Supermarine Spitfire

Supermarine Spitfire Mks. V, VIII, IX, XIV, XVIII, XIX

Early in October 1943 enough Spitfire VCs reached India to equip three R.A.F. Squadrons, in the greatest single step in modernisation of the air forces in South East Asia Command, “the Forgotten Theatre”. The task of the combined Air Forces was to carry on the strategic air offensive integral with which was the defence of the U.S. Air Transport Command airfields in North East India and the city and port of Calcutta. Spitfire VCs from Chittagong were soon intercepting Japanese reconnaissance aircraft and bombers off the Arakan coast. The arrival of Spitfire VIIIs in January 1944 confirmed command of the air.

A single Spitfire VC was made available to No. 4 Squadron I.A.F. on the eve of the Third Arakan campaign. In mid-1944 this unit, operating from Cox’s Bazar, had its lone Spitfire, flown by one of the Indian veterans of Battle of Britain, pathfinding for Allied fighter-bombers and becoming a deterrent to Jap reconnaissance aircraft in that area.
The first I.A.F. unit selected for re-equipment with Spitfires was No. 8 Squadron, then flying Vengeance dive bombers at Samungli. Four Spitfire VCs were received in the second week of October 1944, even as the Squadron moved to Amarda Road; conversion training with Spitfire VCs began at 151 O.T.U. Risalpur in November. No. 8 Squadron, equipped with 16 Spitfire VIIIs, completed training on 23rd December 1944 and five days later left for “George” airstrip, 15 miles south of Cox’s Bazar, for operations beginning on 3rd January 1945. The Spitfires operated in the Kangaw area and engaged in offensive reconnaissance against various watercraft in chaungs and rivers in Myebon, Myohaung and Minbya areas. Twelve Spitfires of 8 Squadron operated from the forward airfield at Akyab from 20 to 27 January maintaining a continuous patrol over the beaches, the harbour at Kyaukpyu and naval vessels landing assault troops of the 26th Indian Division on Ramree Island.

No. 8 Squadron was withdrawn in the last week of February to Baigachi for the air defence of Calcutta area. At Baigachi the Spitfire VIIIs remained at readiness from dawn to dusk but were never tested and on 17th May 1945, alert-readiness was relaxed as the danger of Japanese air raids was considered over. On July 15th the Squadron was ordered to Burma for their third tour, personnel reaching by boat and taking over the Spitfire VIIIs of No. 607 Squadron R.A.F. on the 31 July at Mingaladon airfield outside Rangoon. These Spitfire VIIIs were fitted with bomb racks and, as a fighter-bomber squadron, No. 8 went into action as the battle of the break-out was nearing its end. Carrying one 500-1b. bomb each, the Spitfires alongside R.A.F. Thunderbolts, flew “cab rank” patrols pursuing the enemy relentlessly. A proportion of Jap troops trapped west of the Rangoon-Toungoo road were escaping east of the Sittaung and the Spitfires concentrated their attention on Shwegyin and Mokpalin areas, strafing and bombing bashas, supply and ammunition dumps and troop concentrations. The accuracy of the Squadron’s attacks were later confirmed by PoWs and on 11th August 1945, 8 Spitfire VIIIs fitted with long range tanks flew as far as Paingkyon to bomb a Japanese headquarters. The Spitfires also dropped supplies to the Burmese guerillas of Force 136 behind enemy lines. The last operational sortie by the RIAF was on August 13th when a lone Spitfire dropped supplies to small groups of V-force men in the Kyaukki area. From 15th August, all operations were suspended following the Japanese acceptance of unconditional surrender and Spitfires of No. 8 Squadron escorted the two Japanese aircraft transporting Lt. General Numata from Elephant Point to Mingaladon to sign the instrument of surrender. No. 8 Squadron flew a number of leaflet-dropping sorties on scattered Japanese troops and the show of force continued till mid-November 1945. Towards the middle of January 1946, No. 8 moved back to India.

The second RIAF unit to re-equip with Spitfires was No. 4 Squadron which supplanted its Hurricanes with 14 Spitfire VIIIs at Yelahanka by the end of May 1945. All British and New Zealand pilots of the squadron were posted away in early August and on 20th August the unit took part in a V-J parade and flypast at Madras.
No. 9 Squadron, completing one years’ operational tour of Burma, withdrew in April 1945 to Ranchi for conversion to Spitfire VIIIs, this being completed by July 1945. No. 10 Squadron, meanwhile, had withdrawn to Yelahanka in April 1945 after a tour of operations in the Arakan and ordered to Trichinopoly for conversion to Spitfire VIIIs. These came slowly, in twos, and only by September 1945 was conversion-training completed of the now all-Indian squadron. In November both these Spitfire squadrons moved back to Burma, No. 10 with 14 Spitfire VIIIs and one Harvard proceeding to Hmawbi from Ulunderpet followed by No. 9 on the 30th November. The two-month stay in Burma involved a flypast in the Pegu area for warning dacoits and hostile elements, a 12-aircraft escort to Lord Lours Mountbatten from Rangoon to Bangkok on 18th January 1946 and participation in peace celebrations. The all-RIAF Spitfire Wing left for New Delhi on 24th January 1946, thirty six Spitfires of Nos. 8, 9 and 10 Squadrons participating in the Victory Day formation flypast.

