"Beauforts in the Med" Topic

What camouflage would Beauforts in the med have sported? I've come across a number of different schemes but I'm unsure as to what which would apply, would it have depended on where they were based?

Probably varied by date and base, but all three of the main colour schemes seem to have been used on Beauforts in the Med; the desert air force sand and brown over light blue was definitely used, but probably not common (the one definite ID I have for a Beaufort in this scheme is at the Middle East Torpedo School, but operational Egypt-based units may well have had this camo), while the "classic" brown and green over sky a la RAF home defence 1940-41 was far more common on Beauforts than it ought to have been, and seems to have stayed in use well after it had disappeared from fighter types.

Third major option was the green and grey over light grey, which is probably the one I'd go for – as a predominantly maritime aircraft it's probably the best camouflage, and there are colour photos of Beauforts in that scheme on Malta. (The Beaufort at Hendon is in this scheme, so it's also an easy one to find lots of photos of….)

[Edit] Found one of them online; I don't think there's much room for doubt that it's in the Mediterranean theatre…. ;-)

picture

Dom nailed it (as usual). I'm just now reading Torpedo Bomber! by Ralph Barker about the Beaufort squadrons and it specifically mentions that when they got to Malta there was no time to repaint them so they went into battle in their standard brown/green camo, while later arrivals were painted properly.

Time to read Torpedo bomber again.Loved that one.

Dom, is that combo either of,
Dark green, Ocean grey & Medium sea grey or
Dark Slate Grey, Extra Dark Sea Grey & Sky?

The latter (why did they have to call it slate grey – it's bloody green…..) but that definitely doesn't look like regulation Sky paint – obviously old colour photos are always a nightmare, but to me the undersides look grey with a slight blue tinge, definitely not the green of Sky. By process of elimination I guess I'd actually go with Azure for the undersides (presumably more suitable for Mediterranean skies), although I can't account for why they look so grey in the photo….

On my monitor the undersides look like MAP Sky Blue, though that may not have been available on Malta (it was originally supposed to have been used for remote controlled targets). The upper surfaces do look like the Temperate Sea Scheme though (Dark Slate Grey and Extra Dark Sea Grey).

Your comment about the Temperate Land Scheme (Dark Green and Dark Earth) being used on Beauforts after it had been abandoned for fighters might be explained by the Beaufort being a bomber – night bombers used the Temperate Land Scheme right through the war, and the Mosquito was the only bomber that adopted the Day Fighter Scheme.

Yes but it was a *torpedo* bomber, and coastal command were ordered changed to Temperate Sea Scheme in August '41, the same month as fighter command also ditched the brown and green…. (The temperate day scheme stayed in use for bomber command, but afaik all Beaufort squadrons were coastal command, and so should've changed out of it at the same time as fighter command did.)

Wrt "camo" painting etc, and I know it's a different topic, but was watching colour newsreel of WWII (National Geographic channell, French production) and they had some of Afrika Korps. Was a real thrill to see grey panzers/armoured cars/trucks in action in the wesaern desert, alongside the sand colour. Same reason as given in "Torpedo Bomber" above, arriving in theatre, no time to re-paint before departure and disembarking and going into action.

Osprey Combat Aircraft 5 gives more for the desert force rather than Malta
one squadron with azure undersides and blue/Mediterranean blue topsides but most desert ones had the normal earth/midstone topsides.

To see bravery, look up Bisley losses in Torch.

Umm, that's Blenheims not Beauforts…. I'll agree with you on the Bisley though; obsolete on delivery, anyone flying those into a war zone deserved a medal or a psychiatric evaluation….