Originally Posted by
treadigraph
I believe the elliptical wing tips are easily removable and a wooden fillet added instead to clip the wings. All of The Fighter Collection's Spitfires (MkV, MkIX and MkXIV) had clipped wings but the Mk IX sported elliptical tips during the filming of "A Piece of Cake". Early MkXVIs were high back, they were essentially MkIXs with a Packard Merlin.
Makes sense. I have had a look at John Bennett's account of the WWII record of RAAF Squadron 453 "Defeat to Victory". Appendix 8, pages 168-169 shows a picture of a high-backed XVI and has this to say:
"November 44 - June 45
"First batch of XVIs received by 453 Squadron on 11 November. The 453 ORB noted: 'To all intents and purposes the Spitfire XVI is merely a cleaned up Spit IX with Merlin Packard engine, bomb racks to carry a 250lb bomb under each wing and a 0.5 inch machine gun instead of .303s. All have the modified pointed tail and
some have clipped wings. The pilots are quite happy about their performance against that of the Spit IXs. On 20 November, 453 with Nos 602 and 229 Squadrons moved to Swannington, a satellite of Matlaske. The first operation with XVIs was conducted on 21 November, and until 23 November both marks were flown in operations. Most operations were against the V2 sites around The Hague, quite often rearming at B67/Ursel, in Belgium, for further attacks on the return journey to the OK."