Late in 1945, other RIAF squadrons began exchanging their worn out Hurricanes for the Spitfires at Kohat, Samungli and Risalpur and a new unit, No. 12 Squadron, was raised at Kohat in December 1945 on the Spitfire. By mid-1946, all fighter units had the Spitfire, No. 6 Squadron being equipped with the fighter reconnaissance Spitfire Mk. XIVE. Spitfires were briefly in action during the Shepikhel operations in the North West Frontier.

In August 1945, No. 4 Squadron had been earmarked for the air component (B.C.A.I.R.) of the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces in Japan. In October 1945 the Squadron exchanged its Spitfire VIIIs for the Griffon-powered Spitfire Mk. XIV and on 2nd April 1946, after six months of stand-by, nineteen Spitfire Mk. XIVs were airborne from Yelahanka for Cochin where they were suitably prepared, engines inhibited to prevent corrosive action at sea, and lash-loaded on the deck of the aircraft carrier H.M.S. “Vengeance”. The carrier arrived at Iwakuni, at the south-west end of the Hiroshima prefecture, on 23rd April, No. 4 Squadron moving from the Iwakuni air station after one week to Miho where it formed a Group with Nos. 11 and 17 Squadrons R.A.F. The duties of No. 4 Squadron included demonstrations and surveillance patrols over the coastal areas of Shimane and Tottori prefectures in conjunction with 268 Indian Brigade to prevent illegal immigration. However, in view of the constitutional changes prompted by the interim Indian Government and the consequent reorganisation within the Indian armed farces, an early withdrawal of the Indian contingent was precipitated and in mid-1947, No. 4 Squadron was amongst the first units to return. It was re-equipped at Poona, becoming the seventh former-Spitfire squadron to operate the Tempest II.

As partition of the country became inevitable, Nos. 6 and 12 Squadrons were allocated the transport role, exchanging their Spitfires for the Dakota and on 15th August only No. 2 Squadron continued to operate the Spitfire. A “windfall” of some fifty Spitfires of various marks left crated at Karachi docks were shipped to Bombay, assembled and flown to Ambala. Spitfires from the Advanced Flying School at Ambala were the first combat aircraft to be flown to Kashmir in October 1947. On the heels of 161 Brigade flown by C-47s to Srinagar, a flight of RIAF Spitfire, Tempest and Harvard aircraft was brought in. Although experts had pronounced the Srinagar airstrip as unfit for fighters, on 30th October two RIAF instructor-pilots successfully landed their Spitfire VIIIs, were briefed and took off to strafe raider positions beyond Pattan. Only Spitfire Mk. VIIIs could operate from the rough and dusty Srinagar airstrip, the Griffon-powered Mk. XIVs and XVIIIs being considered as tricky aircraft in the difficult operating conditions. No. 2 Squadron was re-equipped with the Spitfire Mk. XVIII as were the re-raised No. 9 and the newly-established No. 14 Squadrons, a quantity of these “consolidated Mk. XIVs” being obtained for the RIAF. A number of Spitfire P.R. Mk. XIXs with oblique F.24 cameras and painted blue overall with black spinners, were acquired to equip No. 101 PR Flight formed in January 1948 (renamed as No. 101 Photo-Reconnaissance Squadron in April 1950). About a dozen Spitfire Mk. IX two-seat conversions had also been obtained in 1947-48 for advanced/operational training on the type at Hakimpet. The Spitfire IX, XVIII and XIX continued in service till the mid-fifties, the P.R. XIX at Ambala and Palam till the end of 1956; the last unit to operate the famous fighter was No. 14 Squadron which finally flew in its Spitfire XVIIIs to Halwara in 1957 in preparation for re-equipment with the Hawker Hunter.

Notes :
Later to gain immortality in the skies over Britain in 1940, the Spitfire had its origins in the Supermarine S.6B, winner of the 1929 Schneider race trophy. Aesthetically appealing and delicately poised, the shape hardly expressed the fire-spitting image of a battle victor. The Spitfire prototype first flew on March 5th 1936 and the production Type 300 Mk. I entered service with the R.A.F. in August 1938 and when the Battle of Britain began in August 1940, the order of battle included nineteen Spitfire squadrons. Early variants of the Spitfire were largely distinguished by changes in powerplant with a progressive- increase in power of the equally famous Rolls Royce Merlin twelve-cylinder Vee liquid cooled engine. The Type 349 Mk. V was similar to the Mk. II but armour plating was increased and the Mk. VC had the universal or “C” wings with varying cannon and machine gun configuration. The Type 359 Spitfire Mk. VIII was powered by a Rolls Royce Merlin 66 (L.F. VIII) engine of 1720 h.p. and was the major variant to operate over Burma and the Balkans. Trials with an experimental Mk. VIII airframe married to a two-stage Rolls Royce Griffon 65 engine of 2050 h.p. produced the interim variant designated Type 372 Spitfire Mk. XIV which had an enlarged vertical surface and, eventually, an all-round vision cockpit canopy. A separate production batch, designated F.R. XIVE, featured an oblique F.24 camera in the rear fuselage and clipped wings. To consolidate the Mk. XIV, Supermarine developed the Type 394 Spitfire Mk. XVIII which had strengthened wings and additional fuel tanks in the wings and rear fuselage. The only Griffon-powered unarmed version was the photo-reconnaissance Spitfire P.R. Mk. XIX which was basically a Mk. XIV with modified Mk. VC wing.

With the Marks 21 and 22, the Spitfire was brought to the peak of perfection and the last of a total of 20,334 Spitfires was delivered in October 1947.

Data (Mk. VIII)