LIFTING OFF OUT OF LOCKDOWN - REDS

Comrade Colonel Professor Winter's County Communist Front has struggled to keep up with the recent accelerated pace of air force expansion. This is possibly due to the limited manufacturing capability available to the far-left within Herefordshire, or to its recent concentration upon increasing the output of "Proley Tanks", or simply Winter's pre-occupation, at the expense of industrial production, with the elimination of his many internal enemies. Be that as it may, the Comrade Colonel has welcomed the Escuadrilla Espana (prop. Andre Malraux) to the recently liberated Shobdon Airfield:

The Escuadrilla Espana fly in to Shobdon Airfield, anxious to lend
"fraternal support" to "fellow anti-fascists". These
aircraft have retained the markings used in Spain.

Winter's 'home grown' squadron of interceptor types (Squadron "Ned Ludd") proudly boast
the red star on their wings, possibly because (it is rumoured) these
aircraft are exclusively piloted by 'Soviet advisers"

The outnumbered (but not undergunned) "Luddites" grimly display Soviet
military precision in aerial maneouvres....

...whereas the enthuiastic but somewhat wild Spanish Republicans straggle into battle as
 best possible. Note tails adorned with Republican markings. The aircraft with the
red marked rear fuselage is a Section leader, indicating the Escadrilla's
notoriously relaxed approach to combat organisation.

Some historians argue that Winter's Reds principally used captured Gloster Gladiators and Vickers Venoms during the Herefordshire VBCW. However, Dr. I. Cataract of the VBCW Historical

 Institute has conclusively opined that these aircraft are, in fact, "export versions" of the

 Polikarpov I-15bis (biplane) and the Polikarpov I-16 (monoplane).  It would take a

 brave man to query the learned Doctor's opinion (or eyesight) - and for 

further evidence, see HERE