PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II
View Single Post
Old 28th Jul 2009, 11:03
  #978 (permalink)  
cliffnemo
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: LIVERPOOL
Posts: 401
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes on 0 Posts
Odds And Ends

Stop press .
After many threatening emails and phone calls.(and Offcom say no more than five days.) after two weeks I received my M.A.C Number, and informed changeover date will be August the third.

Gypsy.
Great to hear from you again. I have also just had my new Sky + H.D box and H.D television installed, and very pleased with it. Still waiting for Broadband change.
Cliffnemo Where are you?
Don’t quite understand the question. Herewith possible answers.
Location? - Liverpool or La La Land.
Where have I been the last few days? - Battling with Sky and B.T


ICARE ,
I think ‘Loves ‘ refers to our love of the A.T.6, of solo aerobatics., and most of our instructors .Far be it from me to have anything to do with the beautiful ladies of Ponca City, but back to more serious matters., such as training at Bottesford.

GOOSEQUILL.
There were two different stores systems in the R.A.F, system A, and system B. System B was used by stores in war zones. Under system A, modelled on a system used by Woolworths pre war, each stock sheet was issued by a senior officer numbered, date stamped, and would be very difficult to remove or alter,- in war zones stock sheets were unsigned, so complete records could be removed and replaced with a better looking copy. Any ‘Store bashers’ out there to confirm or dispute?

Our next flight after our trip to the Scilly Isles was to practice high level bombing, all on MK1 & MK 111 Lancasters This was carried at our bombing range at Alkborough, situated at the side of the river Trent, South of its confluence with the Humber. This took two hours so I would guess this would include returning to our airfield to ‘bomb up’ again more than once. The following days we had two hours exercise 12 (Landing into wind) . Two hours on the Link Trainer. Two hours fifteen minutes high level bombing and fighter affiliation . One hour instrument flying. One hour navigation , course flying.. Five hours twenty minutes a cross country and high level bombing . This was followed by a trip to Tours, of six hours twenty five minutes. Which I think would be a diversion raid dropping ‘Windows’ Most readers will know about the use of ‘Windows’ , but for those who do not, Strips of sliver paper were folded and packed in large bundles which when dropped from an aircraft, unfolded and floated down to earth, each strip would appear on German radar as an aircraft, and hopefully confuse the operators. The F/E removed the binding from each pack before dropping it down the flare shoot by his right foot. I think this must have been a diversion raid, as on return we had to divert to Dishforth due to bad vis at Bottesford and landed together with hundreds of other aircraft.. Think I may have said previously that this happened at Hemswell but my log book says , Bottesford. Sorry. Another cross country flight of five hours fifty minutes, which also included high level bombing , and training on H2S. One more high level bombing exercise , giving a total of fifty four hours, after which we were posted to Hemswell.

I have just found a map headed Antwerp, and thought I would reproduce it below as it shows a track penciled in but with no course, so must have been used for map reading by a previous user. As it possibly shows the route an aircraft took to tow gliders to or drop parachutists at, Arnhem, I thought it might be of interest to some people. The penciled line may be faint (below), but it shows a track outward bound over Malines, to a T.P near Leende, then N.E over Helmond, to a T.P at Pannerden and N.W to a T.P at Hoissen just South of Arnhem. Would this be the place where the Gliders were released ?. The track then shows they return in a straight line over Hertogenbosch, and North of Antwerp.. ( I must be a kleptomaniac)

Don't forfget control + on Vista will enlarge pic.

<a href="http://s274.photobucket.com/albums/jj248/cliffordleach/?action=view&current=FINALARNHEMMAP246.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj248/cliffordleach/th_FINALARNHEMMAP246.jpg" border="0" alt="ARNHEM MAP" ></a>
I have to prepare my Beach Buggy now for the International show at R.A.F Woodvale., next Sunday. One item of great interest to the public is a Rolls Royce Merlin engine which is periodically started and run , but certainly not ‘Put through the gate’ My grandson thinks the noise is ‘wicked’, think that is the equivalent of ‘wizzo’.
cliffnemo is offline