Plaque #14

Hot on the heels of Spitfire Makers plaque #13 was the unveiling of plaque #14! 

This plaque was unveiled at Deepdene House, where the Wages and Accounts department moved to after the Supermarine factories at Woolston were bombed in September 1940.

Alan provided us with his usual fount of local history, connecting Supermarine to Deepdene House.

Unveiling was fittingly done by a former resident of Deepdene House and someone from the Bitterne Local History Society.

So, here it is: plaque #14 ...

... at Deepdene House!

There was even canine interest in the unveiling (meet Bear!)

Yellow-nosed Spit

The Spitfire's main rival was the Messerschmidt Bf109, which was usually flown by the Luftwaffe with yellow noses. So to give Spitfire pilots some experience in facing a yellow-nosed rival, a small number of Spitfire had a yellow nose painted on, for training purposes ...

And there is a 1:72 diecast model of such a yellow-nosed Spit!

And as far as I can tell, this is a picture of the aircraft the model is based on.

Finally, my model of a yellow-nosed Spitfire, together with my Messerschmidt Bf109 model I got earlier:

Plaque #13!

Following the unveiling of 'my' plaque, #12, it was now the turn of #13. This plaque is in Romsey, at the site of Romsey Precision Ltd, a small engineering firm, which made 'special length bolts' for Spitfires.

As usual, prior to the unveiling, Alan Matlock presented a wealth of local history.

The unveiling was done by the son of one of the employees of Romsey Precision Ltd.

So here is plaque #13 in situ!

Of course, my Spitfire penny brooch was present at the unveiling: