The Ardennes 1945

[Tophe]

as if she should be jet powered to me.

This would be even more whif

[NARSES2]

If I spot a cheap CMR kit at a show Tophe, you never know 

[Dizzyfugu]

Still, i can imagine a Zero with a bubble canopy and i think it would look good.

It does.  Even though this isn't a Zero anymore, though...


1:72 Saab J 19D; 'Groen Erik' of the Flygflottilj 8 (F 4th Division, Flygvapnet (Swedish Air Force); Barkarby (Stockholm region), 1947 (Whif/Hobby Boss kit conversion) by Dizzyfugu, on Flickr

The canopy came from a Spitfire

[NARSES2]

So maybe a simple exhaust augmentation to give an extra 5 mph or so ? I know nothing about engines so assume that circa 1943/1944 there wouldn't have been a small enough turbojet or similar to stick in the back of the nacelle for "emergency boost" ?

It would appear from Jon's document and something I found in one of my books that this was actually looked at. So great minds eh ? 

Meanwhile she's based, no where to put weight in order to balance her, and is just awaiting my camera battery to charge up.

[Old Wombat]

... is just awaiting my camera battery to charge up.

Oh, good!

[NARSES2]

As Lt James Siouxsie climbed out of "Christine" the specialist guys were already unloading the film from his cameras. He'd radioed in as soon as he'd spotted the German armour hidden in the forest just in case he'd failed to make it home, but the photos once developed should settle the argument once and for all.

There had been rumours for weeks that the Germans were preparing a counterstroke against the Allied advance, but these had been dismissed by the top brass on the basis of "Counter offensive. What with ?". However, for those closer to the front line the rumours had not only persisted, but some firmer evidence had started to trickle in. Unfortunately, it was only a trickle, and it was very hard to convince the High Command, especially given the recent Allied advances, that the Germans were not, to all intents and purposes, beaten and the War would be over in the Spring, if not before.

Some intelligence officers had however continued to sift through all the information that was coming in and although most of it was irrelevant, they had started to firm up on their initial suspicions. The first thing that they'd been able to establish was that any attack was highly unlikely to hit the British/Canadian sector of the line. Yes there was a salient sticking out into the German lines around the Nijmegen sector due to the failure of the Arnhem offensive in the autumn, but once snipped off where would the attack go from there ? There were a lot of river lines to be crossed which would more than impede any farther advance as the British had found out a few weeks before.

So any attack would likely fall on the Americans, but where ? Given that the Germans probably only had the resources for one final assault in the west it was unlikely that there would be any feints and thus any attack when it came would be the sole offensive. So what would be the aim of this offensive ? It would need to achieve some form of strategic success as well as a tactical one, otherwise what would be the point ? The obvious objective would be to try and split the British/Canadian forces from the American/French ones. It might also be able to reach the coast around the Scheldt estuary and thus cut off Antwerp which was fast becoming the allies' main point of reinforcement/resupply.

So looking at the maps their eyes gradually fell upon the Ardennes sector. Sure, it was forested, but that hadn't stopped the Germans in 1940, and yes there were rivers to be crossed, the Meuse in particular. However, there were far more crossing points here than on the Waal and Maas further north and once across the going would get easier. On top of this the Americans were to some extent using the sector as a "rest area" where battered formations were sent in order to recuperate for the forthcoming Spring Offensive. If the Germans knew this, then it would be ideal and the planners had to work on the assumption that the Germans did know.

While patrols had been sent out these had discovered nothing conclusive. This was not surprising given the nature of the terrain, the weather conditions and the exhausted nature of the units involved. Indeed, many units were having to make up for their losses in the infantry with men from the specialised units within the Division, and these men were not trained for the task. So, what was needed was aerial reconnaissance assets, but these were not readily available and the prevailing weather conditions would be of no help if they were anyway. Still the planners were persistence in their requests and in the end, possibly so the air staff could have a quiet Christmas, they got some. They'd expected a couple of F.5 Lightning reconnaissance aircraft, what they got was a couple of the new, and as yet unproved, F.16 Moonbats. These were a reconnaissance version of the failed XP-67 fighter programme and had only been converted in order to be able to say that something useful had come from the project and the half dozen or so airframes produced before the project had been cancelled. They had the aircraft, they had their enthusiastic crews and their support, all they needed now was the weather.

