Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!pacific.mps.ohio-state.edu!linac!att!cbnews!cbnews!military
From: thos@softway.sw.oz.au (Thomas Cohen)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: RAF camouflage in early World War 2
Summary: Blue and white roundels
Message-ID: <1990Nov6.043114.52@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 6 Nov 90 04:31:14 GMT
References: <1990Oct30.050259.4103@cbnews.att.com> <1990Nov1.023053.9665@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: Softway Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia
Lines: 35
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: thos@softway.sw.oz.au (Thomas Cohen)
In article <1990Nov1.023053.9665@cbnews.att.com> ntaib@silver.ucs.indiana.edu (Nur Iskandar Taib) writes:
>
>Command in Europe. The ones in Asia (South East Asian Command?) 
>even had different markings: blue circles with a white circle 
>superimposed - basically the roundel with the red missing. The 
>idea, I think, was to avoid confusion with Japanese markings.

I always thought that the Blue/White roundels were because they were 
RAAF 'planes, although the RAAF squadrons in Europe and the desert 
did use normal roundels. Any experts care to comment?

On a more literary note, A Piece Of Cake is extremely good at getting
across just how young the fighter pilots were, and how much stress
they were under. Derek Robinson has written other books, notably
"Goshawk Squadron" and "Kramer's War", the first about an RCF sqn in
France, WWI, and the second about a US B24 aircrew member who is washed
up on Jersey (the only piece of Britain occupied by the Germans) after
being shot down. "Goshawk Squadron" is good at showing the technical
limitations of early aerial combat ie. before the introduction of
interrupter gear for the machine guns.
 
>Iskandar Taib

On a further note, I have been trying to get a copy of a book by 
Elleston Trevor called "Squadron Airborne", which also shows some of
the squadron life from the ground staff view. Does anyone know
if the book is available new anywhere? I can't seem to get it in Australia.
-- 
thos cohen  				       |Softway Pty Ltd
English is a living language, but	       |ACSnet:         thos@softway.oz
 "Simple illiteracy is no basis for	       |UUCP: ...!uunet!softway.oz!thos
  for linguistic evolution" - Dwight MacDonald |Internet:    thos@softway.oz.au