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Daniel-Wales-Images In reply to BigBlueJake [2019-06-17 12:51:50 +0000 UTC]

It is indeed, that's precisely what it meens. "Clipped, Cropped and Clapped Out" was how the pilots and ground crews used to refer to this particular variant of the Spitfire when it first entered service.  

The basic story is that when the Luftwaffe first started to introduce the Focke-Wulf FW-190 into service, these early variant Spitfires were not really up to the job of combatting them on their level as the FW-190 had superior performance and handling than these baby Spits.

In the interim period while waiting for the more potent Spitfire variants such as the Mk.VIII and IX to enter service, the RAF modified their old battle weary Mk.Vs to tackle the problem. They clipped the wings for better role performance and cropped the supercharger to tune their engines for low altitude performance. The clapped out part referred to the fact that the airframes that they were modifying were old battle worn Spitfires. Hence the phrase "Clipped, Cropped and Clapped"

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