Danny: Agreed the Battle nose looked unfinished, but the engine was so tightly cowled that there seems little room to attach a spinner. My father used to say that the Battles needed a lot more than spinners to save them. This pic, by the way, shows Cpl Davies of 142 Sqn doing his daily checks at Berry-au-Bac, France, in early 1940. Note the single forward-firing gun in the starboard wing. Within a few months most of the Battles were destroyed with horrendous losses.
On a happier note, I called into an old haunt the other day to find a beautifully rebuilt Tiger Moth with shiny new cowlings created by a company in Cambridge, I was so pleased to find that the old skills still exist. Last time I saw this done was at RNAY Sydenham where I was privileged to be a guest in 1971. I arrived for my weekend flight to find that the Fleet Air Arm thought my scruffy 1941 cowlings were lowering the tone of their shiny Sea Vixens and had very kindly replaced them, in exchange for which I was happy to fly almost everyone on the airfield
