List of Supermarine Spitfire operators

This is a list of operators of the Supermarine Spitfire.

Contents

Operators

 Australia

Royal Australian Air Force
Royal Australian Navy

 Belgium

Belgian Air Force

 Burma

Burma Air Force

 Canada

Royal Canadian Air Force
Royal Canadian Navy

 Czechoslovakia

Czech Air Force in exile in Great Britain
Czechoslovakian Air Force
Czechoslovakian National Security Guard

 Denmark

Royal Danish Air Force

 Egypt

Royal Egyptian Air Force

 France

Free French Air Force
Armee de l'Air
Aviation Navale

 Germany

Luftwaffe captured several Spitfires and used them to test, and for operational training duties.

Luftwaffe

 Greece

Royal Hellenic Air Force

 Hong Kong

Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force
RAF at RAF Kai Tak
RAF at RAF Sek Kong

 India

Indian Air Force[1]

 Indonesia

Indonesian Air Force

 Ireland

Irish Air Corps

 Israel

Israel bought their Spitfire IX from Czechoslovakia in 1948. After a few years of operational use and major action during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War these Spitfires were sold to Burma.

Israeli Air Force

 Italy

Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force
Aeronautica Militare

 Netherlands

Royal Netherlands Air Force
Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force - Postwar

 New Zealand

Royal New Zealand Air Force

 Norway

Royal Norwegian Air Force

 Pakistan

Royal Pakistan Air Force

 Poland

Polish Air Forces in exile in Great Britain [2]

 Portugal

Portuguese Air Force

 Southern Rhodesia

Southern Rhodesian Air Force

 South Africa

South African Air Force

 Soviet Union

The Soviet Union ran into immediate problems with friendly fire at the introduction of the Lend-Lease Spitfire Mk. Vb to combat operations. Deadly anti-aircraft artillery fire and neighboring VVS fighters took their toll. The problem was that the Spitfire too closely resembled the enemy's Messerschmitt Bf 109 aircraft. Making Spitfire unit markings more prominent didn't help (the 57th already displayed a yellow lightning bolt down the entire side of their fuselages), and the aircraft type was withdrawn from combat duties after only three months of service as part of defensive operations in the Kuban sector.[3][4]

Soviet Air Force

 Sweden

Soon after the end of the Second World War, the Swedish Air Force equipped a photo reconnaissance wing, F 11 in Nyköping (just south of Stockholm), with 50 Mk XIXs, designated S 31. Several S 31 photographic missions in the late 1940s entailed flagrant violations of Soviet – and, at least once, Finnish – airspace in order to document activities at the air and naval installations in the Baltic and Kola regions. At that time, no Soviet fighter was able to reach the operational altitude of the S 31. No Swedish planes were lost during those clandestine operations. However, by the early 1950s, Soviet air defenses had become so effective that such practices had to cease.[5] The S 31s were replaced by jet-powered SAAB S 29Cs in the mid-1950s.

Swedish Air Force

 Syria

Syrian Air Force

 Thailand

Royal Thai Air Force

 Turkey

Turkish Air Force

 United Kingdom

Royal Air Force
Fleet Air Arm

 United States

The Spitfire was one of only a few foreign aircraft to see service with the USAAF, equipping four groups in England and the Mediterranean.

United States Army Air Forces
United States Navy

 Yugoslavia

Yugoslav Squadrons in the RAF
SFR Yugoslav Air Force

Notes

  1. ^ “LORD, LET THY SERVANT GO IN PEACE NOW” by Polly Singh
  2. ^ List of Spitfire I and II aircraft used by Polish Air Force squadrons (PDF file)
  3. ^ Lend-lease on airforce.ru. (2006) Spitfires over the Kuban Igor Zlobin. Translation by James F. Gebhardt
  4. ^ Hardesty, Von (1991) [1982]. "Barbarossa to Berlin: A Summing Up". Red Phoenix: The Rise of Soviet Air Power 1941-1945. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution. pp. 225. ISBN 0874745101. 
  5. ^ Bortom Horisonten : Svensk Flygspaning mot Sovjetunionen 1946-1952 by Andersson, Lennart, Hellström, Leif

References

  • Lopes, Mário Canongia. Spitfires e Hurricanes em Portugal (Bilingual Portuguese/English). Lisboa, Portugal: Dinalivro, 1993. ISBN 978-9-72576-065-9.