Spitfire EN152 over Gulf of Tunis

A portrait of Desert Air Force Spitfire IXc EN152 QJ-3 with 92 Squadron in Tunisia in the spring of 1943.

This is the scheme that the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's IXe, MK356, is being repainted to represent. I liaised with their historian, Sqn Ldr Clive Rowley MBE RAF (Ret’d), and Chief Technician Paul Blackah MBE, on the details of the colour scheme. The research draws on a very poor quality black-and-white photo of fighter ace Neville Duke with the aircraft. Duke actually flew EN152 only once according to the squadron records, on 1 May 1943.

Note: there is a popular misconception that if it was a Spitfire in the desert then it must have had a clunking great dust filter under the nose. Not so on the Mark IXs, which were game changers in the RAF's struggle against the Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica in North Africa.