Supermarin Spitfire FR.Mk.XIVe
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This model is the Spitfire FR.Mk.XIVe. s/n SM893 of the RAF 28 Sqn. in Maraya 1946. The advent of 'peace' in the Far East was hardly noticeable among RAF squadrons based there in mid-1945. Relieved of the yoke of Japanese occupation, many former French, Dutch and British 'colonies' chose ths opportunity to assert nationalistic ambitions. Throughout Malaya, meantime, Chinese Communists, who had fought alongside the Allies against the Japanese during the war, now commenced a campaign of terrorism and murder to weaken and eventually overthrow British colonial control of the country. In May 1948 a atate of emergency was declared, and what became known as Operation Firedog came into being. Already based in Malaya at that period were two Spitfire squadrons, Nos 28 and 60, and these were soon in action; strafing suspected bandit hideouts in the jungle with guns, cannons and rockets. ("Supermarine Spitfire" by Chaz Bowyer, Bison Books) |