The Supermarine Spitfire is unquestionably the world's most famous military fighter aircraft of WWII. The Spitfire is
commonly associated with the allied struggle during WWII and is affectionately remembered as the symbol of the
Battle of Britain. The Spitfire as well as the Hawker Hurricane stood as the vanguard of the Allied fighter force,
in defense of Britain. Used as an interceptor and escort fighter, the Spitfire quickly earned its reputation as
being one of the saviors of the Battle of Britain.
The truly remarkable design and engineering of this fighter gave the allied
forces a much-needed advantage against the onslaught of the full
force of the German Luftwaffe. This true feat of design was developed
by Supermarine’s R.J. Mitchell, and was the only British fighter-type
in continuous construction throughout World War II. The first
operational unit to receive the aircraft in August of 1938 was
No.19 based at Duxford in Cambridge, who had previously flown
Gloucester Gauntlet Bi-planes. One major problem that had to be
overcome was remembering to lower the undercarriage! Fortunately,
to the credit of the squadron, there were no fatalities during
this all important pre-war evaluation and training period. By
September 1939, the R.A.F. had received 306 aircraft, 187 were
distributed to operational squadrons, 36 had been written off
and the balance went to the training units. By the time of the
Battle of Britain, 1/3rd of Fighter Command Squadrons were equipped
with Spitfires, the balance of which were equipped with the Hawker
Hurricane.
The CWH Spitfire was built in 1945 and has modified wingtips
for low level operations. It was on strength with the RAF serving
from 1945 to 1950. Later it was transferred to the RCAF. It is
painted in the code markings of RCAF 416 "City of Oshawa"
Squadron who flew offensive and defensive air operations in support
of ground forces in Northwest Europe. The aircraft is on loan
from the Canada Aviation Museum.
