Part 16.
Fairey Swordfish,Royal Naval air arm 1941.
Camouflage was not introduced in the Fleet Air Arm at the same time as on the aeroplanes of the Royal Air Force,and the vast majority of naval aircraft were flying with their silver overall finish until the outbreak of war in 1939.In peacetime the majority of Fleet Air Arm aeroplanes were doped silver overall,but a few types such as the Blackburn Shark and the Supermarine Walrus amphibian had their metal fuselages and hull respectively finished in a pale grey,whilst most of the Sea Gladiators,Swordfish,Skuas,Walrus and Sea Foxes operating in 1939,were silver.
On the outbreak of war land camouflage to the Temporate Land Scheme was used on the upper surfaces of FAA aircraft,and the undersurfaces were painted a pale grey.The dark green and dark earth shadow shading was usually applied to the upper surfaces of the wings and tail and to the upper decking of the fuselage.Towards the end of 1940 sea camouflage,known as the Temporate Sea Scheme,began to replace the former Temporate Land Scheme on Naval aircraft,and by 1941 vall FAA machines were finished dark slate grey and dark sea grey on the upper surfaces and were duck egg blue underneath.Fighters during 1940 had been duck egg blue instead of pale grey underneath.In 1941 most Naval fighters were finished in sea grey medium underneath.
Throughout 1941 and 1942,then the standard schemes for Naval aeroplanes on operations with carriers or from shore stations were as follows-Fighters such as Fulmers,Martlets,Sea Hurricanes,Seafires,Dark slate grey and dark sea grey above and sea grey medium below;TSR and Dive bombers etc such as Swordfish,Albacore,Skua,Chesapeake,Walrus,Kingfish er etc Dark slate grey and dark sea grey above and duck egg blue or the much maligned Sky Type S below.
As ever in markings and camouflage there are a few exceptions or special cases to be considered,certain land based Grumman Martlet fighters used in the Western desert in 1941-1942 were Ceulean blue all over.Albacore biplanes were used as night bombers both in the Western desert and from bases on the South Coast of England.Thes had the normal camouflage on the top surfaces and were night black underneath extending up the sides of the fuselage.Fleet trainers were painted dark sea grey and dark slate grey on the upper surfaces with training yellow underneath,types in this latter category included the Blackburn Shark,Swordfish,Fairey Seal,Blackburn Skua and Roc,Fairey Fulmer,Vought Kingfisher,Miles Magister,Sea Gladiator, and the Hawker Sea Hurricane.
The final category to record was the Fleet Air Arm target tugs such as the Roc and Skua which were painted in a similar pattern to the R.A.F tugs that we will cover in another part.
One thing to remember with most aircraft used by the fleet air arm was the general deterioration and degrading of doped and painted finishes,the salty sea air would have an adverse effect on colours and shades sometimes making the original finish look totally different until the next major overhaul,sometimes only part of the aircraft would be repainted leaving a strange mis-mash of colours.