Quote:
Originally Posted by ATAG_Snapper
....................IIRC Al Deere of 54 Squadron flew a Dunkirk mission in a Mark 1 with 2-speed prop (and got shot down and had to take a boat home with the evacuees).
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That rang a bit of a bell with me as I've lost count of the times I've read Al Deere's book (Nine Lives). Here, from the book but abbreviated for space....
May 23rd 1940. A usual patrol at dawn, the 12th for the week, returned without incident and 74 Sqdn took over the patrol and were jumped. Their CO force landed near Calais Marck with engine trouble. Then, just before 9 a.m. Al Deere and Johnny Allen were asked to escort a Miles Master to Calais Marck for a rescue attempt. Long story short, Al Deere and Johnny Allen shot down 3 109s out of a group of about 12. Notably the 109s were turning, presumably at odds of 12:2 they thought they had an easy fight on their hands.
Al Deere drew two conclusions from this fight. One was that the 109s (presumably E's) were not able to outclimb or out-turn the Spitfire (we know of course that initial energy states could make the climb issue true and this was only his first combat). The other conclusion was that "The superior rate of climb was, however, due mostly to the type of Spitfire with which my Squadron was now equipped. Aircraft of 54 Squadron were fitted with the Rotol constant speed airscrew on which we had been doing trials when the fighting started." [presumably the German invasion of France] "Other Spitfires were, at that stage, using a two speed airscrew (ie. either fully fine ptich or fully coarse) which meant they lost performance in a sustained climb....."