More pictures from North Africa Circa 1941/2

[Peter-RB]

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/th_EarlyP51MustangGA-ZescortingBeaufightersonShippingsweep-2.jpgGood evening , Finally I think I have cracked ohow to post a picture

This is the blown up and trimmed picture of the P51 my father snapped whilst flying out from some airfiled at a place called Kabrit, it was a dried up lake bed, when going out ship busting they some time had a top cover and on this day it was this good looking Mustang of the RAF
I have some more to post so I will see if my grey stuff can do it again.

PeterR-B,

[Kitbag]

Sorry mate, looks like your link isn't, if you see what I mean

[Peter-RB]

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/th_WheelsupWellingtonafterlandingatKabrit2-1.jpgThis was a Merlin engined Wellington landed with one U/C stuck after a Bombing raid to the Tobruk area these are all connected with 148 Sdn, who seemed to share the Airfield at Kabrit or Kalafrit( the pencil writing on the back has faded badly) with 272 Sqdn who dad was with

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/th_WheelsupWellingtonafterlandingatKabrit3-1.jpgJust pick out aircraft maintenace chap draining fuel

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/th_4000LBbombbeingwinchedintoaMerlinPoweredWelliKabrit-1.jpg These are marked up as 4000LB bombs, you can see the fuse windmill on the front but I cannot see any tail fins, so how did they fall nose first

More later, one is a Hurricane found in the Desert.

I now realise the extra HTTP// on the input side needed to be removed!

Peter R-B
Lancashire

[Peter-RB]

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/th_BattleDamgedwheelsupHurricanelocatedinDesertNrKabrit.jpg? t=1327097902 This Hurricane was found after being seen from the Beaufighter flight returning from Tobruk, so the crews went out to see if they could find the pilot, they did not find him but it seemed another vehicle had picked him up from a different direction, the Hurribird had battle damage and a seized engine, although the picture is sligtly out of focus you will see the wooden props looking a little worse for wear, with the top fuel tank well holed and possible bythe marks was on fire at sometime.

G&T time now more later on if you are interested in these little gems

Peter R-B
Lancashire

[sycamore]

Be very curious to know which Squadron the Mustang was with,as the `codes` don`t appear to match any one`s in theatre.....

[Lordflasheart]

Squadron Code GA - Take your pick from 112 Sqn, 16 OTU, 208 Sqn and 21 Sqn RAAF

According to Wiki -

112 Squadron Gladiators, Greece and Crete. Tomahawk and Kittyhawk - Egypt and North Africa. To Italy and reequipped with Mustang Mk III June 1944 and Mk IV from Feb 1945 Disbanded at Treviso in December 1946.

208 Sqn North Africa – Lysander, Hurricane and Spitfire.
16 OTU Bomber Command Hampden, Hereford and Wellington. UK.
21 Sqn RAAF Vengeance and Liberators South East Asia.

Kabrit is about 20 miles north of Port Suez, on the Canal.

272 Squadron - according to the Squadron history -
"In April 1941 the squadron exchanged its Blenheims for Beaufighters and following work up (at Aldergrove) left for the Middle East on 24 May. Its first task was to provide fighter cover during the evacuation of Crete, after which it began long range convoy escorts, intruder operations, fighter escort to other strike units and long range ground attack missions.
In November 1942, the squadron transferred to Malta, and began attacks on Sicily and Tunisia. Following Operation Husky, it moved to Sicily in September 1943 and in February 1944 to Sardinia. From here it was able to carry out attacks on targets in Italy and Southern France. In September 1944 it moved onto the Italian mainland and began operations along the Adriatic coast. Its last operation was conducted on 18 April 1945 and the squadron disbanded on 30 April. Motto: On, on!"
While Kabrit is not specifically mentioned - it would fit with "during the evacuation of Crete."

However,the Mustangs of 112 came two years later.

148 Squadron operated Wellingtons from Kabrit during 1941-42.

LFH

[Wander00]

Amazing what you learn here - did not realise there had been Wellingtons with Merlin engines - thought they would have been too scarce, being required for Lancasters, Spitfires, Hurricanes and Mustangs, amongst others

[Peter-RB]

Good morning chaps,

A few years ago I posted what I thought was all I would find from Dads part in the WW2, but I keep comming across tiny little picture of these tyes of A/c, only towards the end of his life would dad ever answer any questions about the action he saw, but the more I read pprune the more I realise those guys were from a different type of life style than us now, where two minutes ago is old news, if you get my drift,

The sad thing about these pictures just posted, is on my computer I can zoom right in to various parts of the Wellingtons enough to see what appear to be holes in the plexiglas cover of the rear turret and much destruction just under the tailplane, when I tried to expand that in Photobucket it went very blurred so sadly that size posted is at the point of best detail, ...but then it could be me it took me over 2 hours to find the reason why I could not post the picture in the earlier afternoon.

