this is a hasegawa 1/48 spitfire MK.V for the most part. It represents the mount of candaian pilot jack sheppard squadron leader of 401st. Sheppard flew the MK.V for most if not all his 5 kills. What makes this subject interesting is all 5 victories are against FW190’s. As most of you know the MK.V considered by both sides as inferior to the fw190. He was flying the old MK.V in 1944 so this truly is a war weary bird.
This has cockpit photo etch and some scratchbuilt levers and wiring. aeromaster decals, photo etch in the coolers as well as scratch built plumbing fuselage band and wing roundels are painted on. other things include brake lines some well seen hyd. lines and radio antenna.
Beautiful job on that Spit- very nice. You really should feel proud of that build. Just really excellent work. I especially like the weathering- just right.
The Fw 190 was superior to the Spitfire Mk V and for a while the RAF stopped operations over the continent with them. The answer was new Spitfires with the Merlin 60 series of engines (Mk IX and VIII) or Griffon (Mk XII) . Before they became available the Mk V was improved with the M version of the Merlin with a cropped supercharger. This gave a max boost of 18 lb per sq in and a top speed of 350 mph at 5,900 ft which was close to that of the Fw 190. When fitted with a 45M, 50M or 55M Merlin they were known as LF.Vs the L being for low altitude. Most LF.Vs had their wings clipped that improved performance and manoeuvrability below 10,000 ft. Only a handful of Spitfires were built as LF Vs, most being conversions from standard Mk Vs. It is common for those converted in late 1943 and 1944 to feature late type exhausts (Mk IX) and elevators.
EP509 RF.G (June 1944) is an example with clipped wings, Mk IX exhausts, and late style elevators.
Early above, late below.
The Spitfire in the background, however, has Mk IX exhausts but full-span wings. At that time 303 Squadron were equipped entirely with LF.Vs. This shows that not all LF.Vs had clipped wings.
Also many Mk Vs that were not fitted with modified engines featured clipped wings and are often described as LF.Vs.
The well known BM144 RF.D of Zumbach. While he flew it had full-span wings. After it was replaced by another aircraft, BM144 was repainted and recoded as ‘H’.
It was photographed both with full-span wings and, as here, with clipped wings.
In August 1943, after another repaint, it was with 315 Squadron coded PK.O and still with clipped wings.
Another of Zumbach’s Donalds, was EN951 (often confused with BM144).
That also later had its wings clipped.
My reference says 401 Squadron had Mk Vs from December 1942 until October 1943. I should think that Sheppard’s Spitfire was a converted LF.V and may well have the late style exhausts and elevators. I can see that it had a round rear-view mirror which was standard by 1944. There would probably be a blade aerial under the starboard wing (see photo of RF.G) for the IFF, also standard in 1944. I don’t think it would have a wire running from the aerial to the fin but I’m not absolutely sure about that. I bet Edgar knows.
Thanks guy’s glad you like it. It is pretty heavily weathered, but doesn’t look bad.
This spitfire was damaged and mostly rebuilt before jack flew it. It was at this point it gained it’s clipped wings. In the first pic it still has it’s external aromored windshield and smaller rear view mirror. After getting shot up it was again repaired. The spit now sported a newer windscreen, poorly retouched paint on the noes, one wing, and under body. This workhorse was never fully repainted and the wings may have been recycled from another spit during it’s first repair. I think it got a different prop but can not be sure. This airframe had to near the end of it’s service life.
He flew this aircraft around spring/summer 1943 to sometime in 1944. this means he could have encountered Fw190A-6 and the A-8. To have shot down 5 of any of them he must have been had that raggedy machine standing on it’s nose.
Antoni, question what do you know about rotol prop and clipped wing MKV? was this the norm for them? I’m thinking this may be worng with that engine but can’t seem to pin it down.
There is a popular misconception that Spitfire wings were clipped, or standard; in fact the “clipped” part was a fairing (often wood) which could replace the normal wingtip, just by undoing a few screws. In the same way, extended tips could be fitted to any Mark. Incidentally, FAA pilots found that, by deleting the outermost Browning, and carrying slightly fewer cannon rounds, it was possible to stay with the Fw190. One slight concern with the model, though; by 1943/4 the old-style radio was long gone, and had been replaced by a VHF system. This used a much shorter aerial, which could be fitted inside the aerial mast, thereby deleting the mast-to-rudder aerial wire. The Mark V could use Rotol, or de Havilland, props.
