Harvard Unusual Colour Scheme

[Jordan Rich]

Hello,
I have several photos from my Grandfather who was an LAC with 124RSU in Burma. He took photos of a few unusual aircraft which I will make separate posts for.
This one is a Harvard which appears to be painted to resemble a P-47.
I have not seen another Harvard painted like this.
It is next to a Lysander, and in the photo of the Lysander you can see one of the P-47s which is painted the same. This is possibly 79th or 146th Squadron, as I know from other photographs that he had links to those squadrons.

Hopefully these photo links work!

[David Duxbury]

I see Lysander with LR tank, long exhaust and external entry ladder, then a standard Thunderbolt (P-47 in USAAF), a Beech Expeditor (UC-45 in USAAF), then an unidentifiable aircraft beyond that. POSSIBLY wingtip of Harvard on extreme left! Have you posted the correct image?

[COL BRUGGY]

Hello,

You might find the following of interest, re 124 (MOBILE) RSU:

http://rafcommands.com/database/loss...0RSU&crdb=SEAC

Aircraft known to have been on the strength of 124 (MOBILE) RSU: Vengeance I EZ988; Thunderbolt I HD164; Spitfire VIII JG551; Expediter II KJ498; Hurricane IIc KZ721.

See: RAF Flying Training & Support Units since 1912/Sturtivant & Hamlin/A-B.,2002/p.221.

Col.

[Jordan Rich]

Should be on the second link. https://i.ibb.co/XjGvFTX/CS1B3920.jpg

[malcolm_raf]

Hi

The Harvard is painted in the standard scheme for SEAC at the time, the white bands were designed to easily identify Allied aircraft from Japanese aircraft, they were not limited to Thunderbolts.

The Lysander isn't painted that way as it was either being or had been used for night time clandestine operations.

Malcolm

[Graham Boak]

Hi

The Harvard is painted in the standard scheme for SEAC at the time, the white bands were designed to easily identify Allied aircraft from Japanese aircraft, they were not limited to Thunderbolts.

The Lysander isn't painted that way as it was either being or had been used for night time clandestine operations.

Malcolm

Yes, but this was not usually applied to trainers. Other photos of Harvards in this theatre show them in the usual overall Yellow. Presumably this is the dark underside in the photo. There was, after all, no use for these aircraft in combat for which rapid identification was required. Some of these Harvards were used as hacks for fighter squadrons, but these retained standard trainer markings in other theatres.

However, this aircraft appears to have a single tone of camouflage on the uppersurface, which would be not be standard for SEAC fighters. Unless this is an effect of the film/filter Ortho film can often reduce the contrast between Dark Green and Dark Earth, as well as making Yellow appear dark, but I would expect the uppers to be darker in this case.