Country of origin:

United Kingdom

Description:

Single-seat carrier-borne naval fighter

Power Plant:

(Mk III)

One 1,097 kw (1,470 hp) Rolls Royce Merlin 55 twelve-cylinder VEE liquid-cooled engine

Specifications:

Armament:

Two 20 mm cannon and four 7.7 mm (0.303 in) machine guns in wings; provision to carry up to 277 kg (500 lb) of bombs

History:

In 1941, following the success of the Sea Hurricane, it was decided to build a variant of the Spitfire for operations from British aircraft carriers, and a Mk VB was converted and performed compatibility trials on board HMS Illustrious. Air Service Training at Hamble in Hampshire, UK undertook the conversion in 1942 and subsequently aircraft were modified on the production line at Supermarine, the first 140 aircraft being modified Mk Vs, becoming known as the Seafire 1B. A further 48 new aircraft were then built by Cunliffe-Owen Aircraft.  These aircraft all had fixed wings and varied slightly due to the model of Spitfire that was converted.

Production continued and a further 372 Seafires known as the Mk IIC were built, these having provision for catapult spools.  Three basic variants were built, the F IIC, of which 262 were built by Supermarine, 100 by Westland known as the L IIC, and a number of LR IICs fitted with F.24 cameras for photo-reconnaissance work.  Deliveries of the Seafire IIC began in June 1942. This model was embarked on HMS Furious and participated in landings in North Africa in November 1942.  Seafires equipped further Royal Navy units and operated from escort carriers.

The Seafire III was the first with a manually folding wing, folding upwards, with the wingtips folding down, thus permitting the type to operate on carriers with lifts, allowing better deck handling.  The Mk III entered production in 1943 and 1,220 were built up to July 1945, 870 by Westland and 350 by Cunliffe-Owen.  Three variants of the Mk III were built, a fighter, a low altitude fighter, and a low-altitude reconnaissance aircraft.

However, the type was not particularly well liked when operated from the small British carriers, and large numbers of deck-landing accidents were the result.  Many suffered propeller tip damage when they nosed over slightly on picking up the arrester wire, and HMS Hunter suffered 19 of these accidents in one day, this problem being cured by cutting 0.15 m (6 in) off each propeller blade.

By 1945 six British carriers were operating in the Far East with Seafires.  Development of the type continued and a Rolls Royce Griffon powered variant known as the Mk XV appeared, entering service in May 1945.  The type continued in service with the Royal Navy until well after World War II.

On 13 September 1945, as ships of the British Pacific Fleet approached Sydney, NSW after the Japanese surrender, 37 Seafires were flown off HMS Implacable and landed at the naval base at Schofields in western Sydney.  At the same time American Lend-Lease aircraft comprising Chance Vought Corsairs, Grumman Hellcats and Grumman Avengers from HMSs Formidable, Speaker and Glory flew to Bankstown, NSW the carriers thus being emptied in order to be used to repatriate British prisoners of war from Japan and islands in the Pacific Theatre.  The Seafires, whilst based at Schofields, were used to keep pilots proficient in the type, and flights of up to 24 aircraft at a time were flown to cities throughout the eastern States of Australia, areas visited including Mildura, VIC, Launceston, TAS, Point Cook,  VIC for the Melbourne Cup, Archerfield, QLD etc.  A few of these are known to have been Seafire XVs with Griffon engines.

On 10 February 1945 the Seafires from HMS Indefatigable of Nos 887 and 894 Squadrons, Royal Navy were transferred to Schofields, that base becoming known as HMS Nabthorpe [Monab III].  In April 1945 Seafires of No 899 Squadron RN, which had been on board HMS Chaser and which was described as a Seafire Pool Squadron, arrived at Schofields [Monab VI – later renamed HMS Nabstock], this unit becoming a tactical and deck-landing training unit which was to operate to retrain ex-RAAF Spitfire pilots with more than 500 hours flying time on the Seafire, these being pilots who had volunteered to transfer to the RAN.  Some training occurred at Schofields, and shipboard deck qualification landings were performed at sea on board the Royal Navy carriers HMSs Arbiter and Indomitable.  The unit disbanded on 18 September 1945 after successfully passing out two courses of RAAF pilots.