My Dad was the Nav for a pilot I think called Rob Banahan who led the attack on the liner Rex, they had top cover then but I seem to remember they were American Mustangs who thought they were totally Mad flying in at nearly Zero feet before pulling up to attack the SS Rex.

If you can see the Merlins on the Wellingtons they were in their own Necelle fitted onto where the Radial engine should have been, in that format it must have thrown the cofg a lot further forwards, so would that have caused a lesser bomb load to be carried due to the way heavy ordinance would need to be more rearwards ?

Peter R-B
Lancashire

[l.garey]

Peter: try deleting the "th_" from your links. That way we may be able to see the pictures in other than "thumbnail" format.

Laurence

[Peter-RB]

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/WheelsupWellingtonafterlandingatKabrit-1.jpg

[Peter-RB]

Still a little burred sorry but you can see morehttp://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/EarlyP51MustangGA-ZescortingBeaufightersonShippingsweep-2.jpg

[Peter-RB]

Thank you Laurence, that worked well, but they are still more blurred than on my Computer

PeterRB

[Peter-RB]

Different Wellington as above but may be better view, still Merlin Engined and now found out belonged to 148Sqdn I have found the Sqdn crest its two crossed axes with the motto of "Trusty" and this was at Kabrit .

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/WheelsupWellingtonafterlandingatKabrit2-1.jpg

[Peter-RB]

A more frontal view of the previous picture. This looks very bent , would this be repairable out in the wilds of N Africa?
According to the Photo bucket site this is within the 850x850 but it looks bigger here
http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/WheelsupWellingtonafterlandingatKabrit3-1.jpg

[Peter-RB]

Larger Picture of the Hurricane, still a little blurred, though its gun ports are open so action has been seen

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/BattleDamgedwheelsupHurricanelocatedinDesertNrKabrit.jpg?t=1 327097902

[Peter-RB]

This has just come to light from yet another box of papers from my Dads past, looks quiet good.

http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/p491/PeterDRB/272SqdnCrestandMotto.jpg

[cyflyer]

So your father was on Beafighters ? 272 sqn was a Beaufighter sqaudron.

[Peter-RB]

HI Cy, yes the Old Chaps was first with Blehiems and then they converted to Beaufighters, and flew from it seems a fair few different places, I have found one called Edcu(well it looks like that), there are referances to Alexandria, Tobruk, Mersa, Edku, Malta, Cyprus, Crete, Sicily, Naples, Sardinia, I think a aerodrome called Agheila or Agheilia.

I realise the moving on of the war would need people to follow up, but his diaries seem to indicate multi visits to several places during a short period, also seems he spent time in Malta whilst they were under many attacks.

PetetR-B

[XV277]

Wonderful pictures Peter.

Photobucket tends to compress pictures down to fit their maximum size policy, which can make them a bit fuzzy. Flikr is maybe a better bet as it allows posting at different sizes.

The Mustang is 112 Squadron - the sharkmouth identifies it as being from that Squadron

[Peter-RB]

Further possible pictures shortly, I have found some negatives that show what I think is a really big tri engined job, My local photo shoppe are producing a picture for me to scan and then send through the wire to Pprune, so back shortly.. Also its comming up to 11yrs since my Old Pop passed away, I seemed to have learnt more about him and his wartime exploits in this time, than I ever did when he was just every day Dad, how many expoits and strories have we all missed from countless numbers of Dads who were thrown into that 39/45 conflict, and never wanted to repeat what they did or saw or took part in, when todays miltary are so very quick to write books or appear in front of some camera or other

Peter R-B
Lancashire

[Blacksheep]

My own Dad often spoke about his time in the Royal Navy but with never a hint of combat. He only opened up about combat when he reached his eighties. He actually burst into tears when telling me about a night-time fight with E-boats off Cap d'Antifer when some of his messmates were killed.

[John Eacott]

So your father was on Beafighters ? 272 sqn was a Beaufighter sqaudron.

So was 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron. Dad gets very morose about the allocation of (almost) every North Africa Beaufighter story being 272, when he and his mates on 603 did so much :D

[Peter-RB]

Hello John,
I hope your Dad will not be too sad about me bringing up 272, I now know my Dad was also with two other Squadrons whilst out there, and then he stayed with the 272 boys untill demob, I cant but help to think your Father and mine quite possibly walked or flew past or with each other being as how they were both in the same theatre of conflict, and as you and I are within a good drink of the same age range.. that makes it even spookier! Give my regards to your father, they are all preciouse men those who are still with us.

I watched a history programme about the original SAS men a few nights ago and was supprised to hear one of the originals say they were stationed when first being officially formed up at a camp at EDKU which I thought was an aerodrome, but I suppose the Army also used the same places and equipment even then.

Peter R-B
Lancashire