Rotol propellers were fitted to CBAF built Mk Vs while the de Havilland was standard on Supermarine and Westland built Mk Vs. There were three types of Rotol propellers:
Early style with blunt spinner and narrow-root blades, similar to those fitted to Mk IIs.
Blunt spinner with broad-root wooden blades.
Long pointed spinner and broad-root blades fitted to the majority of Mk Vs. The other two types were only fitted to earliest aircraft up to early AD… serial range.
De Havilland propeller with short pointed spinner and slim blades.
However it is not difficult to find examples where propellers were replaced with a different type especially after major repairs or rebuild.
I have done some research.
401 Squadron received Spitfire Mk IXs in July 1942 at Eastchurch. In January 1943 they were sent to Catterick for a rest where their Mk IXs were replaced with Mk Vbs. They resumed operations, still with the Mk Vs, at Redhill in July and Staplehurst in August. On returning to Biggin Hill they reequipped with Mk IXs, in October joining 127 Wing 2nd TAF. They continued to use Mk IXs until the end of the war. As part ot 2nd TAF they moved to the continent soon after D-Day.
There is no mention of them being equipped with LF.Vs. While resting it was normal for a squadron to relinquish their aircraft to a front line squadron and receive second rate ones. In some cases as the squadrons rotated through the wing the incoming and outgoing squadrons simply swapped bases and aircraft. When resting any operations carried out by the squadron would be of the convoy protection type or the odd scramble to intercept an intruder or unidentified aircraft. As Catterick is in the north of England and inland I doubt that 401 would have much to do there. There would be little scope for contact with enemy. I don’t know what type of operations they were involved with when they returned to the south of England but as they were to join 2nd TAF they may have needed some training in new tactics and techniques such as bombing. EN921 was built as one of a batch of Mk Vb and Vb Trop EN588 - EN932 in May 1942. I found a photograph of it taken in September 1943 at Biggen Hill which must be just before it was replaced. There is nothing about it that suggests it was converted to a LF.V. It has normal Mk V exhausts and elevators.
Now I have some bad news for you. By this time I was becoming very sceptical that Sheppard would have much opportunity to shoot down any enemy aircraft while the squadron used Mk Vs. If EN921 was still with the squadron after October 1943 and flown by Sheppard the only reason I can think off for it being there is that he used it as some kind of squadron hack. I looked up his victories and none of them were scored with EN921 or with any other Mk V or when the squadron was equipped with Mk Vs. They are:
26/11/43 Fw 190 - MJ146
7/03/44 Fw 190 - MJ246
15/03/44 Fw 190 - MJ246
10/05/44 Fw 190 - MH826
2/07/44 Fw 190 - MJ304
MJ146, MJ246, MH826 and MJ304 were all MK IXs.
Also, in April 1944 he was appointed commander of 412 Squadron so two of his victories were not even with 401 Squadron.
You know what Antoni you are 100% correct. The book spitfire MK.V at war (where I first read of jack sheppard) and the 2 web sites I checked out do not state the he got his kills in a MK.V. All of them show him with a MK.V and state he had 5 victories over fw190’s but don’t actually come right out and say in a MK.V. I assumed as much because the book is ABOUT the MK.V and all the pics in the book and on the sites show him with a MK.V. The web site aces of WWII has info on jack.
According to what I could dig up this spitfire was damaged (what and how bad I don’t know). but is was sent to civilian repair unit NO.1? where it was rebuilt and modified to a clipped wing MK.V at this time. The pic I have of it shows it with sheppards woman on the cowl and clipped wings in july, 1943. location unknown but with 401 squadron. The aeromaster decal sheet info backs up this. Sheppard got shot up in this thing sometime after that (october?) and the spit got minor repairs to it’s windscreen and lower nose. In january, 1944 this spit is listed active with 401 squadron (no pics found) and then taken off the books before the end of 1944 it’s number listed as scrapped . Your info and insight is far better then mine on this subject. Does this sound right to to? The pics I have do not show a good view of the tail, could they have removed the wing tips and not modified the tail? I have only recently started reading up on spitfires so my knowledge of them is still thin, but I learn real quick.
Thanks alot Antoni for taking the time to post pics of the props and the research of shppard. Not many people will take the time to do that. where did get the info about him flying the MK.Ix? In his interview he recounts his experiences and talks about flying " a real mess of a spitfire" and his victories but makes on mention about which mark spitfire he was flying.
