 5389 and we strongly believe it was coded "M". We know the service history of the aircraft but need to verify a few things regarding the appearance of the aircraft during its service to begin planning for painting. Here are my questions:

1) I have read that the s/n's may have been painted over at some point for security reasons. Does anyone have references to confirm this?
2) What were the exact colours the Canadian Car and Foundry used in the camouflage paint? The colours appear to replicate Dark Green/Dark Earth but we need to know if there were Canadian or FS standard equivalents that were used instead. We also need to verify the underside colour.
3) Need to verify that the camouflage scheme replicated the British A or B scheme.
4) We have limited pictures of 133 squadron Hurris and probably have anything available on the net. If anyone has photos in books or in their possession, I'd appreciate if they could be posted or, if you prefer, send me a PM so I can get them via e-mail.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[Bill Walker]

Some partial answers:

1) I have never heard of RCAF serial numbers being painted over, but Squadron codes were removed, leaving only individual aircraft letters, later in the war.

2) CC&F would have used RAF paint standards, as most of their production went to the UK.

[Alex Smart]

Hello,
From the CAHS Summer 1967 Journal article by Ingwald Wikene.

No. 133 (Fighter ) Squadron
Formed at Lethbridge, Alberta, on 3 June 1942, with Hurricanes and Harvards, by the end of the month, No.133 had 24 Hurricanes on strength. It moved to Boundary Bay, B.C. on 5 October 1942, to Tofino on Vancouver Island on 1 July 1943 and then to Sea Island on 10 March 1944. On 11 March the squadron began converting to the Kittyhawk and on the 12th transferred 15 Hurricanes to No. 135 Squadron.Code letters for No. 133 Squadron were FN
Some of the serials were -
Mk. XII's
In the list of 23 a/c is 5389 (M).

No. 135 ( Fighter ) Squadron
part quote :
Some time during March 1944, their Hurricanes were placed in storage and the personnel moved to Patricia Bay, B.C., on the 12th after picking up No. 133 Squadrons aircraft at Sea Island. They used these aircraft for about two months and then began converting to the Kittyhawk during the 6th to 10th of May.Aircraft No.135 received from No.133 in March 1944 -
Mk. XII's
5389 (M) is not in the list of 17 aircraft .

Alex

[Crimea River]

Originally Posted by Bill Walker

Some partial answers:

1) I have never heard of RCAF serial numbers being painted over, but Squadron codes were removed, leaving only individual aircraft letters, later in the war.

2) CC&F would have used RAF paint standards, as most of their production went to the UK.

Bill, thanks for the quick reply. Your input is duly noted and I'll make some further inquiries on item 1. On item 2, I should have been more specific. I am wondering if the CC&F might have used a standard Canadian paint that was close to, but not quite matching the British spec for Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky, similar to what Grumman did for their Fleet Air Arm supply contracts for Hellcats, or did they do a custom mix of colours to match the British specs?

Alex,

Thank-you also for the quick reply. I'm following up on your reference to the CAHS article to see what, if anything, new we can learn but our aircraft history is well documented in the link I posted. Our aircraft 5389 was taken on strength in June 1942 and assigned to 133 Squadron as FN*M in Lethbridge on July 3, 1942. Two weeks after the transfer to Tofino, the aircraft suffered a Cat C crash and was sent for repairs. It did not serve on 135 Sqdn so that is consistent with your statements. Our president of the restoration team happens to also be the chapter president of the CAHS so he may have already scoured the contents of the article you referenced. Nevertheless, I'm sending him the reference as we speak.

Incidentally, if anyone is interested in our project, a quarterly report of the restoration process can be found here:http://www.calgarymosquitosociety.co.../feature52.htm

Andy