Hawker Tempest V of a French pilot.

[Jicehem]

Hi everybody,  

Here can be seen a  particular Hawker Tempest V of RAF 274 Squadron, serialed EJ775 and coded JJ°A. This plane was flown by Régis Deleuze, a French pilot. He was never registered in the Free French Air Forces for the unique reason he was "too much young" when he tried to join FAFL (Forces aérienne françaises libres) on 23 June 1940 (He was born on 1 July 1922). So he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserves ans after his training, he was graduated Flight Lieutenant and joined the RAF 501 Sqn on 4 June 1943 where he flew Spitfire VBs in company of at least four other French pilots (from FAFL). When 501 Sqn was equipped with Tempest Vs its new rôle was to fight the V1 flying bombs. Between 7 August and 18 December 1944, Régis Deleuze won the distinction of shooting down eight "Malignant Robots" seven of which by night ! On 22 February 1945, Deleuze joined 274 Squadron based on continental Europe at B80 Volkel in Holland. The glorious career of Régis Deleuze sadly ended on 25 February 1945 when he was KIA, beeing shot down by Flak over Werkhoven, near Bunnik in the Netherlands. Although he was never an "FAFL" I think his place is among them... Since the end of the war he rests in Brussels.

The kit is Eduard's and is far from being accurate... But it's the best of both known in 1/48 scale (the other one beeing AMT's). It demanded a lot of time to correct it... It's hand-painted and markings were provided by different decal sheets as no one is dedicated to this little known pilot...


















Jicehem

[No.1]

Excellent story of this pilot mate and nice work on kit

[Sall]

Very nice work mate!
And i like planes with story!!

[Second Air Force]

Wonderful build, and thank you for telling the flying history of this brave young man.

[No.1]

One sample is on my shelf and must as soon as possible send it to you Scott...

[draken35]