For their next 'Squadrons' book, RAF-in-Combat has chosen a type that has often befuddled all but the experts. This is the Spitfire XVI. This particular edition covers those British units flying the type.

A bit of background. With the war ramping up, the RAF realized that it was beyond the capabilities of British industry to produce Spitfire engines in the quantities needed. Specifically the 60 series Merlins used in the Spitfire VIII and IX. To help alleviate this shortage, the engine was contracted out. In particular, it was contracted to Packard in the US. The engine chosen was the Merlin 66 and soon engines came pouring off the factory lines in Detroit. Since these were all metric engines (yeah, I thought that was odd as well), they were designated the Merlin 266. These engines needed all new tools for mechanics to work on them and the engines had several improvements incorporated into them over the Rolls-Royce versions. From all accounts, they were more reliable than the home brew versions.

All were low altitude engines and the reason for this is that by this time in the war (early 1943), the need for an interceptor was on the wane and what was needed were fighter-bombers for the coming 2nd TAF.

Until the bubble canopy was introduced in February 1945, there was no external identifying feature to tell the difference between the Mk XVI and the Mk IX. One had to know the serial number to be able to tell. I dare say that many of the decal sheets out there for later war Spit IX are actually Spit XVIs.

The Spit XVI started using the C wing, but later standardized on the more effective E wing.

This book covers the history of the type along with the British units that flew the type. Surprisingly, the list is not very long and most got the plane after the turn of 1945. In the order of them receiving the plane they are 66,  74, 127, 602, and 603 squadrons. Since these units were involved in ground attack, many shot down no enemy planes flying this type. As usual you have some fine images of the planes and men who flew them along with some excellent full page color profiles. The stats section is what you've come to expect from this series, making it a superb reference book and one worth having on hand.

March 2016

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