Spitfire V ER254 of 242 Sqn. in Nov. 1942

[Tom Semenza]

There is an interesting photo of ER254 on page 140 of Vol. 3 of A History of the Mediterranean Air War. The caption reads:

"A Spitfire V of 242 Squadron about to take off from Djidjelli in the hands of Flt. Lt. D.H. Fox-Male on 25 November 1942."

There is a small letter "B" before the fuselage roundel and what appears to be the letter "W" aft (it's a bit washed out in the photo.) This would seem to be more like the codes used by a wing leader; 242's code was "LE". To further confuse the issue, Fox-Male is listed on page 141 as flying "Spitfire Vb 'J'" when he claimed a Ju 88 damaged on the same date. Of course he could have done multiple sorties in different aircraft on the same day. However P/O A. Hampshire is also listed flying 'J' when he also claimed a Ju 88 damaged. Again, since there are no times given, these could have been on separate mission.

Does anyone have any insight on the codes?

While I'm at it, there is another photo on page 359 of a Spitfire V coded 'G-B' in a very similar fashion to the one shown on page 140. The serial begins with 'EN' but unfortunately the numbers are obscured by ground crew. The photo is unhelpfully captioned:

"Spitfire 'Queen of the Skies' in northern Tunisia."

Any ideas on this one as well?

Thanks,
Tom