A Colleagues Story, True or False?

[DeepC]

Folks,

A colleague of mine's Dad flew Sunderland flying boats from Pembroke Dock in the 50's. Said colleague told me a story which he says his Dad told him.

The story is this....

In 1951(ish) it was decided to do a round-the-world tour using a Shorts Sunderland flying boat in shortish hops around the globe. A lot of crew wanted to participate in this jolly (including my colleagues father) but obviously only a few could go. The pilot chosen for the first leg was one, 'Teddy' Bear, an American. The first leg was to fly from Pembroke Dock to Gibralter. The aircraft never arrived. It was later found crashed in the desert somewhere.

Can anyone confirm or deny the story?

Many thanks

DeepC

[niknak]

Unless he overshot the Med', where's the desert en route to Gibralter from the UK?

[DeepC]

Agreed. Seems a bit of a navigational blunder.

Any others?

Dan

[jabberwok]

Echoes of the Lady be Good here..

Lady be Good (http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/wwii/lbg.htm)

[DeepC]

I had another chat with my colleague and he is convinced that the story is true. Is there anyone on PPRuNe who flew sunderlands from Pembroke Dock in that sort of time frame?

Regards

DeepC

[henry crun]

DeepC: If such an event did take place there would have surely been some publicity about it.

It is hardly the sort of occurence that would have demanded secrecy, and a widespread search must have been reported somewhere.

Do you have access to Flight or Aeroplane from that era ? a library perhaps.

[DeepC]

Mike,

Thanks for that. The timescale works but I can find absolutely no reference to any accident involving loss-of-life with Sunderlands from Pembroke Dock in the 1950s.

Would there be a list of airframe numbers and their fates somewhere on this information superhighway?

Not that there is any great reason to get excited. Just idle curiosity on my part.

My colleague's Dad reckons that the rest of the squadron were rather peeved as due to the secrecy surrounding the plane's dissapearance there was no memorial service for the crew.

Seems interesting that the pilot was an American in the RAF in the 50's. How likely is that.

Cheers

DeepC

Edit: Henry, I can't understand the secrecy that is alledged to have taken place following the accident. Seems especially difficult if the pilot was an American on a secondment type arrangement.

[Milt]

Flying Boat History

It just so happens that a 78 minute DVD/Videotape documentary has just been launched Downunder covering most of the British and Oz use of Flying Boats including that of the PBY Catalinas in and around the Pacific.

Attending the launch was Sir Richard Kingsland who as a RAAF pilot from 1936 went to RAF Pembroke Dock in 1939 to collect a Sunderland for the RAAF. WW2 intervened and the RAAF/RAF inserted a squadron of Sunderlands into RAF Coastal Command as No 10 Sqdn for the duration. They managed to clobber 9 U boats and had quite a few losses themselves including a 'ditching' beside a runway resulting from a hole in the hull.

Copies available from Film Affairs P/L - contact - [email protected]

[DeepC]

My colleague's father was on National Service with the RAF and was originally based in Ireland. He then moved to Pembroke Dock. He was an engineer and he was normally asigned to Sunderland "Z for Zebra" which as I have found out was ML824 and flew the last RAF operational sortie in Europe of the second world war earlier in it's career. My colleague will enquire as to his Squadron to narrow it down further. Seems ML824 was part of 201 Squadron during the war.

From the information he has given, it seems kosher that he was actually there or thereabouts in the timescales given. He is now 74 which would put him about 20 in 1951. Makes sense with National Service conscription as far as I understand it.

Cheers

DeepC

[PPRuNe Pop]

It is close expecially as NS conscripts were enlisted at 18 so he would be have been demobbed in 1952(ish!).