Douglas Bader's Spitfire Mk.IXe

On being liberated from Colditz on 16th April 1945, after three and a half years as a POW, Douglas Bader was itching to get back into combat, but when just 3 weeks later, on on 8th May 1945, Victory in Europe was declared, any opportunity that there may have been slipped away. Although the war against Japan was still stubbornly unresolved, and an RAF contingent known as Tiger Force was being prepared for operations against the enemy in the Pacific, the atomic bombs were to bring an end to the war before the Tiger Force never became operational.

After resting and recuperating, Bader was posted to his old station at Tangmere, with the rank of Group Captain, to command the Fighter Leaders’ School of the Central Fighter Establishment under Air Commodore Richard Atcherley, who had served with Douglas in 23 Squadron at Kenley in 1930. The appointment did not go well. 

Bader, was completely out of touch with the air fighting tactics that came into force at the war’s end; tactics which, among other things, had seen fighter aircraft used increasingly in the ground-attack role. The aircraft being flown had also changed dramatically since his incarceration; even the Spitfire now in service was far removed from his Spitfire Mk.V in which he had crashed over France and many squadrons were now being equipped with the new fangled Gloster Meteor jets! Bader was, therefore, reassigned to command the North Weald sector of 11 Group, giving him control over twelve fighter squadrons based on six airfields and opportunity to organise probably the most spectacular flypast ever flown.

Battle of Britain 5th Anniversary Flypast

15 September 1945 was a day of great nostalgia for Bader as thousands crammed the streets of London, their eyes turned towards the sky, for the anniversary of the greatest air battle over the capital five years earlier. 

Bader prepares to lead the flypast 

Group Captain Douglas Bader had been chosen to organise a flypast of twenty squadrons and around 300 aircraft. The air armada was led by twelve Spitfires, each flown by a Battle of Britain veteran and out front, in the very first ‘vic’ of Spitfires, was Bader.

They assembled over Bader's base at North Weald and followed a route that took them in formation over Barking, West Ham, the East India Docks, Hyde Park, Northolt, Ruislip, Elstree, Walthamstow, Greenwich, Wimbledon, Teddington, Brent Reservoir and finally back to North Weald, where they dispersed to their home airfields. They swept across the capital under low cloud, the sky filled with the massed thunder of their engines. 

Douglas Bader's Spitfire Mk.IXe RK917

This final of my 4 aircraft tribute to Douglas Bader is the Spitfire Mk.IX which he flew when he led this 5th anniversary fly-past over Central London to commemorate the Battle of Britain, September 15th 1945.

Bader adopted RK917 as his personal aircraft while in command of the North Weald sector. As such it differed in markings, equipment and weaponry in comparison to other of the squadrons' aircraft. 

What's interesting about RK917's markings were that for some reason the outer yellow ring of an otherwise standard Type C1 fuselage roundel had been over painted in blue, resulting in the incorrect ratio of the outer blue ring in proportion to the red and white of the roundel. In addition to the non-standard fuselage roundels was added the custom DB codes in white with a black outline.

RK917 was also painted very differently from the standard day fighter scheme. Compare in the photo below the tone of the lighter grey of Bader’s aircraft in the immediate foreground, with the tone of the same area on the aircraft behind and you'll note that there is no visible demarcation between the grey applied to the upper surfaces and the grey applied below. The colour scheme Bader is using is not the regular Day-Fighter scheme but more typical of the RAF night fighter scheme of overall Medium Sea Grey with a Dark Green disruptive pattern. 

It is also clear from the archive images that on the day of the flypast, that RK917 had no tail band nor yellow leading-edges on the wings and the spinner was also probably Roundel Blue and not Sky as was applied for the rest of the squadron.

May be, RK917 was freshly painted for the flypast, the paint in archive pictures certainly look new and clean and perhaps the colours are so odd might have been to make his aircraft more easily visible during the formation assembly ready for the flight over London. Who knows!

The Model

For Bader very distinctive Spitfire Mk.IXe, wearing an RAF nightfighter colour scheme, odd fuselage roundels and “DB” codes, I used Italeri's 1:72 scale Spitfire Mk.IX kit, Freightdog Model's set of Post War Spitfires decals and Hataka's WW2 RAF acrylic paints.

Italeri's  1:72 scale Spitfire Mk.IX, Hakata paints, Freightdog decals & the finished model

The kit was very nice to build. The various options suited the Mk.IXe variant and the added cockpit detail in permitting the access door and canopy to be left open was a real bonus on such a small scale kit. All I needed to add were a set of spue moulded seat belts and a bit of detailing to the access door itself. The only disappointment with the kit was the moulding of the wingtips which did not align well to the main wing.

As Bader's aircraft appeared to have been completely unarmed at the time of the flypast and the cannon stubs on both wings were sealed with domed covers, I had to similarly remove those canon barrels which came pre moulded to the kit's wings. For completeness, I should also have removed the navigation light behind the cockpit as this is not visible in the archive pictures, but I so liked the fact that Italeri had included it I just had to use it.

After my earlier bad experience with Ammo MIG's RAF colours, in particular their supposed dark green, I  followed a fellow modeller's recommendation and went with Hataka's WW2 RAF acrylic paints for this build and was not disappointed. Having now used Vallejo, MIG and Hataka paints, I must confess the latter's RAF colours at least, look best to me. All I need to perfect now, is my use of Blu-Tak masking, as I'm still struggling to get a finish I'm happy with. 

The final touch was to add a bit of thread for the aerial and a pilot. I decided not to add any weathering as RK917 was supposedly in a display ready condition, cleaned and freshly painted for the Flypast.

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The Kit

Brand: Italeri
Title: Spitifre Mk.IX
Number: 094
Scale: 1:72
Released: 2010 | Rebox (Changed box only)