Betya didnt know - WW2 the USN flew Spitfires of all things!

http://spitfiresite.com/history/article ... s-navy.htm

[PeterA]

..and with a wonderfully expressive unit code - '4Q'.

PeterA

[n5151ts]

the pilots transitioned into the "hotter" navy aircraft!

[n5151ts]

..and with a wonderfully expressive unit code - '4Q'.

PeterA

[AeroTRrat]

And the 453 squadron RAAF Spits had FU as their code. Always put yer money on the Aussie.
Dave

[51fixer]

..and with a wonderfully expressive unit code - '4Q'.

PeterA

We had a T-6 that was imported from South Africa.
We registered it N544Q to see if the FAA would catch on. They didn't.
Rich

[SaxMan]

That had to be one heck of an assignment. One day, you're tooling around in an SOC or an OS2U, and the next, you're flying Spitfires. It must have been like going from a mule to a thoroughbred race horse.

[SaxMan]

That had to be one heck of an assignment. One day, you're tooling around in an SOC or an OS2U, and the next, you're flying Spitfires. It must have been like going from a mule to a thoroughbred race horse.

[Jack Cook]

The Navy also flew 10 P-51Bs during Operation Dragoon operated by VCS-8.

[L. Thompson]

When I first started dating my wife my later-to-be father-in-law (now deceased) found out about my World War II avaition interests and told me when he was on the USS Monterey in the Pacific they had Spitfires, Hellcats, and Avengers. After trying to argue that first one I decided I better just bite my lip and change the subject, or risk loosing his daughter.


No way it ever had Spits aboard, ...right? Or is he going to come back and haunt me now?

[Bill Greenwood]

Of course there were Spits and Hurris in Australia and the Pacific. I don't know it they were on a carrier, but I have a computer sim magazine that shows a Seafire above a carrier there. I'd guess it was accurate.

[JDK]

There was ONE Hurricane in Australia. A few more on the other side, Burma, India etc.

There were numerous Spitfires in RAF and RAAF service in and around Australia, and through the Pacific. The Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm operated Seafires in the latter stages of the Pacific war, and there was a shore base in Australia where they operated them as well.

In addition, the RN FAA operated Avenger, Corsair and Hellcats.

You can get a Spitfire off a carrier, proven several times in the Med, but getting one back on, without a hook would be problematical. Even with a hook, the unsuitable Spitfire undercarriage, and various other nasty deck-landing characteristics proved it was hard enough to land a Seafire on deck, as the loss rate due to deck landings at Salerno proved.

AFAIK there was no official use of Seafires or Spitfires by the USN aboard carriers in the Pacific, although there's no reason that a RN Seafire couldn't have landed on a US carrier.

Over to those knowledgeable on the USN.