RAF Blida North Africa ...

[Mark Allen M]

Blida Airfield was a Vichy French Airfield on the North Coast of Algeria. It was seized by the Allies without opposition on the first day of Operation Torch, the invasion of Algeria, the 8th of November 1942, and became an important base for both fighter and bomber operations and maintenance until the surrender of Axis forces in North Africa.
Source: https://wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/ ... p?pid=1695


Aerial view of Blida Algeria.


Arrival on the runway of a Spitfire at the Blida air base.


Line-up of Spitfires at the Blida airfield.


Aircraft assembly line at the Blida airfield.


Alignment of fuselages at the Blida.


Alignment of fuselages on the Blida airfield.


Aircraft cannon storage room.


Aircraft landing gear storage room.


Air Industrial Workshops (AIA) in Blida. Machining of various parts on machine tools, including a Cincinnati milling machine.


Adjusting the 20mm Hispano cannons of a Spitfire at the Blida workshop.


Alignment of tail planes.


Alignment of tail planes.


Assembly of the front landing gear on an aircraft plan at the Blida workshop.


Assortment of Spitfire wings.


Blida engine service files.


Car demonstration room.


Carcass of a crashed Spitfire.


Checking the aircraft's tail unit in a hangar in Blida.


Checking the landing gear of a Spitfire at the Blida workshop.


Cleaning carburetors in Blida.


Crankshaft inspection in Blida.


Cylinder control in Blida.


Dismantling Browning weapons in the wing of a Spitfire.


Dismantling of Spitfire.


Dismantling the dashboard of a Spitfire.


Dismantling the empennage in a hangar .


Dismantling propeller.


Dismantling the Rolls-Royce Packard Merlin 226 engine of a Spitfire.


Dismantling the Rolls-Royce Packard Merlin 226 engine of a Spitfire.


Electrical installations.


Electrical installations.


Engine stock in Blida.


Engines on the test bench at the Blida workshop.


Finishing the landing gear in a workshop.


Hurricanes & Spitfires waiting to be refurbished.


Hurricanes & Spitfires waiting to be refurbished.


Magneto repair.


Packing of reducers.


painter drawing the registration of Spitfire EF597.


Painting Spitfire at Blida airfield.


Pile of parts for recasting.


Plastering at the Blida workshop.


Reassembly of a reducer.


Reassembly of aircraft controls.


Reassembly of the aircraft tail plane.


Reassembly of the Browning machine gun of a Spitfire.


Reassembly of engines.


Reassembly of engines.


Reassembly of the Spitfire propeller.


Repair workshop at the Blida base.


Repairing radios in a workshop.


Riveter at work on an airplane.


Riveter at work on an airplane.


Seasoned aircraft parked at Blida Park in Algeria.


Spitfire Engine dismantle.


Spitfire engine runups.


Spitfire loaded onto trailer.


Spitfire painter.


Storage of various aircraft parts.


Transporting Spitfire on a trolley.


Unloading a Spitfire.


Unloading a Spitfire.


Tuning the engine of a Spitfire.


View of the engine assembly line.


View of the Spitfire assembly line at the Blida workshop.


View of the Spitfire assembly line at the Blida workshop.


View of the Spitfire assembly line at the Blida workshop.


Welder working on an airplane.

[AG pilot]

Wow! Simply awesome post!

[quemerford]

Awesome post. Many thanks for this and all of this year's awesome postings.

[Richard W.]

Magnificent. Thank you for sharing these.

[Spitty]

Putting together Spitfires is like throwing multiple jigsaw puzzle pieces out on the table then trying to assemble one.

[junkman9096]

I like the OSHA standards being met there. Welding/brazing with open toed sandals, parts washing in platform shoes, painting without masks. Yes, I know it was a different era. And yes, I know there was a war on and things like new work shoes would have been hard to obtain but it's just my modern eyes looking back at an earlier time. Like when I see WWII mechanics cleaning engines by spraying gasoline like a solvent.

[phil65]

Yup, and it wasn't that long ago we were doing the same thing here in the USA. I can still remember cleaning engines with the blue solvent. I'm sure it's happening in other places around the world right now..


Riveter at work on an airplane.

What is that tool they're using, a riveter ?

Phil

[junkman9096]

What is that tool they're using, a riveter ?

Phil

Looks like a kind of manual drill, push the upper part up and down and it rotates the head and bit. Just spitballing here.

[phil65]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjclWpPQFVQ

Go to the 20 second mark, or the 3 minute mark to see it in action...

Phil

[quemerford]

Yup, and it wasn't that long ago we were doing the same thing here in the USA. I can still remember cleaning engines with the blue solvent. I'm sure it's happening in other places around the world right now..


Riveter at work on an airplane.

What is that tool they're using, a riveter ?

Phil

We used to call them 'lazy tongs' but I'm sure that's a local thing. Basically not-very-good tools for pulling Tucker, Avdel etc rivets. I'm guessing we ditched them in the 1980s.

[Dan Jones]

Fantastic collection of photos. Thank you!

[DH82EH]

Wow!
Amazing set of pictures Mark.
As always, I thank you.

Andy

[C VEICH]

What an absolutely superb bunch of pictures! What I wouldn't give to see these in color. Posts like this are why I still visit the WIX forum just about every day.

[Mark Allen M]

Glad you like the threads gents. Some of them take a bit of time to clean up and post, but if there’s history to be learned and an interest to still learn this type of history. Then I’m happy to make the effort.

There’s so much that happened in those war years. Much more than I ever imagined. Gotta keep learning so we can never forget this time in history.

[Dan Jones]

You just have to wonder… what happened to all that stuff??