So on the 9th of December when the skies cleared somewhat the Moonbats flew there first combat missions. They both returned to base with nothing to report. The same was true on the morning of the 10th, but in the afternoon and with the weather closing in again Lt Siouxsie climbed into Christine and took off for one last look before the weather made further flights impossible. At around 2:30 in the afternoon as it gradually got darker base controllers heard Siouxsie's excited voice start to shout "tanks, hundreds of them". His controller told him to get a hold of himself and then report what he was seeing as well as taking the all-important photos. Back came the reply. This is Lt Siouxsie in Moonbat F.15 reporting hundreds of German armoured vehicles in bivouac in the forest clearings, am returning with my photos".

Once he returned the developed photos were quickly despatched to Divisional HQ and thence onto Corps and Army levels. There was now no disputing the intelligence, the Germans were coming.
Now as every schoolboy knows the Germans launched their offensive on the 16th December and whilst it had not been possible to reinforce the American front line units at least they were ready and were able with a skilfully conducted fighting withdrawal to delay the main assault. When the Germans did eventually break through General Hodges was waiting for them and the rest as they say is history.

Despite their success in discovering the German' positions prior to the battle the Moonbats were soon retired from active service due to continued engine reliability problems while Lt Siouxsie was sent to an F.5 squadron where he saw out the rest of the war flying "Christine II".

In reality the XP-67 programme was cancelled on 13th September 1944 after the complete loss of the sole flying airframe caused by a serious fire in one of the engines, a problem that had plagued the test programme. The test pilot E E Elliot escaped un-harmed, but the project was cancelled, the remains of the first prototype scrapped and work halted on the second prototype. As envisaged the P-67, the names "Moonbat" or "Bat" were never officially sanctioned, was to have been a a high-speed, long-range, high-altitude interceptor intended to destroy enemy bombers with its 6x 37mm cannon. It was always a bold specification which was going to be difficult to fulfil, and so it proved. Various proposals were put up for different engine installations, the installed ones proving a particular Achilles Heel, but weren't proceeded with.

So, this is the Anigrand kit and is quite chunky, with some heavy detail and a fair bit of flash to be cleaned up. Some of the smaller parts are quite basic, the cockpit interior for instance, whilst others have a certain amount of finesse, the wheels for instance. However, it cleans up easily, to easily at times, and the fit is generally good. At the end of the day, I personally like Anigrand kits as they give you more than an adequate starting point if you then wish to go to town on the detail. I didn't and apart from the canopy this is built virtually straight from the box. The greenhouse style canopy has fairly indistinct frames, so I took the opportunity of masking it up and painting it so as to give it a far better looking, in my opinion, "bubble" style canopy. I also gave it some extra/larger air scoops where I'd inadvertently sanded the originals off, did I mention his resin sands easily ? It's finished in overall Xtracolour Synthetic Haze Blue which was used for a time by USAAF PR aircraft until they switched to RAF PR Blue, that's if they bothered to camouflage them at all. The minimal transfers are from the spares box, apart from the serial number which are from the kit. All in all, I enjoyed the kit and just wish that for various reasons I'd tackled it a couple of years ago.

So to the "Beauty Shots"











Christine

[Old Wombat]

Nice one, Chris! Both story & build!

[kitbasher]

A beauty, Chris. 

[The Wooksta!]

Nice build but why is a US aircraft in RAF colours?  Na, doean't work for me.

[Rheged]

Nice one, Chris! Both story & build!

Agreed!!

[PR19_Kit]

I like it a LOT! The aircraft has always fascinated me, and it should have gone further.

You've made sure it did Chris............. 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

Great story and a beautiful model - well done, Chris!

[zenrat]

Good job Chris.

[NARSES2]

Thank you gents

Nice build but why is a US aircraft in RAF colours?  Na, doean't work for me.

Because it isn't in RAF colours Lee. It's in official USAAF Synthetic Haze Blue which at the time was the proscribed colour for USAAF reconnaissance machines. It was dropped because it was extraordinarily complicated to apply and it wasn't hard wearing, indeed you could call it fragile. It is very, very close to RAF PR Blue, especially on screen, but there is just an admitedly small difference when viewed with the naked eye.

As an aside a lot of USAAF PR Lightnings F.5's were painted overall RAF PR Blue upon reaching the UK. A fair few were left unpainted but those that weren't borrowed RAF paints.

[PR19_Kit]

As an aside a lot of USAAF PR Lightnings F.5's were painted overall RAF PR Blue upon reaching the UK. A fair few were left unpainted but those that weren't borrowed RAF paints.

I've done an RW Lightning F5 in that scheme, complete with D-Day stripes. Its unit was based at Mount Farm, just north of RAF Benson, the home of the PRU.