List of Supermarine Spitfire operators
This is a list of operators of the Supermarine Spitfire.
Operators
- Royal Australian Air Force
- Royal Australian Navy
- Belgian Air Force
- Burma Air Force
- Royal Canadian Air Force
- Royal Canadian Navy
- Czech Air Force in exile in Great Britain
- Czechoslovakian Air Force
- Czechoslovakian National Security Guard
- Royal Danish Air Force
- Royal Egyptian Air Force
- Free French Air Force
- Armee de l'Air
- Aviation Navale
Luftwaffe captured several Spitfires and used them to test, and for operational training duties.
- Luftwaffe
- Royal Hellenic Air Force
- Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force
- RAF at RAF Kai Tak
- RAF at RAF Sek Kong
- Indian Air Force[1]
- No.1 Squadron, IAF
- No.2 Squadron, IAF
- No.3 Squadron, IAF
- No.4 Squadron, IAF
- No.6 Squadron, IAF
- No.7 Squadron, IAF
- No.8 Squadron, IAF
- No.9 Squadron, IAF
- No.10 Squadron, IAF
- No.12 Squadron, IAF
- No.14 Squadron, IAF
- No.15 Squadron, IAF
- No.16 Squadron, IAF
- No.101 Squadron, IAF
- No.1 Service Flying and Training School, Ambala
- Conversion Training Unit IAF
- Indonesian Air Force
- Irish Air Corps
- No 1. Fighter Squadron
- Air Corps Training Wing
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
- Italian Co-Belligerent Air Force
- Aeronautica Militare
- Royal Netherlands Air Force
- Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force - Postwar
- Royal New Zealand Air Force
- Royal Norwegian Air Force
- Royal Pakistan Air Force
- Polish Air Forces in exile in Great Britain [2]
- Portuguese Air Force
- Southern Rhodesian Air Force
- South African Air Force
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(the 57th already displayed a yellow lightning bolt down the entire side of their fuselages), and the aircraft type was withdrawn from combat duties after only three months of service as part of defensive operations in the Kuban sector.[3][4]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
- 57th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment (April–June 1943)
- 821st Fighter Aviation Regiment (April–June 1943)
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
- F 11 photo reconnaissance wing
- Syrian Air Force
- Royal Thai Air Force
- 1st Wing RTAF
- 4th Wing RTAF
- 41st Squadron (earlier called 1st Squadron, today is 401st Squadron.)
- Turkish Air Force
- Royal Air Force
- Fleet Air Arm
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
- Yugoslav Squadrons in the RAF
- SFR Yugoslav Air Force
Notes
References
- Lopes, Mário Canongia. Spitfires e Hurricanes em Portugal (Bilingual Portuguese/English). Lisboa, Portugal: Dinalivro, 1993. ISBN 978-9-72576-065-9.