Post by weaselAt the outbreak of WW-II, RAF RN a/c/did NOT have tail stripes.
When RAF units moved to the Continent (i.e. France), the French
regarded the rudder stripes on their a/c as an important recognition
feature, especially from the rear (where somebody might be pondering
shooting at you).
The RAF agreed to stripe their rudders, too, but reversed the order
from the French (which was based on their flag) to be red -white-blue
(fwd-to-aft, which is the opposite of the WW-I and 1920s British
stripes; in 1930 the r-w-b order was promulgated, but the stripes were
dropped in 1934). [all this according to my ancient "Aircraft
Camolflauge and Markings," Bruce Robertson, harleyford, 1956]
By some mysterious bureaucratic process, by June 1940 the stripes
migrated fwd to the fixed portion of the fin, and were on all a/c, not
just those in France.
'Cording to my references, the date was May 1, 1940 by Signal X.485
which not only added the fin flash to the fins of all a/c but also
made several other changes in the British national markings including
the addition of the yellow surround to the fuselage roundel.
Post by weaselBy December, the "fin flash" was a standard 24
inches wide by 27 inches high.
Again, my references say the fin flash was standardized at 27"x24"
in August, 1940 - although obviously some time elapsed between the
directive for the standardized fin flash and when it was actually
implimented on all aircraft. Presumably in August, 1940, at the height
of the Battle of Britain, the squadron ground crews had more important
tasks to attend to than repainting tail markings.
Post by weaselOf course, by this time the French were, either neutral, hostile, or
fighting under British colors, so it is a bit of a mystery to me why
they did it at all!
Well, as noted, the original order to display the fin flashes went
out some considerable time before the fall of France. But presumably
they were considered a useful identification marking - all the major
combatants of that era save only the Soviets, the Finns, and the Japanese
used some form of fin/rudder marking as a aircraft indentification marking
although the US dropped its rudder stripes rather early on.
Cheers,
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