Book Review of
Supermarine Seafire
Fleet Air Arm Legends No. 1
Morton’s Books
Author: Matthew Willis
ISBN: 978-911658-29-0
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $19.99
By Ray Mehlberger
MSRP: $19.99
HISTORY:
The Supermarine Seafire was a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire adapted for operation from aircraft carriers. It was analogous in concept to the Hawker Sea Hurricane, a navalised version of the Spitfire's stablemate, the Hawker Hurricane.
The name Seafire had been derived from the abbreviation of the longer name Sea Spitfire. The idea of adopting a navalised carrier-capable version of the Supermarine Spitfire had been mooted by the Admiralty as early as May 1938.
Despite a pressing need to replace various types of obsolete aircraft that were still in operation with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), some opposed the notion, such as Winston Churchill, although these disputes were often a result of an overriding priority being placed on maximising production of land-based Spitfires instead. During 1941 and early 1942, the concept was again pushed for by the Admiralty, culminating in an initial batch of Seafire Mk Ib fighters being provided in late 1941, which were mainly used for pilots to gain experience operating the type at sea.
While there were concerns over the low strength of its undercarriage, which had not been strengthened like many naval aircraft would have been, its performance was found to be acceptable.
From 1942 onwards, further Seafire models were quickly ordered, including the first operationally-viable Seafire F Mk III variant. This led to the type rapidly spreading throughout the FAA. In November 1942, the first combat use of the Seafire occurred during Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. In July 1943, the Seafire was used to provide air cover for the Allied invasion of Sicily; and reprised this role in September 1943 during the subsequent Allied invasion of Italy. During 1944,
The type was again used in quantity to provide aerial support to Allied ground forces during the Normandy landings and Operation Dragoon in Southern France. During the latter half of 1944, the Seafire became a part of the aerial component of the British Pacific Fleet, where it quickly proved to be a capable interceptor against the feared kamikaze attacks by Japanese pilots which had become increasingly common during the final years of the Pacific War.
The Seafire continued to be used for some time after the end of the war. The FAA opted to promptly withdraw all of its Merlin-powered Seafires and replace them with Griffon-powered counterparts. The type saw further active combat use during the Korean War, in which FAA Seafires performed hundreds of missions in the ground attack and combat air patrol roles against North Korean forces during 1950.
The Seafire was withdrawn from service during the 1950s. In FAA service, the type had been replaced by the newer Hawker Sea Fury, the last piston engine fighter to be used by the service, along with the first generation of jet-propelled naval fighters, such as the de Havilland Vampire, Supermarine Attacker, and Hawker Sea Hawk.
THE BOOK:
Morton’s Books is located in the UK.
This book is soft-cover of 115 pages in 7 ¼” x 9 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a color illustration of a Seafire flying above the ocean. It is in a wave pattern camouflage of two shades of grey over a sky colored undercarriage. It carries Australian roundels that are the Royal Air Force type, but with the red centers removed. It has black bands across the centers of the tops of the wings and elevators and a horizontal one across the rudder.
It has black ROYAL NAVY over NN300 behind black 0 roudel 59 on the sides of its fuselage. It has just shot down a Japanese aircraft in flames.
The book contains 121 black and white photos and 10 color ones, 12 side view color profile illustrations, a blueprint of rudder variants, 3 data lists and the index.
Matthew Willis tells the story of the Seafire from the earliest proposals, through testing, combat and retirement, including its association with the legendary Eric “Winkle” Brown.
This book combines archive research and contemporary experience including unpublished accounts and pilot comparisons between the Seafire and other types, with comprehensive data.
It includes more than a hundred historic photos, images of restored aircraft in flight, and a full color profiles artwork done by Thierry Vallet.
THE AUTHOR:
Matthew Willis is a writer of historical fiction, non-fiction, fantasy and science-fiction, and an editor of both fiction and non-fiction titles.
Matthew’s first non-fiction book, a history of the Blackburn Skua, WWII naval dive bomber, was published in 2007 by MMP Books. He followed this with monographs on the Sopwith Pup, Fairey Flycatcher, Fairey Barracuda and Blackburn Shark.
His biography of test pilot Duncan Menzies, Flying to the Edge, was published y Amberley Books in 2017. Matthew studied Literature and History of Science at the University of Kent, focusing on Joseph Conrad for his MA, and sailed for the university in national competitions.
He subsequently worked as a journalist for Aerosport and F1 Racing magazines, and has written for Aeroplane, Flypast and The Aviation Historian as well as maintaining the blog “Naval Air History” (.http://navalairhistory.com).
He currently lives in Southampton with his university lecturer wife Rosalind, where he writes and edits fiction and non-fiction for a living.
This is a neat book. It will be of great interest to modelers that plan to build a Seafire model and to naval historians alike.
I want to thank Casemate Publishers, the North American distributor of Morton’s Books for this review sample.
