Hello Troy:
Thanks for sharing this information.
The AJ press reproduction shows one unusual detail, that the area behind the cockpit appears quite a lot lighter in tone than the nose panels, compare the lighter camo colour on wing and nose to area with the handhold.
"It could be that the Ocean Grey was overpainted with white paint as a winter finish (at least,only on the fuselage).If you have ""Hurricane in foreign service",please take a look at picture #108,the Hurricane behind the pilot is a Mk.IIc with what looks like the Dark Green overpainted with white.Probably,these cannon armed belong to an IAP that painted their planes in a partial winter camouflage."
Glad you spotted this one,
Indeed a IIC, but look at the sky, deep blue, and the pilots uniform, looks at least warm! It is a winter schme in spring it's remarkably pristine!
I think this is a another desert finish plane, note how this looks like a factory applied paint job, not a roughly applied winter finish.
I did wonder if was in front of an RAF plane, but there looks to be a star painted on.
note also same pilot, and I presume, plane. At first I thought of winter finish, but look at the minimal panel wear.
. Note that in 1943 IIRC that Hurricane IICs were supplied to the Turkish Airforce from existing RAF middle east stocks.
So not a big jump to see them being supplied to the VVS and then being used in Southern Russia, there are exapmple so Luftwaffe Fw190's in Southern Russia in desert camo too.
One thing I have noticed about VVS photographs, is there are often multiples from the same photo shoot, (there are many exaples of a couple of related pictures I once posted pairs of in the ARC discssion on VVS camo)
I would presume this being the result of official war correspondent assignments. And note far less are private snapshots, due to lack of cameras and also a totalitarian regime strict censorship. An example of this is quoted in Red Stars 4, where it says that pictures of Spitfires from further back PVO units are comparatively rare as these were not so propaganda worthy.
I will post more shots that i think are of importance or that may be of a sequence. I have noticed that too
often it's only the plane that is concentrated on, as opposed to the entire picture.
so i wonder if this may be from the same sequence.
It also strikes me that i doubt if I have seen a total photos more than 50 individual Hurricanes in VVS service, our of nearly 3000 planes supplied, so it is difficult to make generalizations, except that RAF camo was retained, and that repainting was limited to removal of RAF markings, and repairs to the
fabric covered parts of the airframe.
There are some examples of mismatched metal panels too. More when I have time. But your pics of bort 92 are a good example, instead of extensive repainting, think mismatched nose and fuselage side panels, and fabric repairs on rear fuselage. Standard practice was to dope new fabric over damage in the RAF, why would the VVS be different? This does like quite extensive repairs. It could be part of a sequencce of pics including
from "hurricane in Foreign service"
Note pic #109 of bort 14, note recovered front of fin.
pic #107, note mismatched wing! and doped flare chute behind cockpit. I though strikes me on these planes, perhaps they had extensive fabric damage delivery, rather than battle damage, would explain extensive recovering?
pic #101 note mismatched gun panels, and looks like it could be from same sequence as bort 14 in #109, note dusty background, and think like a photographer, getting a squadron setting out.
Possibly pic #91, note unusual tail and what looks like white prop blades!
the tail section looks like a replica. (note rudder shape)
You?re right.Perhaps,it could be a recovered Mk.IIc with tropical filter and damaged tail section.Or,if it was one of 151 wing Mk.IIbs,the outer wings were replaced with Mk.IIcs external sections.I think
they tried to represent a well known soviet Hurricane,that?s why the wolf and the serial BM959 were painted on it.
In the link to the thread i got the colour pic from it said
"How about this one then? OK, not completely white but white and "Tundra". It is displayed at Revda in the Kola Peninsula and painted as BM951 though that is not it's true identity. It is in the markings of Captain Yakovlenko who was shot down and killed in 1941. The scheme is based on photographs of similar Hurricanes.
(Info from Aeroplane 1997).
Several variations of the scheme appear on the Wings Pallette site."
which makes more sense. Anyone here know more about this plane?
No reply as yet about the details of VVS armament fit photos, but will post info when I get it.
it's very late here, time for bed.
cheers
Troy
