270574 - COLOUR CONUNDRUM Compendium No 4 (including previously unpublished material and updates)

By Paul Lucas.

As with the previous three volumes, the articles reprinted in this fourth collection have not been reproduced in the sequence that they were originally published, but have been loosely grouped together in three sections to a common theme and arranged in chronological order within that section. The first deals with the Battle of Britain and for the first time in the compendium series includes some material that relates to the German Luftwaffe. The second section deals with some of the colour schemes that were applied to British Bombers and Strike aircraft from 1944 to 1964, including a previously unpublished Colour Conundrum that deals with an attempt to improve the camouflage of the RAF's Night Bombers. The third section contains material that deals with a number of 'Counterfactual' subjects, with another hitherto unpublished piece on the possible adoption of the Canadian CF-105 Arrow by the RAF.

With original research based on surviving records in the National Archive at Kew the aim of these articles is to throw fresh light upon some old questions, to challenge some long held views on aircraft camouflage and markings, and to pose new questions that had arisen as a result of the research to which the answers were not yet known.