Operation Misteltoe 1942 - Hurricane/Wellington Composite

[kitbasher]

It's built and it will be at Telford tomorrow - but will it bring me fame and fortune?
Find out on Monday when I post the back story and pictures!

[PR19_Kit]

What will?

I'm there so I need to know what to look for and where..........

[kitbasher]

Patience, Kit, patience.
OK, here's a clue - Wimpey.

[Gondor]

Patience, Kit, patience.
OK, here's a clue - Wimpey.

You have made a hamburger with wings and painted it up in marking for a WWII RAF bomber squadron? 

Gondor

[PR19_Kit]

No, it's MUCH better than that. And it would NOT be a good idea to take a bite out of it! 

[kitbasher]

You have made a hamburger with wings and painted it up in marking for a WWII RAF bomber squadron?  

Not quite.  Here's the facts behind the fiction:

Circus: Bombers heavily escorted to bring enemy fighters into combat.
Ramrod: Similar to a Circus, but with the intention of destroying a target.
Roadstead:  Low level attack on coastal shipping.
Mistletoe: Circus using Wellington I(ST)

10 Jan 1941 - The RAF begins Circus operations - coordinated bomber and fighter attacks on targets in France. Six Blenheims, escorted by six/nine squadrons of Spitfires and Hurricanes attack supply dumps south of Calais.

28 March 1942 – Misteltoe 01, the attack on St Nazaire

RAF Predannack:
Opened May 1941, closed: 1 June 1946 as an RAF station.
15 November 1941 to 8 September 1942: 1457 Flt - Havoc, Boston Turbinlite, became 536 Sqn.
8 September 1942 to 27 October 1942: 536 Sqn - Havoc, Hurricane Turbinlite squadron

Turbinlite squadrons:
These squadrons were equipped with Havocs and Boston, modified to carry a powerful searchlight in the nose and AI radar.  The turbinlite aircraft used their radar to locate enemy aircraft and then illuminated them with the searchlight, enabling accompanying fighters to attack the hostile aircraft.  On being raised to squadron status, the Hurricanes became an integral part of the unit, whereas the turbinlite aircraft had previously operated with fighters from other squadrons.  Improvements in AI radar in aircraft such as the Mosquito soon lead to the concept becoming unwieldy and ineffective, resulting in the squadron's disbandment on 25 January 1943.

536 Sqn:
No. 536 Sqn was formed at RAF Predannack, Cornwall on 8 September 1942, from No. 1457 (Turbinlite) Flt, as part of No. 10 Gp RAF Fighter Command. Instead of operating only Turbinlite and rudimentary Airborne Intercept (AI) radar-equipped aircraft (Havocs and Bostons) and working together with a normal night fighter unit, such as in their case 247 Sqn while still 1457 flight, the unit now also flew with their own Hawker Hurricanes. It was disbanded at RAF Fairwood Common, Glamorganshire on 25 January 1943, when Turbinlite squadrons were, due to lack of success on their part and the rapid development of AI radar, declared superfluous.

Hurricane:
Aircraft serial - BE417 was the old Airfix Mk IIb
Colour scheme – Day Fighter Scheme (Dk Green, Ocean Grey, Medium Sea Grey)
National Markings -
Sqn codes – 'HO' because codes were never allocated to 536 Sqn, but (according Bowyer and Rawlings' 'Squadron Codes 1937-56 list 'HO' as 'identity not known', adding that the letters were certainly carried on Hurricanes of an unknown unit.  HO-R and HO-s were recorded on 25 February 1942, HO-B on 26 June 1942.
Aircraft letter - 'K' because the old Airfix Mk IIb was 'AE-K'

Wellington:
Aircraft serial – T2501 was a real Mk 1C (LN-F) of 99 Sqn, RAF Waterbeach, November 1940.
Colour scheme – Day Bomber Scheme (Dk Green, Dk Earth, Sky).  Pattern based on that worn by P9206 (AA-A, 75 Sqn, RAF Feltwell June 1940) as illustrated in
National Markings – as worn by T2501, plus underwing roundels
Sqn codes – not applied.
Aircraft letter - not applied.

[kitbasher]

The Build:
I'd originally set out to build a SEAC Wellington gunship, inspired by the 'Spooky' AC-47s, and acquired a very dusty NOVO Wellington off Kit Spackman.  Then I had a bit of a rethink (not quite sure what prompted it, I think in part it was due to only very, very rarely seeing this sort of whiff (and even then, only on the internet).
So I had a Wellington, and I had a Hurricane I was thinking of doing something with.  Why not combine them?
So a Heller Hurricane IIc was stripped and converted to a IIb by removing the cannon and painting it up in early 1942 Day Fighter colours.

