Lancaster Tail?

[MW Giles]

Where is the fuselage full stop.

The colour of the stripes depends upon the black and white film used and whether the photographer used a coloured filter over the lens.

I used to put a yellow filter on to enhance the cloud/sky contrast but this can affect other tones if you overdo it.

The most likely explanation though is the film stock, I have seen enough photos of RAF with the red darker than the blue. Orthochromic film is more sensitive to the blue end of the spectrum so he film is more exposed than at the red and green end. Panchromatic film had dyes to make the silver halide more sensitive in the green and red end of the spectrum. Therefore the film used is likely to be orthochrome

Unless of course we have uncovered a grand conspiracy and it was really the Free French that flew all the sorties from the UK.

Regards

Martin