Star-Spangled Spitfires
By Tony Holmes
()
About this ebook
Tony Holmes
Having initially worked for Osprey as an author in the 1980s, Tony Holmes became the company's aviation editor in 1989 after he moved to England from Western Australia. Responsible for devising the Aircraft of the Aces, Combat Aircraft, Aviation Elite Units, Duel and X-Planes series, Tony has also written more than 30 books for Osprey over the past 35 years.
Read more from Tony Holmes
World War II Fighter Planes Spotter's Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpitfire: The Legend Lives On Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Spitfire Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Plane Spotter’s Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Star-Spangled Spitfires
Titles in the series (100)
The Crushing of Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Defeat on the Eastern Front Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5D-Day Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great War Fighter Aces, 1916–1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in the North African Campaign Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Armoured Warfare in the Battle for Normandy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Chiang Kai-shek Versus Mao Tse-tung: The Battle for China, 1946–1949 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Germans on the Somme Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5U-108 at War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5B-17 Memphis Belle Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzkrieg in the West Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Afrika-Korps Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Armoured Warfare on the Eastern Front Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Germans at Arras Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in Northwest Europe, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare in the Italian Campaign, 1943–1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Allied POWs in German Hands 1914–1918 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Joseph Stalin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Adolf Hitler Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Battle for the Caucasus, 1942–1943 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Auschwitz Death Camp Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitler's Mountain Troops, 1939–1945: The Gebirgsjager Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArmoured Warfare and Hitler's Allies, 1941–1945 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5T-54/55: The Soviet Army's Cold War Main Battle Tank Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Royal Armoured Corps in the Cold War, 1946–1990 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Armoured Warfare in the Battle of the Bulge, 1944–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGerman Guns of the Third Reich Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Hitler's Panzers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5T-34: The Red Army's Legendary Medium Tank Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/56th SS Mountain Division Nord at War, 1941–1945 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Related ebooks
The Vought F4U Corsair Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings479th Fighter Group: ‘Riddle’s Raiders’ Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Normandy Air War, 1944 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAmerican Eagles: US Fighter Pilots in the RAF 1939–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWorld War 2 In Review No. 30: Grumman's Wildcat Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Mustang the Inspiration: The Plane That Turned the Tide of World War Two Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Mosquito in the USAAF: De Havilland’s Wooden Wonder in American Service Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMesserschmitt Bf 109: The Early Years–Poland, the Fall of France and the Battle of Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJunkers Ju87 Stuka Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Eastern Front Air War, 1941–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsJunkers Ju 88: The Twilight Years: Biscay to the Fall of Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5World War 2 In Review No. 72: Grumman TBF Avenger Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Luftwaffe in World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Luftwaffe in Colour: From Glory to Defeat 1942–1945 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mighty Eighth at War: USAAF 8th Air Force Bombers Versus the Luftwaffe 1943–1945 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn All Things First: No. 1 Squadron at War, 1939–45 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCombat Biplanes of World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Focke-Wulf Fw 200: The Luftwaffe's Long Range Maritime Bomber Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMESSERSCHMITT Bf 109: The Latter Years—War in the East to the Fall of Germany Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHawker Hurricane and Sea Hurricane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGreat War Fighter Aces, 1916–1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Royal Air Force in the Cold War, 1950–1970 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlying to the Limit: Testing World War II Single-engined Fighter Aircraft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sopwith Camels Over Italy, 1917–1918 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnglish Electric Lightning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsU-108 at War Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5P-51B Mustang: North American’s Bastard Stepchild that Saved the Eighth Air Force Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Kosciuszko Squadron 1919-1921 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHeroes of the RAF: No.43 Squadron Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Wars & Military For You
On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Resistance: The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unit 731: Testimony Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Washington: The Indispensable Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5About Face: The Odyssey of an American Warrior Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Star-Spangled Spitfires
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Star-Spangled Spitfires - Tony Holmes
Acknowledgements
The author wishes to thank the following individuals (some of whom, sadly, are no longer with us) and organizations for the provision of photographs and information included within this volume:
Peter Arnold, Norman Franks, the late Roger Freeman, Peter Green, William Hess, Philip Kaplan, Paul Ludwig, Dick Martin, Wojtek Matusiak, the late Bruce Robertson, Andy Saunders, the late Jerry Scutts, Sam Sox and Andrew Thomas.
