My favorite plane is the Corsair too, followed by the typhoon.

Cool, I remember watching that series "Black Sheep Squadron" about the misfit pilots at the Guadalcanal campaign. I didn't miss an episode, and it is among my favorite aircraft of WWII, as well. Very distinctive, with no compromise to stick raw power up front. That said, when I was in high school I did a rather long and obsessive history report project about the War in the Pacific, and gained a healthy respect for the SBD Dauntless, of all things! That obsolete, vulnerable dive bomber literally turned the tide of the War at the Coral Sea and Midway. Three cheers for the underdog, please!



But even that is not my very favorite aircraft of WWII. That accolade is reserved for another underdog to which there is a certain affinity for me. However I'll leave that story for another time...

Those are all noted, Vampyre. Gladiators as well as Buffalos served with Finnish forces (I like the way Finland stayed very quiet about their part in the War, a friend of mine and I used to laugh at that one while we were studying WWII. But of course there were other factors involved in that modesty, including a post war political strategy of SOI annexation named after the country, LOL!). The F4F, of course, must still be one of the world's most successful obsolete aircraft(?). The Buffalos operating from Malaya (great book I read about that campaign, "Bloody Shambles"), could have been in action against Japanese forces the day before Pearl Harbor, except that Operation Matador was called off.

All great guesses, but none of them were it.

It is quite obscure, now, and there are no surviving examples. It is the first operational four engine heavy bomber of the RAF, the Short Stirling. It took the initial brunt of taking the fight deep into Germany along with the Wellington and Whitley twin engine bombers, before being replaced by the superior Lancaster.

Why I have a certain affinity is because my father was flight engineer on it. The night he was shot down is detailed on this 15 Sqn ORB . Look for Sgt. Shearer, on the first entry. That's him, the only survivor of that crew. He was taken POW for the rest of the War.

Thanks go to the French WWII historian Jocelyn Leclerq for having located and personally sent me the ORB documents a few years ago regarding my dad's activity on the Squadron.

I really hate going off topic, so we're back to the Corsair. Another great book I read years ago, "Operation Pacific" sets the background in which the Royal Navy utilized Corsairs in the Fleet Air Arm against Japan on board the cramped, but deck armored British carriers (USN crews were envious of that feature later when the kamikaze attacks started). Britain inevitably put into practice their favorite wing clipping technique so that the aircraft would fit into the low headroom below deck hangars when the wings were folded. LOL!

Do you know what that 12 x 90 x 4 in the details meant?

Yes, it is a description of the bomb load. They were carrying phosphorous incendiary sticks, which is what caught fire in the bomb bay and brought them down. I believe it means 12 packs of 90 sticks, 4 lbs weight each stick.