Many Seafires were delivered in crates to Archerfield where they were assembled, the engines being separate from the aircraft and being installed during assembly.  A detachment was set up at RAAF Oakey, QLD where Seafire assembly was undertaken in order to increase the availability of aircraft.  The Oakey detachment operated up until October 1945.  After a period the assembly of aircraft stopped.  The aircraft had arrived without engines and had to be assembled.  At this stage the engines, probably in their crates, were loaded on to trucks and were dumped in a local river, it being said “it was cheaper getting rid of them that way than shipping them back home.”

Most of the Seafires were later returned to the United Kingdom when the British units returned but a few were lost on operations in this region, one crashing off the deck of HMS Theseus into Port Phillip Bay, VIC in July 1947.  It seems quite a few were left behind, mostly aircraft which were unserviceable, and these were mostly utilised at HMAS Albatross, Nowra as instructional airframes. A few are reported to have been used for taxiing, although other reports indicate the aircraft at Nowra were all ex-RAAF Spitfires.  Certainly there were Seafire IIIs and XVs amongst the aircraft at Nowra.  A few are known to have survived into the 1950s when they ended up being broken up.

No 801 Squadron, Royal Navy, in March 1945 embarked for the Far East with a complement of 24 Seafire IIIs, the aircraft on board HMS Implacable joining the British Pacific Fleet as part of the 8th Carrier Air Group.  At some stage it also received Seafire XVs and in April 1946 the unit with its aircraft was at Archerfield.  When the unit left Australia the aircraft were left behind.  It is not known what the fate of these aircraft was and they may well have been sent to Singapore, Hong Kong or back to the United Kingdom.

Seafire XVs also saw some operations in New Zealand.  No 804 Squadron Royal Navy received its Seafires in October 1946 and joined HMS Theseus in February 1947 for a Far East cruise to Australia and New Zealand.  The carrier met up with HMS Glory which was equipped with Supermaine Seafires, Chance Vought Corsairs and Fairey Fireflys.  Demonstrations of the aircraft aboard the carriers were made to the public and the press over Sydney and Melbourne in July 1947.  However, two of the Fireflys collided and crashed, and Seafire SW851 made a crash landing on HMS Theseus. On board HMS Glory a Seafire overshot the arrester wires and crashed into parked aircraft with the loss of four aircraft.

No 801 Squadron RN by January 1946 was the only Seafire XV unit based at Schofields and when it disbanded in April 1946 it left its aircraft behind.  In New Zealand 13 aircraft from this unit were flown ashore to RNZAF Whenuapai on 30 August 1947 where they carried out exercises. The aircraft carried out flying demonstrations at Whenuapai on 14 September for the public and the press.  They returned to the aircraft carrier on 14 September and on 17 September the carrier sailed for the Solomon Islands.

One Seafire XV, a Griffon VI powered variant, survived for a period in New Zealand.  This aircraft [serial not known but thought at one stage to have been SW853 – squadron code AC F of 804 Squadron, RN – though it could have been SR639 or SR644] was left behind by the Royal Navy carrier HMS Theseus at Hobsonville in 1947 after it suffered damage in a landing accident.  It was originally given to the Royal New Zealand Navy but was later used at the Aircraft Finishing School at the Hobsonville TTS.  It was for some time parked alongside a Mitsubishi A6M-3 Model 22 (c/n 3844), after it went unserviceable. It seems the A6M-3 Zero was eventually restored and is now on display in Auckland but the Seafire was scrapped some time after May 1952.

In May 2008 a restoration project, a Griffon engined Seafire XV, was placed on the Australian Civil Aircraft Register as VH-CIH (c/n WA4417) and this is expected to be a long-term project to airworthy condition.