Friendly fire WWII

[mhuxt]

Originally Posted by Brian

Hi guys - thanks.

Richard: could Lt (GL) Davies' pilot have been Lt John Armour RM? This pair flew together earlier and shot down a Do217 while flying a Mosquito of NFIS.

Cheers
Brian

Hi Brian:

Do you have a date for the Do 217 claim?

Cheers,

Mark

[Frank Olynyk]

For Lt. John Ormonde Armour (RM), I have a damaged Ju-88 on Feb 24, 1944 at 2205 hours, in the Basingstoke area, in a Mosquito XII -- serial not given; his radar operator was Lt. William Gray Aitken Shepherd (RN). On July 15, 1944 at 0145 hours he was credited with a Do-217 destroyed, 10 m W of Antwerp, in a Mosquito XIII, again no serial; this time his radar operator was Lt. P R V Wheeler (RNVR) (I must have neglected to look him up in the Navy List). Combat reports for both exist in Air 50/469, and they are listed in the weekly FC Combats and Casualty lists.

Frank.

[Juha]

Yes, it seems pretty sure that it was MB419. Kneale had flown in between a scramble in DT933 on the night of 24/25.11. but had returned (I interpret that to Coltishall) in his usual plane MB419 on night of 9/10.12. but there was no activity on that nigh. Then he and Davies had the mission on 12./13.12.

On the picture, sorry I remembered wrongly, according to the caption the plane in photo is the same type as those used by 746 against He 111 V-1 carriers, so it merely shows what a NF1 looked alike. Anyway the two upper colours are both rather dark. I have not paid much notice on camos of RAF planes, so anyway I’m not a good judge of the colours showed on b/w photos.

HTH
Juha

[mhuxt]

Many thanks for the information Frank - on the off chance I might push my luck with you, I'm posting another thread re: a Luftwaffe loss on 24 July 1944. If you're able to have a look, I'd be most grateful.

[Juha]

I had a little more time to study the subject today.
the whole caption reads as “Firefly NF1 MB564 of No 746 Squadron in 1945. This was the type 746 used for their night interceptions of flying bomb-carrying He IIIs(sic.) in late 1944.”
For other readers, according to Harrison 746 Sqn was NFIU.

On colours, the two upper colours are rather dark and the difference of their darknesses is clearly less than the difference in those b/w photos that I have seen on for ex. 2 TAF and ADGB Spitfires in 44.

HTH
Juha

[BIGVERN1966]

Originally Posted by Juha

I had a little more time to study the subject today.
the whole caption reads as “Firefly NF1 MB564 of No 746 Squadron in 1945. This was the type 746 used for their night interceptions of flying bomb-carrying He IIIs(sic.) in late 1944.”
For other readers, according to Harrison 746 Sqn was NFIU.

On colours, the two upper colours are rather dark and the difference of their darknesses is clearly less than the difference in those b/w photos that I have seen on for ex. 2 TAF and ADGB Spitfires in 44.

HTH
Juha

Hi Juha

That would mean that the aircraft would have been in the Standard RN Extra Dark Sea Grey and Slate Grey upper colours and Sky undersides of the period. Does the aircraft in the photograph have any unit codes on the side that are visible besides the Royal Navy and Aircraft Serial. The profile I wish get the correct markings on is attached.

Regards Richard

[Juha]

Hello BIGVERN1966
regretfully I cannot enlarge the thumbnail, most probably because my b….. PC is acting again, but after looking the small thumbnail I noticed that I should have written before that the spinner of the a/c in the photo is very dark, probably black. And the front half of the radar pod shows in the photo as light grey and the after half as white. The starboard wing conceals the fuselage in front of the side roundel, but behind the roundel there is no unit code. The starboard wing underside is badly in shadow, but there seem to be only rather small roundel, which isn’t at the tip of the wing but maybe halfway between tip and the outer cannon.

As You know MB419 seems to have flown most of the Firefly interception missions from Coltishall.

HTH
Juha