The Wellington was almost as straight forward.  Some basic cockpit detail was fitted, the rear turret replaced by a fairing (made from the turret's back plate plus sprue and filler, sanded to size and shape.  The nose was going to be critical, and having the notion of what would essentially be a 'minimum change' in real life, started out using the back plate of the nose turret to create something that in profile would be similar to the very early manual Wellington turrets.  The fuse would have to look similar to the actual German Mistel fuses, and a readily to hand superglue nozzle fitted the bill.

Well, as the pictures show, the first attempt looked a bit like a narwhal.  Not what was needed at all, so back to the drawing board.  As luck would have it, I had in the spares box an Airfix Wellington B.III engine cowling – the last vestige of a model that was used as target practice in an indoor rifle range in Scotland more than a quarter of a century ago!  Plonking it on top of the nose turret mounting revealed a pretty close match to the width of the fuselage.  I toyed with the idea of fitting the superglue nozzle to it and filling it in so it would look very much like a German Mistel nose, but that didn't look right.  So an ancient Airfix B-57 Canberra radome (the kit is still only half built!!!) fitted very nicely; to this was added the superglue nozzle and the whole lot was filled and sanded and fitted to the fuselage.

The rest went as per the instructions, although propellers had to be found (I used Aeroclub Wellington Ic props, can't remember the stock number).  Both the Hurricane and Wellington were painted, and a frame to take the Hurricane made up from plastic aerofoil-sectioned plastic rod.
And that's it really – simples!

[kitbasher]

The Hurricane/Wellington composite, inspired by the pre-war Shorts-Mayo composite built for Imperial Airways, grew out of a proposal to extend the range of RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes by having them ride 'piggy-back' on a suitably modified bomber.

The idea was rejected in favour of simpler means such as increased internal fuel capacity and drop tanks, but the concept of the composite aircraft did not die.  It was argued that a large explosive load could be delivered with greater accuracy than traditional means were a 'bomb' to be flown to its target, therefore the roles were reversed and the fighter now delivered a modified bomber stripped of its internal equipment, fitted with a basic autopilot and packed with explosives.  The bomber could also act as a flying tanker to the host fighter.
536 Squadron, a Turbinlite squadron based at RAF Predannack in Cornwall, was selected as the first composite unit.  Keeping its Hurricanes, its Havocs were traded for Wellington 'Special Transports' (so-called for security reasons) that could be flown for delivery purposes, but would have their deadly load and distinctive fuses fitted just before a mission.

The first of the so-called 'Misteltoe' operations (similar to a 'Circus' or a 'Ramrod' mission) took place in March 1942, when 20 composites, escorted by Beaufighters from RAF Portreath, against the docks at St Nazaire.  Only half of the STs reached their target, which was later attacked by the Royal Navy.  Two further Misteltoe raids were flown– Misteltoe 02 against the docked Tirpitz in April 1942, while Misteltoe 03 took place at dawn on 19 August 1942, thus opening that day's raid on Dieppe.

Some 90 Wellington Ic(ST) conversions were undertaken, although only 57 were actually converted into bombs and used against the enemy.




And finally......a real Germen Mistel composite (mistel being German for 'mistletoe').

[philp]

That is nice.

[thedarkmaster]

thats very very nice 

[Gondor]

very nicely finished, liked the back story as well especially as I was actually stationed at RAF Portreath in the 1980's

Gondor

[Hotte]

Great story! Class Model 


Hotte

[sequoiaranger]

...well executed.

A zany alternative: The Misteltoe combo, land-based, becomes a "VLR" fighter, similar to the CAM-ship Hurricat. The Mistletoe becomes a standing patrol fighter over an Atlantic convoy far out at sea. The gas-loaded Wimpy is just a "flying fuel tank" for the Hurricane. When a marauding Fw-200 is spotted, the Hurricane dumps the Wimpy and intercepts, itself having to ditch afterwards.

[PR19_Kit]

It's so nice when something that's lived in The Loft for umpteen years gets turned into a item of intrigue and amazement!  

When you took me round to the Competition area at SMW to see the Mistletoe combo I was SERIOUSLY impressed, both by the thought processes that went into it and the build itself. If I was a Judge for the Class you'd have walked it, it was by far the most imaginative, and well built model there.

Superbly done, I'm still impressed, even more so now.  

[GTX]