Malta Based Spits..

126 Sqdn Spitfire IX EN 479 (M. 63), Safi, Malta, Summer 1943.



185 Sqdn Spitfire IX, Hal Far, Malta, Summer 1943

Aqta x'kulur huwa : )

This is the famous MKIX EN199 it was based for some time in Malta then Sicily and Italy then Back in Malta.
In 1947 was donated to the scouts Floriana, it was left to be vandalized and scraped...

But faith came when Mr Ray polidano found it at a scrapyard and thanks to him and others volunteers start building it again ( but thats another story )

And today it's one of the main atraction in Ta Qali , Malta Aviation Museum..


Now..



Before...

In July 1943 145Sqd were also in Malta....

Great photos - have seen images of the museum one before - and she looks beautiful!

Hmmm - 'ZX-6' is one of the schemes in the Tamiya kit IIRC - hadn't realised a Malta connection.

Iain

Iain wrote:Great photos - have seen images of the museum one before - and she looks beautiful!

Hmmm - 'ZX-6' is one of the schemes in the Tamiya kit IIRC - hadn't realised a Malta connection.

Iain

The photos quote......... MkIX-RAF-145Sqn-ZX-6-Stanislaw-Skalski-EN315-Tunesia-1943-01 , but later they came to Malta the same month before leaveing to Italy...


This is another one from same Sqd....


It began operations over the Western Desert in May, becoming the first Spitfire squadron in the theatre. It carried out fighter patrols and bomber escort mission until the end of the North African campaign, after which it moved to Malta in June 1943. From Malta, the squadron supported the Sicilian landings after which it became the first Spitfire squadron to operate from the island, enabling it to support the Allied landings in Italy. The squadron moved to the Italian mainland in September 1943, still in the fighter role. Lack of opposition resulted in the squadron moving to the ground attack role and in June 1944, it was officially reclassified as a fighter bomber unit, a role in maintained until the end of the war. It disbanded at Treviso in Italy on 19 August 1945

For those who want to know more about Malta based Spitfire V's colours , well this is a must have book... by one of our Spitfire dedicated member Brain Cauchi..

see for your self ....


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgBwopJI5ME

Even me.. I was so lucky that he handed me a signed copy by himself yesterday...

already start reading it ..what a masterpiece research he made.... prosit Brian...

The 145Sq operated from Malta but without the Flight C (Polish Fighting Team)they operated with the 145Sq only in North Africa.

Jerzy Ciupek wrote:The 145Sq operated from Malta but without the Flight C (Polish Fighting Team)they operated with the 145Sq only in North Africa.

Interesting , the more info, the better....

Thanks guys, for the great comments and also for taking an interest in the book and of course for wanting a copy. Marco, evan Mackie's spitfire SN-A is wrongly portrayed. That was based in Malta for a while and it was in desert colours. Then the squadron moved on to Italy and the mid stone was overpainted with grey. This is described by Evan himself in his book. I built that model in 32nd scale and it has featured in many an expo. I did not bring it along this year. It was a standard VC but fitted with the MKIX exhausts. Evan was a keen mechanic and he gained speed by using these type of exhausts. He had acquired a set and always used in on this spitfire. when it was downed whilst being flown by one of his squadron mates, he went out to the crash site to retrieve them. The codes and underside were in Azure blue.

Very interesting reading your articles.

Looking forward to my signed copy.

Could not make it last Wednesday.

Cyril.

Brian said he has a copy of the book in the mail for me, I can't wait to get it and read it. I've been following the development of the book for so many years now, so happy for Brian that he finally got his dream published.

It might even get me to build a Spitfire V, I've never built a Spitfire in my life. I was building a 1/48 Spitfire back in 1981 when we moved from one house to another and I lost a couple of the major pieces. One evening my brother and I stuffed it full of firecrackers and lit it off on the back patio, all we saw was this giant fireball with what seemed like pieces suspended in midair and all of a sudden we heard the pieces ricocheting off of the house all around us. We were so lucky neither of us got hit.

Never too late to build a spit and a Malta one too!!

I actually started looking at some reviews & builds of some 1/48 & 1/32 Spitfire V's to see which ones are good, ultimately, it will come down to the cost of the model. It's not like I don't have enough projects underway now :-)