Vengeances – camouflage colours
To continue our discussion into EZ999, I think it is appropriate to briefly look at the Vengeance in RAAF service in Australia and New Guinea, and in more depth its (primarily) RAF camouflage. Now for those here who do not want to get into an “anorak train-spotter” conversation, perhaps you need to leave now. It is just that you may get bored.
In Australia, the RAAF received 342 Vengeances, all of which were delivered from the US through Lend-Lease, and many of which were diverted by the British Purchasing Commission from RAF contracts:
- 99 x A-31 Vengeance Mk.I/IA all Northrop-built and ex RAF contracts – A27-1 to A27-15 V-72 Mk.I (in AN853 to AN898 block); and A-31-NO A27-16 to A27-99 Mk.IA (EZ800 to EZ999 block, USAAF 41-30848 to 41-31047 block). [see below, fn 1, 2, 3]
- 122 x A-31 Mk.II and Mk.IIA, A27-200 to A27-321, either Vultee-built (with RAF AN serials up to AN837) or Northrop-built (AF serials).
- 121 x A-35A and A-35B Mk.IV-2, all Vultee-built to USAAF orders:
- A27-400 to -422 Vultee-built A-35A-VN ex USAAF (23),
- A27-500 to -549 Vultee-built A-35B-5-VN ex USAAF (50),
- A27-560 to -566 Vultee-built A-35B-10-VN ex USAAF (7),
- A27-600 to -640 Vultee-built A-35B-15-VN ex USAAF (41). [fn 4]
Green/Brown Camouflage
The aircraft camouflage was:
“With British and Australian air forces being the ones interested in the Vengeance from the outset, the initial production paint finish for all production at both Vultee and Northrop factories was to be solely the one which conformed to the RAF’s ‘Temperate Land Scheme’, which was a two-colour disruptive upper camouflage consisting of a green called Dark Green and a brown called Dark Earth. As the Vengeance was a day-flying type, underside camouflage would be the light grey-green colour first phased into RAF use during 1940, called Sky. (Early model Vengeances subsequently diverted into the USAAF were also delivered in this scheme; only later were some deliveries to USAAF orders made in that service’s regular Dark Olive Drab with Medium Green ‘splotches’ and Neutral Grey undersides.)” [fn 5]
US and Canadian paint manufacturers supplied American aircraft builders with paints intended to replicate the required British colours, but sometimes the colour match varied. To expedite production, it appears that in March 1942 the US Dark Olive Drab was substituted for the British Dark Green, and all aircraft would simply be sprayed Dark Olive Drab on their upper and side surfaces, with aircraft earmarked for British and Commonwealth air forces could have the second colour, Dark Earth, added later. When RAAF Vengeances’ paintwork was touched up, RAAF colours Foliage Green, Earth Brown and Sky would have been used, until May 1944 when the scheme was rationalised to overall Foliage Green.
EZ999 may have been repainted at some stage. This may have been during its service at the hands of the technical apprentices at Sydney Technical College, or when procured by Mr Thomas at Camden in the early 1960s. Its “bottle-green” shading does not look consistent with olive hue of Dark Green. In addition, its national markings can be a useful timeline. In 1979, EZ999 was moved by Mr Thomas’ museum to its new site in Narellan (near Camden).
National Markings
Vengeances delivered to Australia came in either RAF markings or USAAF markings. Some RAF Vengeances were diverted directly to the USAAF, and carried RAF camouflage and RAF serial numbers, but the US star national marking (as per EZ856 on the cover of P C Smith’s “Vengeance” book). RAF aircraft were delivered with the red-white-blue 5-3-1 ‘Type A’ roundel (where diameter of 5 is the outer blue circle, diameter 3 is the white ring, and diameter 1 is the inner red disc), or with a yellow ring around this roundel, ‘Type A1’ (7-5-3-1). The ADF Serials web page for the Vengeance (A27) has a nice colour pic of an early RAAF Vengeance line-up in 1942, and they have ‘Type A’ roundels, with apparently the yellow of the A1 roundel overpainted with Dark Earth. EZ999 was probably delivered with the ‘Type A1’ fuselage roundels.
