This is my father-in-law, Harry Brown, who was a Wireless operator/Air Gunner on 293 Sqn:
He was part of this crew:
Front Row L-R Douglas Stembridge, Alf Rawlings, Ken "Wambo" Warmsley, Back Row Bob Birch, Harry Brown, Clive Hogan
The pilot, Flt Lt Rawlings, was the only officer in the crew. Clive Hogan was the navigator and the other four were all wireless operators and/or air gunners. From the nature of the work it seems likely that having lots of eyes looking outside were pretty important.
Here is another picture of some of the crew in front of their aircraft:
The lifeboat was slung under the fuselage, half in and half out of the bomb bay.
Other names Harry remembers are:
Tony Goldspink
Alan Foxcroft
? Rose
? Heywood
John Close
Bob Coleman
Ron Wigham
John Browm
Harry Day
Sid Cottam
He remembers that when they joined the squadron they had to fly their Warwicks out to North Africa, leaving Redruth and timing the flight so that they would be over the Bay of Biscay in darkness, to arrive in Rabat (Morocco) before moving on to Blida. After that he says that various elements of the squadron were detached to different airfields as they followed the war through Italy, staying close to where their services were likely to be needed.
Finally, here is a picture of what we think is the same aircraft posted above by Que Pee, which Harry was aboard when it ditched. This picture is not too clear I'm afraid, but it shows the salvage crew at work on it some time later. Note the person on top of the D/F housing!
