Westland Whirlwind, part two

No.25 Squadron, based at North Weald, was the first squadron to receive the Westland Whirlwind. The Whirlwind was evaluated by that squadron in late May 1940 however it was decided to re-equip the squadron with the night-fighter version of the Bristol Beaufighter as the No.25 was already a night-fighter squadron and the Whirlwind would've required some adaptations which the Bristol Beaufighter didn't.
The first squadron to fly the Whirlwind operationally was the No. 263 Squadron, which was undergoing reformation at Grangemouth, Scotland after sustaining heavy losses during the Norwegian campaign. The first Whirlwind arrived on 6th July 1940. However, deliveries were slow and on 17th August 1940 there were only 5 of them and none of them were serviceable, with the squadron flying the Hawker Hurricane as an interim fighter. In spite of the Battle of Britain and the urgent need for fighters in the South of England, the squadron remained in Scotland as Air Chief Marshall Hugh Downing stated that the No.263 Squadron couldn't be deployed in the South because "there was no room for 'passengers' in that part of the world."
Shortly after, on 7th December 1940 No.263 Squadron was rebased to RAF Exeter, this time fully equipped with Westland Whirlwind. Initially they conducted convoy and anti E-boat patrols. The first confirmed kill by a Whirlwind took place on 8th February 1941 when an Arado Ar.196 was shot down with the responsible Whirlwind crashing into the sea killing the pilot. From then on, the squadron enjoyed certain success with the Whirlwind fighting against the Junkers Ju.88, Dornier Do.217, Messerschmitt Bf.109 and Focke-Wulf Fw.190.
The 263 squadron also carried out ocasional escort missions. For instance, they escorted a formation of 54 Blenheims on a low-level raid against power stations in Cologne on 12th August 1941. Due to the short range of the Whirlwinds (and the rest of the fighter escort), they had to turn back at Antwerp, leaving the Blenheim unescorted and losing ten of them in the raid.
The squadron flew mostly attack sorties both against ground and naval targets. The Whirlwind proved a challenge for German fighters flying at low level as proved on 6th August 1941 when four Whirlwinds which were on an anti-shipping strike, were intercepted by a formation of Messerschmitt Bf.109 with three Bf.109 claimed and no British losses.
A second Whirlwind squadron, the No.137 Squadron, was formed in September 1941, specialising in attacks against railway targets. One year later, the improved version, Whirlwind Mk.IA appeared which carried underwing bombs, which proved very effective in ground attack missions.
No.137 Squadron took heavy losses on 12th February 1942 in the Channel Dash, when they were sent to escort British destroyers, unaware of the German ships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau in the area. They took off 13:10 hours and soon they spotted the German warships about 20mi (32Km) off the Belgian coast when they descended to investigate and were intercepted by a large formation of 20 Bf.109s of the JG.2. The Whirlwinds were heavily outnumbered and four of the eight were lost during the ambush.
The last Whirlwind mission with the No.137 Squadron took place on 21st June 1943 when five Whirlwinds took off for a ground attack patrol against the German airfield in Poix-de-Picardie, France. One of the Whirlwinds was unable to locate the target and instead attacked a train located north of Rue. While returning his engine malfunctioned and had to force land at RAF Marston heavily damaging the aircraft with the pilot walking away unhurt. The Whirlwinds were replaced by the Hawker Typhoon soonly after.
That way, the No.263 squadron became the very last one to be equipped with the Whirlwind, flying its last mission on 29th November 1943, converting them to the Hawker Typhoon in December that year. On 1st January 1944 the Whirlwind was declared obsolete with the remaining serviceable aircraft being transferred to the No.18 Maintenance Unit which scrapped most of them for serviceable parts and repairing only those which were in near-flyable condition.
One Whirlwind was bought by the US Navy in 1942 and was used also by Grumman for testing purposes. There are no pictures of it, but apparently it was sent to NAS Pensacola in Florida and saw various colour schemes between 1942 and 1944 when it was scrapped. As there aren't no pics the drawing should be considered as speculative.
There were proposals to equip the Whirlwind with a radar, which were discarded, just like the ones to equip the Whirlwind with Rolls-Royce Merlin 76/77 engines, which were also discarded due to the development of the Westland Welkin.

Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westland_Whirlwind_(fighter)
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._137_Squadron_RAF
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._263_Squadron_RAF
4. https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/airfixtributeforum/airfix-1-72-westland-whirlwind-i-02064-a50096-t1068-s75.html
5. https://sites.google.com/site/72ndscaleaircraft/home/comparison-articles-menu/westland-whirlwind-comparison
6. Salamander Books - The Complete Book of Fighters