I believe Johnnie Johnson also used his Spit to take beer out to his squadron. Yep think is in one of his books.
With ingenuity like that, we fully deserved to win the war Keith. Oh, but the Germans instead of the beer barrels were able to transport the brewers themselves. http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTbKjQyvMpofEpnio2zZgInfVGrM7_gYoaU5wITBM7lgyli64cRGFX-Xj2w
My friend's father flew Spitfires in the RCAF and was among the first squadrons to fly from Normandy airfields. He related that the first few beer shipments were undrinkable due to the long range tanks not being properly cleansed of fuel before the suds were poured in. That was soon rectified.
Going off on a tangent but still inside WW2, I remember a description of the hardships the German soldiers underwent in the East Front (have to buy some more band-aids to stop my heart from bleeding ), in this particular case a supply train for the Leningrad siege in winter'41 which instead of supplies like food, ammunition, winter clothing, etc., carried a consignment of French wine that some Golden Pheasant had foisted upon the army. With the extreme cold the wine had actually frozen, and in so had expanded and burst the bottles, so the train contained a hellish mess of glass splinters and frozen red goop! The passage also described the Brit trucks the Germans had captured from the BEF and sent to the East Front. From memory, their fuel system (filters? pumps? carburettors?) contained some glass part that had also burst due to weather much colder than what Messrs Austin or Bedford had designed for, and as a consequence had all gone to pieces as well. So the entire fleet was immobilised for lack of the same piece, and the spare part suppliers were not being too helpful...
Oh, but the Germans instead of the beer barrels were able to transport the brewers themselves. In the cellar of the old Luftwaffe Officers Mess at the airfield at Hildesheim (known to Brits as Tofrek Barracks) there is a mural of Goering sitting astride an aircraft with a large barrel of beer under each arm. Clearly such ingenuity is not restricted either to one nation or to the lower ranks! Chris
My father talked of the Italian aircraft that his squadron used as a communications hack and going on the 'beer run'. 145 Sqn still had a multi engine rated pilot from Blenheim days. I have managed to find it markings and all! ZX - 145 Sqn codes and emblazoned with 'Gremlin HQ' on the nose. To see it and know that my father had flown in it a few times - being an old hand he joined the Sqn when it reformed 1939, and being a senior regular NCO had it's perks. 'liberated' at Castel Benito included a Savoia Marchetti SM 79 taken over by No.145 Squadron, RAF, on the unit's arrival there on 8th February 1943. This aircraft was repainted in British markings, with the Squadron code letters 'ZX'. It was previously MM 22174 of the Regia Aeronautica. It was used extensively as a Squadron communications aircraft and wore the name Gremlin HQ. F/O Jim Pickering flew this SM 79 for 88 hours 55 minutes on Squadron duties between 24th February and 19th May 1943. Later this aircraft was handed over to an unknown USAAF unit, but was destroyed by fire before it could be flown Pickering is unusual in having flown eighty different types of aircraft during the War. Awarded the Air Force Cross.
Pilot Peter Brett tells of delivering beer to Normandy not long after D-Day. He was a Typhoon pilot, but the aircraft type isn't identified for this important mission. [YOUTUBE]LO5uDEG6E6M[/YOUTUBE]
http://www.ghostgrey.gaetanmarie.com/articles/2010/Modification%20XXX/Modification%20XXX%20-%20Beer-carrying%20Spitfires.htm
According to Norm Phibbs, former Canadian RCAF Spitfire pilot, there were some failed experiments with empty external fuel tanks. They tended to contaminate the beer until the cleaning process was improved.
