Supermarine Spitfire Operational History - Photo Reconnaissance - Early Photo-reconnaissance Spitfires

Early Photo-reconnaissance Spitfires

Shortly before the Second World War started Flg. Off. Maurice Longbottom submitted a paper to the Air Ministry in which he proposed that the RAF equip itself with small, unarmed aircraft which, stripped of unnecessary weight and equipped with cameras and extra fuel, could rely on high speed, a fast climb and high altitude to avoid enemy defences. He was thinking primarily about the Spitfire which, he argued, was the ideal aircraft for the role. Although his idea was received with interest, it was shelved because there were not yet enough Spitfires available to allow any to be diverted from equipping Fighter Command.

When early operations proved the vulnerability of the Blenheims and Lysanders, in October 1939 the Australian Sidney Cotton, Acting Wing Commander of the newly formed and highly secret "Heston Flight", met with Air Chief Marshal Hugh Dowding, AOC of Fighter Command and persuaded him to release two Spitfires to his unit. Cotton had already proved Longbottom's theory to be right in practice by using a modified Lockheed 12A on clandestine photo-reconnaissance missions over Germany.

The two Spitfires were "Cottonised" by removing the radio, stripping out the armament, and adding downward-facing F24 cameras with 5" lenses to replace the inner-wing guns. All panel lines and the gun-ports were filled in with plaster of Paris and a special light "Camoutint Green" was applied to the aircraft which was then polished. Thus modified, the Spitfire was capable of reaching over 390 mph.

While the fighter versions of the Spitfire stayed in Britain, the first PR missions were flown from bases in France by Cotton's unit which was renamed "No. 2 Camouflage Unit". The first RAF high- speed, high-altitude photo-reconnaissance mission of the war took place on 18 November 1939 when Flt. Lt. "Shorty" Longbottom took off from Seclin and attempted to photograph Aachen from 33,000 ft (10,000 m).

After the initial successes of these aircraft more Mk I Spitfires were converted in different ways to accomplish different types of reconnaissance missions. On 17 January 1940, 2 Camouflage Unit was renamed the "Photographic Development Unit" (PDU), while another PR Unit, 212 Squadron was formed in France. Five months later, on 17 June 1940, Sidney Cotton was removed from his role in the RAF for taking money to fly a French businessman to the UK while he was evacuating British agents from Paris. In the following year, he was awarded an OBE in recognition of his contribution to the development of photographic reconnaissance. The PDU was expanded, eventually becoming 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (1 PRU) in November 1940, operating from RAF Benson as part of RAF Coastal Command.

On 3 June 1940, Hauptmann Werner Mölders of III./JG53 claimed a lone Spitfire shot down near Paris: it is more than likely that this was a Spitfire of 212 Squadron. On 13 June 1940, Flg. Off. George Patterson Christie, a Canadian pilot of the PDU, attacked a Fiat BR.20 bomber off the coast of Monaco and, by repeatedly diving at it, forced it to land in the sea. Patterson was awarded the DFC for this feat. He was also reprimanded by Cotton for playing at being a fighter pilot when his primary duty was to bring back photographs.

On 22 February 1941, at the request of Dr R V Jones, a PRU type G Spitfire, flown by Flg. Off. W.K. Manifould, took the first clear photographs of Germany's Freya radar. In retaliation for an incident six days earlier, when a Sgt Parrot failed to bring back photos due to heavy flak, Manifould also strafed the AA posts and radar station, rendering the latter useless. On 5 December 1941, again at the request of Dr Jones, a PRU Spitfire flown by Flt. Lt Tony Hill was able to photograph from a height of 200 ft a Würzburg radar which was sited at Bruneval on the French coast. This led directly to the Bruneval raid in which Würzburg components and radar operators were captured from the Germans.

Flying PR missions was not an easy occupation. Spitfire pilots often flew missions lasting seven hours or more; the cramped cockpit was uncomfortable, although the introduction of heating and, later in the war, pressurization, relieved some of the discomfort. Early PR Spitfires lacked radios and, in later versions which did have radio, the pilot was expected to maintain radio silence throughout the flight. The pilot of a high-flying Spitfire would keep constant watch on the rear- view mirror to make sure that a contrail would not betray its presence, and he also had to keep an eye out for enemy fighters trying to intercept. Without the help of another crew member a PR Spitfire pilot had to be a good navigator, usually relying on dead reckoning. Once over the target to be photographed, a precise course and altitude was set and maintained. Even a small deviation from straight and level flight could mean that the cameras would miss a small target by hundreds of yards. Several different paint schemes were used by the early photo-reconnaissance Spitfires until an overall "PRU Blue" was adopted for the majority of PR aircraft from late 1941.

Low-altitude ("dicing") missions, such as the one on the Bruneval Würzburg and Freya radar position, were usually flown under low cloud, with the pilot constantly on the lookout for enemy fighters and flak positions. These missions were much more dangerous than the high-altitude missions. At high speed and low altitude there was little time to aim the oblique camera: a tiny black + on the side of the canopy was lined up with a small black stripe painted on the aileron and, as the aircraft flew by the target, the pilot had to estimate when to start taking photographs. The only way to successfully take pictures and survive was to take the defences by surprise. Failing that the pilot was supposed to give up and fly home, and he was not allowed to fly over the same target again that day, or the next. Spitfires engaged in low-altitude "dicing" missions were often painted in either overall white or in a very pale "Camoutint Pink", which was an ideal colour against cloud cover.

PRU Spitfires also kept a constant watch on the German capital ships in based in Brest harbour throughout 1941 to February 1942, as well as maintaining operations over Norway.

The first Spitfire to be posted to the Mediterranean theatre was one operated by 1 PRU which arrived on Malta on 22 September 1941. This aircraft was then grounded for three weeks while awaiting replacements for its badly worn tyres. PR Spitfires continued to operate off Malta in ones and twos, usually being re-allocated while en route to North Africa.

Other overseas deployments of Spitfires had seen three Mk IVs being sent to Vaenga, in North Russia, to keep on eye on German warships during the operation to get Convoy PQ-18 through to Russia. While there, they carried Soviet markings. These aircraft were later formally handed on to the Soviet Air Force.