Pom Pax,
How interesting that you should mention Mepal. My late father in law served on No 75 Squadron as Groundcrew on Stirlings there, early in WW2. He always had some great memories of the place, and particularly the Kiwi's. It was his association with the aircraft that tempted me to purchase "Stirling in action with the Airborne Forces by Dennis Williams" recently, for my Kindle. It particularly follows 190 and 620 Squadrons at Fairford later in the war, in their support of covert and invasion troops. The big bird was certainly an asset as a transport/glider tug and it strikes me that they were the forerunners of our present day SF Flights. I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in that part of the war, and it seems to be opening up some good stuff on Arnhem (Operation Market) in which they were heavily involved. I'm struggling to imagine the Lysander with the big gun turret though.
Smudge
