Yea, thanks, Chainy.. I wear my coffee on my sleeve, or to put it another way - I'd never make a poker player.. too easy to read
Doug, I'm certainly no expert on the subject, but I'd be surprised if Spits fitted with the Vokes filter were used in the UK: they were fitted at some performance cost, to get around the damage caused to the Merlins by the dust on North African (and Pacific theatre) unsealed strips.
No doubt I'll be proven wrong here.. all contributions are welcome:wink:
BTW, my father-in-law did a short stint on B24's out of Darwin in '45. They were evidently a seriously heavy thing to handle control-wise: needed LOTS of muscle power.
The right door gunner, SSgt Ellie V. Hester, saw the Aussie Spitfire closing in and knew it was going to hit them, but could not warn the pilot in time as the Spitfire flew into the B-24's number one engine. The impact sheared the number one engine propeller off of the bomber and left wing of the Spitfire.