In the RAAF, the national markings were changed from mid-1942 from the RAF ‘Type A’ fuselage red-white-blue roundel, deleting the red (and avoid confusion with the Japanese red ‘meatball’), and similarly with the red-blue ‘Type B’ wings roundel. This deletion of the red disc led to variations in the blue-white roundel. In 1942, the red was simply over-painted making a large white disc, but by 1945 the blue had become wider, making a primarily blue roundel with smaller white centre.
In the case of EZ999, its roundel has been changed from the RAF ‘Type A1’ to the post-1942 RAAF blue/white roundel and fin flash, either when it emerged from its storage crate in 1949 by the apprentices at Sydney Tech, or more likely by Mr Thomas in the early 1960s in preparation for display at Camden airfield. The central red was either just overpainted (i.e. to a two-colour 5-3 roundel), or perhaps all new roundels were applied at some stage. Now assuming it had remained in its packing crate from delivery in 1943 until disposal in 1949 - which is quite likely as it never flew - it probably didn't receive its blue/white 5-3 roundels until the early 1960s. Consistent with this, the fin flash had been changed from the RAF tricolour to the white/blue (i.e. white leading) flash.
Squadron Code
Now remember that EZ999 had no operational or flying history with the RAAF. From delivery in 1943, until release by the Commonwealth Disposals Commission in 1949, it apparently remained in its crate.
So for EZ999, this ‘NH’ code is fictitious, but it is painted in the correct Medium Sea Grey. The 12 SQN ‘NH’ code applied by Mr Thomas at Camden in the early 1960s was intended to be kept simple - with straight letter strokes, and ‘NH-Y’ was formulated. 12 SQN operated the Vengeance throughout northern Australia.
The New Guinea deployed units were 21 SQN (MJ-), 23 SQN (NV-) and 24 SQN (GR-), while a fifth unit was 25 SQN (SJ-) in Western Australia.
The three New Guinea squadron operated under the US 5th Air Force, and therefore over the 1943-44 period had the mandatory all-white empennage. Now this marking instruction could be misinterpreted - so some aircraft had a complete white empennage, some had a white fin, some a white rudder. Perhaps to avoid making a mistake, or to save painting too much white paint, this option was fortunately not exercised at Camden on EZ999.
Similarly, the ‘Dina-Might’ nose art was fictitious, but made for a colourful (albeit inaccurate) public display.
Serial Number
As EZ999 was never flown by the RAAF and remained in its box, the serial number was never changed to the RAAF allocated A27-99. The RAF serial appears to be of accurate size and strokes, and the black colour is correct for a newly delivered aircraft of 1943. This similarly was the case with the two crated Spitfires referred to in my post #20, MV154 and MV239. However, by the time these were delivered in late 1944/early 1945, they were marked with the then standard RAF ‘Type C1’ type roundel (i.e. thin yellow outer ring, thin white inner ring between the blue and the red, 9-8-4-3).
There, a quick phase brief in aircraft cam and markings...anyone still awake ??
- British Military Aircraft Serials 1878-1987, Bruce Roberston, Midland, Leicester, 1987, ISBN 0 904597 61 X, pg.141.
- Vengeance, Peter C Smith, Airlife, Shrewsbury, 1986, ISBN 0 906393 65 5, pg.175-6.
- Lend-Lease Aircraft of WWII, Arthur Pearcy, Airlife, Shrewsury, 1996, ISBN 1 85310 443 4, pg.158.
- ADF Serials website, A27 Vultee Vengeance.
- Aviation History Colouring Book no.23 Vultee Vengeance, Ian K Baker, Queenscliff, 1996, ISSN 1322-0217, pgs.1-3.