Photos of Fairey Battles in France during 1939

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

I'm looking for sources for photos of Fairey Battles in France during 1939, either on operational AF, in flight or after FL, crashes or shoot downs. I've been unable to find any photos of the five crashed 150 SQ FB shot down on Sept 30, 1939, in a famous incident, although we've been able to greatly expand our knowledge of what happened through eye-witness accounts and reports. In fact, I have NO photos of that squadron's a/c in France before the French Campaign began on May 10, 1940. Can anybody point me to sources of photos of this a/c for this period, which we are badly in need to create our color profiles? I believe that there must be photos in France taken by the Allied side of the a/c on French AF and that crashed or were shot down in France during this period, but so far I've not found much in the way of results. What am I missing?

Who can help?

Regards,

Larry Hickey

EoE Project Coordinator

[edwest]

Hello Larry,


Perhaps here.

https://www.facebook.com/FaireyBattle



Best,
Ed

[Larry Hickey]

Ed,

Didn't know about this website. Definitely some interesting images that fit some of what I'm looking for. I need material from the Phoney War period for all the RAF Fairey Battle squadrons in France, so still need a lot of additional material. Did the Battles during this period all have black undersurfaces with SN in white under the wings? When did this system start and when was it changed sometime before the WC?

So, still a lot of work to do.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[SteveB]

You may know all this...

Quite a lot of photos come up at the IWM www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search These are probably mostly well known but almost certainly they have others that are not yet included in the database. There are quite a few photos in the book "Betheniville 1939-1940" by Arnaud Gillet which seem to me to be less well known and most of them are credited to the RAF Museum. There is a searchable database on the RAFM site but it does not include many photos from their collection.

Steve

[edwest]

Some museum photos?


http://plane-crazy.k-hosting.co.uk/A...rey_battle.htm


And a map:

http://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/UN/U...landers-ix.jpg



Ed

[edwest]

Not photos but interesting descriptive text:

"The Phoney War

"With mobilisation on 24th August 1939, all code letters were changed and any underwing registrations that existed were painted out as was any other ’heraldic’ form of unit identity. Many Battle units were flown to France to support the British Expeditionary Forces in the form of the Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF), the first two units flying out on 2nd September.

"By November 1939 the Red, White and Blue roundel had been introduced for fueslage sides and recognition problems in France led to the addition of ’striping of the vertical tail surfaces’ as decreed by the French authorities. This presented a problem initially as the Directorate of Operational Requirements would not permit the rudder to be painted (for balance purposes), thus was adopted at first a 21-inch overall width band of the three identity colours (Red forward), set full height against the fin post. At the same time for safety purposes Red, White and Blue roundels were added at the under surface wing tip to protect against French ground fire. Later the striping in some cases became as overall 27-inch width with restricted height.

"Unlike RAF fighters in France, the Battle units retained their coding in full though interestingly the censors obliterated most unit markings in photographs publishd in UK aero-magazines and newspapers of the time."

[Graham Boak]

Just to clarify, only the two fighter squadrons (1 and 73) of the Advanced Air Striking Force removed their unit codes, and 73 does not appear to have been entirely consistent. These were also the only two units to use rudder stripes.

The other RAF fighter squadrons in France retained full coding. Fin flashes were not added until 1st May.

Battle units which remained in France after May 22nd adopted smaller roundels and reduced size codes which were more suitable for night operations, but I don't think I've seen this properly described.