Built by Vickers Supermarine, the Spitfire defended Britain and is perhaps the most famous fighter of the Second World War. Several different marks reached Turkey at different times.
The first batch was ordered together with Hawker Hurricanes. Of the 15 Mk Is ordered, only three could be delivered because of the war. According to Turkish sources the first, an Mk Ia from a Polish order, arrived in September 1938, and the other two in 1940. The serials 4501 to 4515 were allocated but never used. The three aircraft flew for training with the 42nd Fighter Company of the 4th Regiment at Çorlu, and two were returned to RAF Middle East in 1942. The Mk I had a 1,030 hp Rolls-Royce Merlin II engine, eight .303 machine guns and a three-bladed propeller.
No more arrived until mid-1944. In July 1944, 39 Mk Vbs came from RAF stocks, followed by 71 Mk Vcs in December 1944 and three photo-reconnaissance Mk Vs in February 1945. The Vbs and Vcs went to the 5th and 6th Regiments and in 1947 to the flying school; the reconnaissance aircraft went to the High Altitude Photo Reconnaissance Unit. Turkish sources give their engine as a 1,500 hp Merlin 20, while British sources list the Merlin 45 and 45M. The Mk Vs were replaced by P-47 Thunderbolts in 1948.
After the war the Turkish Air Force intended to make the Spitfire its standard fighter and signed a maintenance contract with Vickers. Between January 1947 and February 1948, 170 Mk IXs entered the inventory, serving with the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Regiments and, after the 1951 reorganisation, with the 4th and 6th Air Bases. A single Mk XI reconnaissance aircraft arrived after the war, and four unarmed Mk XIXs, the most powerful Spitfires to reach Turkey with their 2,035 hp Griffon engines and five-bladed propellers, arrived in March 1947 for the High Altitude Photo Reconnaissance Unit.
Adapted and translated from the original Turkish-language ModofWar archive entry.
