Question for someone in the U.K. I have been reading about R.A.F. night fighters in Martin Bowman's "Mosquitopanik" (good read, by the way) and I am wondering if the night fighter force were painted with the D-Day stripes like everyone else? I sort of think it would have been counter productive for a nightfighter to be done up that way and wonder if anyone knows. I haven't seen any photos of Mosquito night fighters with the stripes.
Bill Shuey
Not exactly a "photo" but check out "Flying Colors", bottom of page 155. Mossie Mk XIX of 157 Squadron, s/n MM650, nocturnal raider. Invasion stripes on wings and rear fuselage.
Stephen "FPilot" Bierce/IPMS #35922 "For the majority of the world's population, the prevailing answer to the most critical of the world's problems is 'Kill All the Americans and Take All Their Stuff.' America's survival depends on creation of better solutions."--Tepid 1:12
The "traditional" night fighter camouflage of overall Special Night (ie matt black) was replaced by a multi purpose camouflage scheme during late 1942. This scheme comprised overall Medium Sea Grey with an uppersurfaces disruptive pattern of Dark Green. It was intended to give night fighters more operational flexibility for day operations. The roundels were standard upperwing Type B, fuselage Type C1 with none underwing. Codes were dull red and serials were black. Occasionally, where an aircraft was unlikely to be used on day ops, the undersurfaces were overpainted in Smooth Night (a semi-gloss black)
Many squadrons ostensibly assigned to night ops were used on day ops during Overlord, especially the Mosquito squadrons which were used as intruders.
Scale Aircraft Modelling vol 13 no 6 (March 91) shows a profile of Mosquito NF.XIII MM521/PS-L of 264 Sqn. This carries a standard scheme as described above, with black and white invasion stripes on the lower wings and fuselage.
Xtradecal sheet X03848 depicts an FB.VI HR421/TH-M of 418 Sqn RCAF. This has black lowersurfaces with the invasion stripes on the lower fuselage only.
Was that an Intruder? They often ended up in the air at dawn or dusk, in daylight. I don't think Mossies flying over Germany in support of Bomber Command would have carried the stripes.
The Airfix 1/72nd scale Mossie MkXIX has stripes on the decal sheet.
John
PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.