Unsung engineers saved the day for Spitfires

I MUST take issue with your correspondent Rachel Taylor who stated that you had erred by publishing a picture of a Spitfire claimed to be on active service in 1940 (Yorkshire Post, September 12).

The reason given was that the machine shown had a two-bladed wooden propeller (or airscrew), which in her opinion dated it to 1938.

In fact, most of the Spitfires in service in 1940 were Mk I’s, still with the two-blade wooden propeller. It was not until late August that year that the Mk II’s with the three-blade metal propeller started to appear.

Indeed, shortcomings with the way the two-blade propeller operated very seriously hampered the MK I’s during the Battle for France.

After the fall of France, these shortcomings were rectified by a last minute modification which allowed these aircraft to finally more than match the performance (but not the armament) of the best Luftwaffe fighters during the subsequent Battle of Britain.

This vital modification was carried out, in the field, by and under the supervision of members of a small group of de Havilland engineers, all of whom frantically worked night and day for a month to ensure that these two-bladed propellers operated at their maximum possible efficiency.

An unsung band of heroes indeed, who saved the day in the nick of time, with no help from the bureaucrats.

Sound familiar?