All Tempest Books titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at:
The Supermarine Seafire was a naval version of the Supermarine Spitfire adapted for operation from aircraft carriers. It was analogous in concept to the Hawker Sea Hurricane, a navalised version of the Spitfire's stablemate, the Hawker Hurricane.
The name Seafire had been derived from the abbreviation of the longer name Sea Spitfire. The idea of adopting a navalised carrier-capable version of the Supermarine Spitfire had been mooted by the Admiralty as early as May 1938.
Despite a pressing need to replace various types of obsolete aircraft that were still in operation with the Fleet Air Arm (FAA), some opposed the notion, such as Winston Churchill, although these disputes were often a result of an overriding priority being placed on maximising production of land-based Spitfires instead. During 1941 and early 1942, the concept was again pushed for by the Admiralty, culminating in an initial batch of Seafire Mk Ib fighters being provided in late 1941, which were mainly used for pilots to gain experience operating the type at sea.
While there were concerns over the low strength of its undercarriage, which had not been strengthened like many naval aircraft would have been, its performance was found to be acceptable.
From 1942 onwards, further Seafire models were quickly ordered, including the first operationally-viable Seafire F Mk III variant. This led to the type rapidly spreading throughout the FAA. In November 1942, the first combat use of the Seafire occurred during Operation Torch, the Allied landings in North Africa. In July 1943, the Seafire was used to provide air cover for the Allied invasion of Sicily; and reprised this role in September 1943 during the subsequent Allied invasion of Italy. During 1944,
The type was again used in quantity to provide aerial support to Allied ground forces during the Normandy landings and Operation Dragoon in Southern France. During the latter half of 1944, the Seafire became a part of the aerial component of the British Pacific Fleet, where it quickly proved to be a capable interceptor against the feared kamikaze attacks by Japanese pilots which had become increasingly common during the final years of the Pacific War.
The Seafire continued to be used for some time after the end of the war. The FAA opted to promptly withdraw all of its Merlin-powered Seafires and replace them with Griffon-powered counterparts. The type saw further active combat use during the Korean War, in which FAA Seafires performed hundreds of missions in the ground attack and combat air patrol roles against North Korean forces during 1950.
The Seafire was withdrawn from service during the 1950s. In FAA service, the type had been replaced by the newer Hawker Sea Fury, the last piston engine fighter to be used by the service, along with the first generation of jet-propelled naval fighters, such as the de Havilland Vampire, Supermarine Attacker, and Hawker Sea Hawk.
THE BOOK:
Morton’s Books is located in the UK.
This book is soft-cover of 115 pages in 7 ¼” x 9 ¾” page format.
The cover art shows a color illustration of a Seafire flying above the ocean. It is in a wave pattern camouflage of two shades of grey over a sky colored undercarriage. It carries Australian roundels that are the Royal Air Force type, but with the red centers removed. It has black bands across the centers of the tops of the wings and elevators and a horizontal one across the rudder.
It has black ROYAL NAVY over NN300 behind black 0 roudel 59 on the sides of its fuselage. It has just shot down a Japanese aircraft in flames.
The book contains 121 black and white photos and 10 color ones, 12 side view color profile illustrations, a blueprint of rudder variants, 3 data lists and the index.
Matthew Willis tells the story of the Seafire from the earliest proposals, through testing, combat and retirement, including its association with the legendary Eric “Winkle” Brown.
This book combines archive research and contemporary experience including unpublished accounts and pilot comparisons between the Seafire and other types, with comprehensive data.
It includes more than a hundred historic photos, images of restored aircraft in flight, and a full color profiles artwork done by Thierry Vallet.
THE AUTHOR:
Matthew Willis is a writer of historical fiction, non-fiction, fantasy and science-fiction, and an editor of both fiction and non-fiction titles.
Matthew’s first non-fiction book, a history of the Blackburn Skua, WWII naval dive bomber, was published in 2007 by MMP Books. He followed this with monographs on the Sopwith Pup, Fairey Flycatcher, Fairey Barracuda and Blackburn Shark.
His biography of test pilot Duncan Menzies, Flying to the Edge, was published y Amberley Books in 2017. Matthew studied Literature and History of Science at the University of Kent, focusing on Joseph Conrad for his MA, and sailed for the university in national competitions.
He subsequently worked as a journalist for Aerosport and F1 Racing magazines, and has written for Aeroplane, Flypast and The Aviation Historian as well as maintaining the blog “Naval Air History” (.http://navalairhistory.com).
He currently lives in Southampton with his university lecturer wife Rosalind, where he writes and edits fiction and non-fiction for a living.
This is a neat book. It will be of great interest to modelers that plan to build a Seafire model and to naval historians alike.
I want to thank Casemate Publishers, the North American distributor of Morton’s Books for this review sample.
All Tempest Books titles can be viewed on Casemate’s website at: