DH.9 D2854 in Russia?

[Davos522]

Hi all, in the Squadron-Signal book de Havilland D.H.9 in action, in the color centerspread on pg. 25, there's a profile purporting to show a 9 serving in 221 Sqdn. in Russia:



It's a great series of books, but I've learned over the years never to take their accuracy at face value. In this case there's no photo of the aeroplane, and, in fact, I've only been able to find one other photo of a DH.9 in Russia so far, that of F1210 on pg 15 in the Datafile.

If anyone can point me towards any supporting evidence of this scheme I'd be grateful. Also, I downloaded John Smith's Gone to Russia to Fight, but are there any other books available on the British intervention in the Russian Civil War?

Thanks In Advance,

Dutch
(Late Update: I see Squadron basically copied their artwork from Profile 62... and there is a photo of D2854 in the Smith book, whoo hoo! But it seems to show an insignia of some sort directly behind the fuselage roundel...)

[enathan]

Hi Dutch,
I hope this is enough evidence but the same scheme of D2854 is depicted by the DH.9 kit of Ardpol (OOP) and the Blue Rider conversion.
The Blue Rider conversion also states that D2854 served with No. 211 squadron in Russia.
See Tim Mixon's model of the latter here https://forum.ww1aircraftmodels.com/index.php?topic=13344.0

[Davos522]

Thank you enathan! It's a really attractive scheme, and of course I had to go check out Tim's build. Not surprised to see he did his usual beautiful job.

Dutch

[drdave]

There are photos of this aircraft in the snow. They are searchable on line and in print. As your reference, I would use the artwork from Pheon for their DH9 as Rowan was very thorough with his research.

[drdave]

It had a 4 blade prop in the photo.

[Davos522]

Thanks, Dr Dave! If you have a link to images of the Pheon sheet (or different photos of this aeroplane) I'd love to see them, my searches have been unsuccessful although I've used a variety of different variables.

As I mentioned in my original post, the book by John T. Smith Gone to Russia to Fight about the RAF intervention in North Russia has a photo of the Short-built D2854, which shows some differences from the published artwork that enathan helpfully provided (which all seems to be based on the Ward profile on the back cover of Profile 62):



Most notably, it seems to be lacking the grey forward fuselage, the arrowhead is a different shape, and, biggest mystery of all, it's also sporting a marking of some sort—a partially painted out "2" or "3"??—between the tail and the fuselage roundel. I've light-blasted it in Photoshop, but the results weren't very helpful:



I believe the original negative is in the collection of the Canadian national archives, but haven't been able to find it there yet.

Dutch

[Davos522]

Scratch that, I was inspired to check Scalemates, and found it there:



I'm still not seeing the grey forward panels in the photo, though; there's no variation in the tone of the pixels no matter how I play with it. Maybe if I could find a better image to work with it might show up.

Dutch

[drdave]

I agree, I would do it overall pc10 with tonal differences for the metal. Grey would show up against the snow I reckon.

[drdave]

https://mmpbooks.com/shop2/russian-aviation-colours-1909-1922-vol-4.html

This has that photo and some other arrowhead schemes. Great book full of interesting stuff actually.o

[drdave]

Same photo in that book, profile goes overall PC10

[drdave]

The plane was dramatised on the cover of one of the Geoffrey Robinson novels IIRC.

[drdave]

Derek Robinson, sorry. A splendid little war. Fitted with a big bomb to get Trotsky!

[Davos522]

Thanks, Dave! If anybody deserved to get it in the neck it was Trotsky :-D

That looks like a great book, and RE: colors, those were my thoughts exactly, Wingnut has a photo of a Short-built DH.9, D2838, and it clearly shows the forward panels in PC.10 with a slight variation in shade where they meet the fabric:



There are also three photos of DH.9s built by Short Bros. in the Datafile: D2781; D2818; and D2830, all are doped PC.10 overall.

 Dutch

[drdave]

Interesting to see the stowed Lewis.
The 4 Russian books are super, with lots of schemes for Dh9s, nieuports, Strutters and  spads. Each warlord in the White Russian cause had their own aircraft markings.