Liberator I AM918/G-AGDR was probably finished in Dark Earth and Dark Green upper camouflage and Aluminium-painted undersides.
It appears that Liberator I AM918/G-AGDR was somewhat camera-shy in the ten months between its arrival in the UK in May 1941 and its loss in February the following year. It was one of a batch of 20 LB-30B/Liberator Is, also including AM922, as seen here, which joined No 120 Sqn at Nutts Corner in June 1941.
Although arguably far from the front line, flying with RAF Ferry Command was by no means an easy option - some 44 Ferry Command crew and passengers were killed in August 1941 alone, with a further ten that September. Conditions aboard the organisation’s Liberators were primitive, with the cold proving to be the greatest enemy.
Spitfire VB AD308 bore the No 317 Sqn unit code “JH-T”, and was painted in the RAF’s post-August 1941 day fighter scheme of Dark Green/Ocean Grey camouflage with Sea Grey Medium undersides. The Polish national insignia was applied to the cowling and the unit’s bird motif was painted behind the cockpit.
Flying Officer Tadeusz Koc stands beside Spitfire Mk VB AD308, one of the first to be delivered to No 317 (“Wileriski”) Sqn, in October 1941. It was this aircraft, along with Westland-built Spitfire Mk VB AR279, that encountered G-AGDR on the latter’s fateful return flight from Cairo in the early hours of February 15, 1942.
