'F' with Saint Emblem

3 RAAF. Sidi Haneish. Saint emblem and code 'F'. Image via Doug Norrie (450 Sqn Historian).

Unfortunately the serial of this very interesting example is as yet unknown (someone has to always block such info out...) A typical example of Desert colours, paintwork is very faded so I used a faded version of the Dark Earth, the pattern is also VERY non standard forward of the roundel. Spinner is very dark so I assume Black rather than Red. 'F' in White (very unusual, I only know of one other like this) rather than the usual Grey. The 'Saint drawing is also White.

AN416 J 'Hepsa-Bah'

I said on Page 1 that we would come back later to 'Hepsa-Bah'. Peter Jeffries was promoted to Acting Wing Cmdr on 3 Nov 1941 to lead 2 Operational Wing during Operation Crusader, with Alan Rawlinson being recalled from 73 OTU where he was instructing new pilots and promoted from Flight Lieutenant to Acting Sqn Leader rank to command 3 Sqn RAAF. As he did not still have an assigned airframe he took over AN416 as his, Jeffries getting a different airframe AN224 to use. AN416 can be seen 2nd from left in the above lineup, with the code 'J' (for Jeffries) and the 'Hepsa-Bah' name on the nose.

Alan Rawlinson arrived back with 3 Sqn on 10th Nov (per ORB entries) and there was a handover ceremony at that time per the photos here. I believe the five airframes linedup may be those of Rawlinson and the four pilots with Flt Lt rank (Arthur, Knowles, Manford & Saunders) at that time. They are from L-R 'O', 'J' AN416, 'R' AN314 'Go It Gertie', 'Z' (but this is not AN390 already written off at the start of Nov in a ground collision per the previous page), with the last being obscured and thus unknown.

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A closer up crop from the above image.

AN416 'Hepsa-bah' Peter Jeffries later Alan Rawlinson. Fairly standard to the other desert schemes, but the odd thing being the sliding part of the canopy still being painted Dark Green, these were usually repainted in Midstone when updating the scheme.

Tomahawks with 'CV' coding

AN355 with CV code according to Craig Busby this is the serial in a thread on Britmodeller. Screenshot from a AWM Film.

It is virtually unknown by the public that 3 Sqn first adopted their famous 'CV' codes on Tomahawks in late Nov or Dec 1941, not the later Kittyhawks. Photos are very difficult to find but luckily there are a couple of films in the AWM collection which show examples from which I have screenshots. Mostly they are seen as fairly small in size and without an individual letter per the shot above. A close look shows that the lower surfaces are Azure Blue here, being distinctly darker than most Desert examples.

Usual Desert scheme but with Azure Blue lower surfaces. 'CV' codes in White.

I first saw this use of 'CV' codes when interviewing Bobby Gibbes back in the 1980s. He had the following image of a belly landed example. He also said that having only the 'CV' and no individual letter did not work very well as one could not tell who was who.

It can be seen from studying images available that the codes were enlarged over time and individual letters likely introduced going by the image below which appears to be coded CV-P.

Hopefully over time more good images will emerge of these 'CV' coded Tomahawks but till then that is the best I can do.

2 major sources of info used to prepare this article are:
a. Paul McGuirness's Tomahawk history article at https://3sqnraafasn.net/subpages/3Sqn%20Association%20Tomahawk%20History%20by%20Paul%20McGuiness.pdf . A highly detailed run down on 3 Sqn P-40B operations, a lot of work went into this.
b. 'http://www.adf-serials.com.au/tomahawk.htm' - the ADF Serial page on RAAF P-40Bs.

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