Spinners

F-CK-1B Grupo 6

Swedish Hurricane Mk.III

High Above Warsaw

Fairey Barracuda Mk.II - 5th Torpedo Aviation Division, Soviet Naval Aviation, 1945 As the war in Europe entered it's final phase, the thoughts of the Allied nations turned towards the defeat of Japan. At the Yalta Conference in February 1945, Stalin eventually agreed to Allied pleas to join them in the war against Japan within three months of the end of the war in Europe. As this deadline approached, the US and the UK (along with China) made the Potsdam Declaration - an ultimatum to Japan calling for complete Japanese surrender and that, if ignored by Japan, this would lead to the "prompt and utter destruction" of Japan. On the eve of the three-month deadline the Soviets declared war on Japan on August 7th, 1945 and at one minute past midnight on August 9th, the Soviets commenced their invasion on a broad front that included the east, west and north of Manchuria. Stalin realised that this would give him licence to win back the disputed Kuril Islands including the southern half of Sakhalin Island previously lost in the Sino-Japanese war of 1904-1905. With the invasion of Manchuria underway the Soviets commenced the 'Kuril Islands Landing Operation' or the invasion of the Kuril Islands. This was mainly a Red Army operation but was supported by the Soviet Pacific Fleet and Soviet Naval Aviation who supplied an aviation regiment equipped with 60 Fairey Barracuda torpedo-bombers. Supplied by the UK as part of lend-lease the Barracuda's were transferred to Soviet Naval Aviation from the Red Air Force who much preferred the IL-2. With little or no Japanese fighter aircraft operating in the area the Barracuda's were surprisingly effective in sinking Japanese ships in Kuril Islands area. On September 1st, 1945 the Barracuda's were used to cover the assault landing made by elements of the 87th Rifle Corps who were landed by torpedo boats, mine trawlers and transports on Kunashir and Shikotan in the southern Kuril Islands. By September 4th, Soviet forces had completely occupied the rest of the Kuril Islands thus ending further resistance. The fate of the Soviet Fairey Barracuda's is unclear but some may have been passed onto the North Korean People's Air Force as several unconfirmed sightings were made by US/USN pilots in the early days of the Korean War in the summer of 1950.

In a Hurri...

Shar-p!

Murphy's War Cowling repaired and wing patch painted

Grumman J2F Duck - ASR Flight, Royal Dhimari Air Force, 1942 Skin Credit: Charles

In theory yes. But I've had a little try at 125kph and I exploded on the water. Eider have another but it got me down.

Yes it is. Quirky looking thing that saw service with 3 or 4 South American countries.

Grumman Duck Mk.I - 724 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy, 1945

Duck!

Palestine 1948: An Israeli Fiat G.55 Centauro gets the better of an Egyptian Macchi C.205 Veltro

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I - No.113 Fighter Squadron, Polish Air Force, 1939 In July 1938 a group of Polish Air Force officers arrived at the Supermarine works for a technical presentation on the Spitfire Type 300 and to watch a series of demonstration flights of the Spitfire flown by Supermarine's chief test pilot Mutt Summers. The Poles left suitably impressed and presented their thoughts directly to a small Parliamentary committee headed by Ignacy Mościcki (the President of the Republic of Poland). With the indigenous PZL.50 Jastrząb fighter still under construction and months away from flying, Mościcki forced through an order for 32 Spitfire Type 300 fighters for delivery during the Spring of 1939. This order was approved by the Air Ministry and a contract between the two governments was finalised on November 18th, 1938. Starting in May 1939, initial deliveries were made to the 113th Fighter Squadron of the Polish Air Force based near Warsaw and by early August the squadron were fully equipped with 16 Spitfire Mk.I's all with the early flat cockpit canopy and two-bladed Watts propellor. At dawn on September 1st, 1939 the squadron were immediately into action defending Warsaw from Luftwaffe Ju-86 bombers and Bf-109 escort fighters and over the next few days the squadron claimed 15 victories for the loss of 3 Spitfires.

September 3rd, 1939 - Flying Officer Guy Gibson heads towards the German fleet near Wilhelmshaven Historical Footnote: The force of six Hampden bombers was recalled whilst en route and Gibson would have to wait nine months before his next operational sortie

Shedding some excess baggage from 'The Flying Suitcase'

The change in checkerboard orientation is relatively quite recent.

The VL Myrsky masquerading as the PZL.45 Sokół

AFAIK the colour of Polish aircraft was Khaki and not brown. I used an illustration of a PZL P.11C from an aircraft modelling website as my guide. I do have some white in my weathering/dirt layer so perhaps that is lightening it a bit too much.

Spitfire Scramble! September 1st, 1939.

Blackburn Bramley Mk.IA - No.106 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, September 1939

Blackburn Bramley Mk.I - No.10 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, 1937 Air Ministry Specification B.9/32 issued in 1932 called for a twin-engined day bomber with high performance and unlike many contemporary Air Ministry Specifications there was no restriction on aircraft empty weight. Vickers, Handley Page and Blackburn all responded and all three companies designed distictly different aircraft ranging in weight from the Vickers Type 271 (Wellington) at 18,000lbs empty weight, through to the Handley Page HP.52 (Hampden) at 12,500lbs empty weight and down to the Blackburn B-6 at just 10,000lbs empty weight. Air Ministry officials were critical of the Blackburn design for being deficient in range and payload but conceded that the design had potential and therefore issued Air Ministry Specification B.27/33 for a twin-engined light bomber to cover a production order for 100 Blackburn B-6 aircraft later christened as the Blackburn Bramley. The development of the Blackburn Bramley moved smoothly during 1934 with no technical issues and on July 14th,1935 the prototype Bramley (K4012) made it's first flight almost a full year ahead of the Vickers Wellington and Handley Page Hampden. Flight-testing was helped by the Bramley being powered by the trouble-free Bristol Perseus nine-cylinder, single-row radial engine. Initially rated at a modest 580 h.p. the Perseus was quickly uprated as improvements were introduced and by 1936 production engines were delivering 810 h.p. which was adequate for the lightly armoured Bramley. Entering service with No.10 Squadron of RAF Bomber Command in May 1937 the Bramley Mk.I's initially wore the same NIVO green as the Handley Page Heyford's they had replaced but later switched to the dark earth and green camo with black undersides as used on Bomber Command's other new aircraft. By the time of the Munich Crisis in September 1939 four squadrons of Bomber Command were operating the Bramley but by the start of World War 2 the Bramley had passed from front-line service in the UK but would return to service with the RAF in the Middle-East at the end of 1940.

Gloster Meteor F.8 - IDF