Could Supermarine's iconic fighter have been modified to escort US bombers all the way to Berlin and back? It may have but those in the aircraft industry during World War Two failed to provide an answer!
Although the Spitfire remained in the front rank of fighters throughout WW2, it never made the grade as a long-range escort. Specified as a short-range interceptor with the emphasis on rate of climb and speed, it is unsurprising that fuel load was not the Spitfire’s strongest suit. The general view that the Spitfire was a short range fighter incapable of the long range escort role is wrong.
The Air Ministry and the Royal Air Force missed a huge opportunity in failing to explore the potential of this aircraft and so failed to support the USAAF 8th Air Force's daylight campaign. Had they done so, the 8th might have had the escort it so badly needed at least six months before it was eventually provided by the P-51 Mustang. It was said by Luftwaffe chief Herman Goering that "the war is lost" on seeing Mustangs flying over Berlin. It was a remarkable achievement, a single-engined fighter with the range of a bomber. P-51s based in south-east England could fly the 1,100-mile round trip yet still win air superiority deep in Germany.
The first such missions were flown in March 1944 and they were decisive. Merlin-powered Mustangs enabled the USAAF Eighth Air Force to prosecute its daylight campaign without the crippling losses it endured during 1943. The question remains, could Spitfires have flown that mission and flown it a year earlier?
Paul Stoddart was commissioned into the Royal Air Force in 1983 and served for eight years as an aero-systems engineer. His first tour was at Brize Norton where he was in the second line maintenance on the VC-10. In 1986 he was posted to Number 4 Flying Training School at RAF Valley on the Hawk T.1 advanced trainer. In his final tour, he was on the Directing Staff of Initial Officer Training at Cranwell. Subsequently in leaving the RAF, he worked for just under a year as a journalist on a car magazine until the publisher went into receivership and for one summer he taught English as a foreign language. He then took a post with the Ministry of Defence as an analyst at Farnborough, spending two and a half years on a project studying the options for a Tornado successor. He then transferred to Boscombe Down to run the trial programmes for the Harrier and Sea Harrier.
After attending Staff College he took up his current post as an analyst at RAF Waddington. He has written a number of articles on various aviation topics. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
Paul has been invited by Friends of Metheringham Airfield to examine some development options for the Spitfire and suggests what might have been achieved. His talk comes under the title SPITFIRE TO BERLIN
It will be held in the WW2 gymnasium, now known as the Peter Scoley Hall, on Wednesday, 26th July 2018, beginning at 7.30pm: Admission is £5.00 for non members to include refreshments. It is free to members of Friends of Metheringham Airfield and veterans of 106 Squadron.
For further information please telephone 07486 947 095
John Shipton
Friends of Metheringham Airfield
Lincoln
War time home to 106 Squadron
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SPITFIRE TO BERLIN...
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