Introduction
As a follow-on to my Images of War – American Eagles volume of 2015, this book focuses on the iconic Spitfire marked with the equally distinctive USAAF star (and later bars). Three fighter groups, each consisting of three squadrons, would see brief combat with the Supermarine fighter in the European Theatre of Operations (ETO) during the late summer and autumn of 1942. Equipped with Spitfire VBs (the most-produced mark), the 4th, 31st and 52nd Fighter Groups would enjoy modest success on the Channel Front prior to the latter two units being sent to support the American-led invasion of North Africa – codenamed Operation Torch – in November 1942. The 4th FG, manned in the main by pilots who had previously seen combat with the RAF’s trio of ‘Eagle’ squadrons prior to them being transferred to USAAF control in late September 1942, continued to fly the Spitfire VB in the ETO until it switched to the P-47 Thunderbolt from March 1943.
By then, the 31st and 52nd FGs had become well and truly embroiled in the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations (MTO), flying tropicalized Spitfire VBs and hard-hitting ‘quad cannon’ VCs against German and Italian fighters and bombers in the war-torn skies over Tunisia as the Allies slowly got the better of the Afrika Korps. Assigned to the Twelfth Air Force and flying alongside P-38 Lightning, P-39 Airacobra and P-40 Warhawk fighters that equipped other USAAF fighter groups in-theatre, the two Spitfire units more than held their own in traditional fighter missions and in the demanding fighter-bomber role. Supporting troops on the ground grew in importance once all Axis forces had been defeated in North Africa and the Allies turned their attention to Italy. From mid-1943 the two groups started to replace their warweary Spitfire Vs with vastly superior Mk IXs, even better Mk VIIIs arriving by the end of the year. Making the most of their mount’s outstanding abilities as a fighter, some twenty-two USAAF pilots had claimed five or more victories to ‘make ace’ on the Spitfire in the MTO by the time the final examples were replaced by P-51B/C Mustangs in the early spring of 1944.
In the ETO, Spitfires had equipped the tactical reconnaissance (TAC-R) optimized 67th Reconnaissance Group (RG) following its arrival in England in the autumn of 1942, many of its aeroplanes being cast-offs from the 31st and 52nd FGs after the units headed for North Africa minus their Mk VBs. Although these machines lacked cameras, they served as ideal mounts for the intensive training undertaken by 67th RG pilots as they learned how to observe enemy targets and strafe them effectively. In late 1943 the group transferred from the strategic Eighth Air Force to the tactical Ninth Air Force, and in January 1944 the 67th RG was issued with TAC-R F-6 Mustangs. Having never fired a shot in anger with the group, the last war-weary examples of its Spitfire VBs were retired by the time the 67th moved to France in July 1944.
The final ‘star-spangled’ Spitfires in the frontline ranks of the Eighth Air Force were the highflying, and unarmed, PR XI photo-reconnaissance aircraft supplied to the 7th Photographic Reconnaissance Group to supplant its F-5 Lightnings from November 1943. Ranging as far into Germany as Berlin, the ‘PR blue’ Spitfires provided critical target imagery – both pre- and post-strike – for the ‘Mighty Eighth’s’ heavy bombardment groups through to April 1945. Flying exclusively with the 14th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron from January 1944, these aircraft performed myriad missions alongside Lightnings and, eventually, P-51 Mustangs.
Only a handful of British combat aircraft wore the ‘stars and bars’ of the USAAF in the Second World War, with the Beaufighter, Mosquito and Spitfire being the key types to see action with American crews in American squadrons. The Spitfire was, by some margin, the most widely used of the three, and the ‘Yanks’ that flew it