Penny brooch ...

About a year ago, Penny, a friend of us, gave us a leaflet on the Shirley Spitfire Trail. And that sparked our interest in all things Spitfire, so far culminating in the Spitfire Makers plaque unveiled at the university yesterday.

Between xmas and new year, Penny said she had something for me. And that something was a brooch in the shape of a Spitfire that her father, Sidney Ody, made from an old penny for his wife Mary in 1940 (they were married earlier that year). At that time, the Battle of Britain had made sure that Spitfires were very much on people's minds. Penny isn't the sentimental type, and said she would much rather that someone who appreciates the brooch has it, rather than it being "thrown in the bin when I die". 

Definitely a unique and very special brooch, and I proudly wore it at the unveiling of the university plaque yesterday. 

So things have come full circle: Penny initially gave us the leaflet that triggered our interest in Spitfires, and now, a year on, I'm wearing a Spitfire brooch, made by her father ~84 years ago, at an official Spitfire ceremony.

Addition: the unveiling (and the brooch!) made the local news!

University plaque, #12!

In an earlier blog post, I briefly mentioned the design department of Supermarine moving to huts on what is now the University of Southampton's Highfield Campus. Time for a plaque to be installed near where those huts were!

Because I am a lecturer at the university, Alan Matlock, the chairman of the Spitfire Makers, asked me to see if I could maybe get the ball rolling on permission and possibly even (part-)funding of the plaque 'from inside'. To make a short story even shorter, my first email to that effect was met with enthusiasm and permission as well as (full) funding was secured very quickly! 

Today was the day of official unveiling.

Alan did his usual 'spiel' about the links between Supermarine and the University.

And due to me being instrumental in this plaque becoming reality, I was then asked to take part in the actual unveiling, a task which I was more than happy to undertake of course.

So here it is, on the wall of building 5 on Highfield Campus:

And please forgive me for feeling quite chuffed, and regarding plaque #12 a bit 'my' plaque ...

Spit vs Spit vs Spit

I mentioned in an earlier blog post that, to my knowledge (but please, let me know if I was wrong!), there was only one occasion where Spitfires fought Spitfires. And this was in the Israel-Arab war 1948-9. Both the Israeli Air Force and the Egypt Air Force used Spitfires, and, to add to this, RAF Spitfires were there as well, more or less caught in the middle.

I managed to get my hands on a diecast model of a Spitfire flown by the Israeli Air Force:

And this is, for as far as I can tell, a picture of the actual Spitfire that the model is based on:

If I ever get hold of one flown by the Egypt Air Force ...

Anyone wanted to know more about the role of Spitfires in that war, this is a good book to try and find:

Two Spitfire-related board games

One of my other interests, besides Spitfires, is the history of chess and other board games. I have a collection of chess sets, either bought or made myself, as well as a similar, but smaller, collection of hnefatafl sets. Guess it was inevitable that those two interests would overlap at some point!

First of all, Aviation chess was invented in 1913, and played during WW I. In most aspects, this chess variant is identical to the form of chess that most people are familiar with, but there is one difference: the pawns on the b-file and g-file are replaced by 'aviators'. These 'aviators' fly diagonally, over any number of pieces, to either an empty square, or a square occupied by an enemy piece (which is then captured and replaced). I decided to adapt Aviation chess slightly by having Spitfires as 'aviators'!

Off eBay, I got a full set of 32 laser cut chess pieces (of course, I don't need four of the pawns) as well as four laser cut Spitfire shapes. They smell really nice as a result of the laser-cutting process!

Then I used two colours of wood stain ('pine' and 'mahogany', respectively) to create the 'white' and 'black' pieces.

I decided to use the board of my Kyrgyz set, as it had the right size squares and also looks relatively old.

So there we go: a Spitfire-inspired set for Aviation chess!

I said two board games, didn't I? Second one is a board game actually called Spitfire! which I stumbled across on eBay.

Totally different game from chess! It's a pretty complex strategy game, partly determined by the roll of dice, and with simultaneous moves.

The action takes place on a map:

 

And there are 'counters' representing aircraft from five countries: Britain (of course,  including Spitfires), France, Poland, Germany and Italy. Other counters represent things like bridges, trains, ships, bombs, flak, clouds, etc. 

Each of the aircraft has certain characteristics ...

... and the outcome of dogfights, damage to the aircraft, likelihood of fire, effect of bombs and many more aspects is determined by those characteristics as well as the roll of dice, in conjunction with a host of different tables. All explained in two rule books!

I don't think I'll ever actually play the game; too complex and intricate for me. Also, I prefer to keep the game 'mint', as it is now.

USAAF Spitfire

I've got Spitfire models with German, Soviet and Australian markings, but not one with USAAF markings. Until now, that is!

The registration of this Spit is LN853, which wasn't listed in my Spitfire International book ... 

... and I also couldn't find in the Spitfire database.

Supermarine factory sites - then and now

This is an aerial photo of the Supermarine Woolston factory on the banks of the Itchen in the 1930s, prior to it being bombed by the Luftwaffe.

And this an image from Google Earth, slightly tilted, of the same site now. 

The rectangular shape of the plot of land, with a slight 'kink' on the riverside edge, looks pretty much the same still. There are two obvious differences: one is, of course, that the Supermarine factory is gone. And the other is the Itchen Bridge, which was opened in 1977. 

But one structure from the original factory is still there ... did you spot it?

Before I get to that, let's first look at the southern part of the site (on the right in the aerial photos). That part of the site is now fully occupied by housing. Looking down from the Itchen Bridge, you can clearly see the Spitfire laid out in paving stones in Spitfire Court. 

We were actually in Spitfire Court recently to see that Spitfire 'paving' on the ground.

Looking down from the Itchen Bridge on the northern part of the site (on the left in the aerial photos), you can clearly see the original slipway of the Supermarine factory, which is currently an officially 'listed structure'. 

On the ground, there is some housing on the northern part of the site, with the rest being occupied by the Marine Skills Centre and Aggregates Industries. It wasn't possible to get close to the slipway itself, but I still managed to get a picture of it through a fence.

Just north of the Woolston factory was the Itchen factory, which was also bombed, and this is a current aerial photo of both sites (north is left in the photo).

See the (larger) slipway?

Here is an aerial picture of the factory then; the slipway is in top right corner.

And here an aerial photo of the site now (north is up; slipway is pointing to the left). 

There is basically nothing left of the Itchen Supermarine factory, but several places on the site clearly hint at its former presence!

The site as a whole is now called 'RJ Mitchell Centre'.

The Siva Group occupies a building known as the 'Spitfire House'

Opposite the Spitfire House is the Spitfire Joinery

Turn the corner and you find yourself on Spitfire Quay.

And one of the premises on Spitfire Quay is occupied by the Spitfire Garage

The slipway proved inaccessible because of the industrial premises (aggregate and concrete plants, cement terminals, recycling plants, etc) that are currently on the site, cheek by jowl. We couldn't get to the water's edge anywhere on the site, and also tried from the other bank of the Itchen, with the same result.

The best we could do is catch only merest glimpse of the slipway, through a fence (yes, that flat darker structure almost totally hidden behind the piles of sand ...)

So there you go! Virtually nothing is left of either of the two Supermarine factories, but look more closely and you'll see clear hints and traces of their history. And I wouldn't be surprised if we missed some of these traces ... watch this space?