[Willy]

Good pics!

They were mostly taken on HMS Hunter during Operation Avalanche, the landings at Salerno, Italy in 1943, where Force V consisting of 4 Escort Carriers (Attack carriers in fact) Attacker, Battler, Hunter and Stalker along with the repair/refit carrier Unicorn fielded 113 Seafires as fighter cover. They maintained 20 Seafires over the beach-head during daylight hours.

Enemy air opposition was light and Seafire pilots claimed only 2 destroyed and 4 damaged for 10 Seafires lost to hostile reasons.

Due to the flat calm weather they only had 18 knots over the decks produced by the small carriers themselves and initially the rate of landing accidents was very high, over 40 Seafires being written off this way!