Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II

[MPN11]

Hi, Sandisondaughter (https://www.pprune.org/members/294159-sandisondaughter) ... I'll bite! You've obviously cracked "Wireless operator". "Lnr 18 A 55" may be a specialist trade skills code, relating to specific equipment?

1 W S ~ No. 1 Wireless School
The "3 DL and S.P." and "1 Sal Section" is really obscure, especially as it relates to the immediate post-War environment.
"Ruin Pk" may relate to a Park [ie dump!] for damaged equipment.
HE for Desk 2 ~ Home Establishment for [Personnel} Desk 2.

Over to the others! )

[MPN11]

Thanks again MPN11, That's a possibility, I'm just wondering now if it could be 'G & IL', rather than 'Q & IL'. I (think!) I've attached an, image.... what do you think? Cheers, A
The suspense is killing me! We NEED the picture!

If it’s G and not Q, how about Ghurka and Indian Labour? We need Danny42C to be feeling better!

[messybeast]

Hi, Sandisondaughter (https://www.pprune.org/members/294159-sandisondaughter) ... I'll bite! You've obviously cracked "Wireless operator". "Lnr 18 A 55" may be a specialist trade skills code, relating to specific equipment?

1 W S ~ No. 1 Wireless School
The "3 DL and S.P." and "1 Sal Section" is really obscure, especially as it relates to the immediate post-War environment.
"Ruin Pk" may relate to a Park [ie dump!] for damaged equipment.
HE for Desk 2 ~ Home Establishment for [Personnel} Desk 2.

Over to the others! )

MPN11,
There is a list of RFC abbreviations at RFC Abbreviations (http://www.airhistory.org.uk/rfc/abbreviations.html)
"HE" is Home Establishment
"1 Sal Section" I took to be 1 Salvage Section, although the abbreviation is given as SS. Would be an obvious task post hostilities.
No "Ruin Pk" but there are "Rec Pk", Reception Park, and "Rep Pk", Repair Park, both described as Depots.

Messy

[MPN11]

Interesting link! We agree on Home Establishment!

Salvage ... of course! There would have been massive effort involved in that area, on the battlefields and in the rear. And your Repair Park leads naturally on from that. And regardless of Trade, there was a lot of manpower available to that essential task. I could guess, as a Wireless Operator, he could have indentified what was potentially repairable and what was just junk.

There’s so much focus on the poor sods who had to do the fighting, that the ‘rear echelon’ get forgotten. I’ve recently read (on Kindle) the memoirs of a soldier who spent the War loading and unloading, by hand, tons and tons and tons of stuff in work parties. ISTR he was Non-Combatant Corps.

My grandfather was a Leading Air Mechanic in the RNAS (later RAF!) who seemed to have spent the War repairing aircraft, with 9 Sqn RNAS but often at Dunkerque and other places. I still have his pipe [hallmarked silver band] , on which he carved all his locations. I smoked it for many years, until a crack in the bowl made me decide to preserve it as family history.

Furnes 1917, Bray Dunes, Dunkerque and a few other places.

http://i319.photobucket.com/albums/mm468/atco5473/PPRuNe%20ATC/P1040975.jpg

[johnfairr]

There is a very fine reference book, "RAF Squadrons" by Wing Commander C G Jefford that gives details of location and aircraft operated by squadron and dates. I've had a flick through the 2nd edition and all the activities of 15 Squadron are listed. Forgive me for not copying it in, it is rather lengthy and detailed.
Interestingly, Jeff Jefford was my course commander at 6 FTS RAF Finningley in 1973 on Nav school. A fine chap who also drew excellent aircraft.

Good luck in your searches.

[MPN11]

According to my Calendar, today is Danny42C's 97th birthday. As many here know, he has not been too well recently, and his posting rate has declined considerably as a result. Whilst I hope he's still reading, this Forum is a shallower pool without his insights and wonderful narratives. Anyway, before I start embarrassing him, I'll just say ...
HAPPY BIRTHDAY
DANNY42C
and get well soon!
Oh, and thanks as always to Mary!

[Chugalug2]

Hear, hear, MPN11! Danny is in all our thoughts I'm sure, and here's wishing him a speedy recovery and a full return to the fray, not only to this his own very special thread but to all those he has infected with his wit and wisdom. Get well soon, Danny, and cash in that sick note ASAP!

Oh, and congratulations on another click on the odometer that promises of a third digit activation. Happy Birthday Danny. :ok:

[India Four Two]

I've not been to this thread recently so I wasn't aware that Danny was not well.

He and I exchanged emails a while ago and just like his posts here, you would never guess his age from the emails he sent me.

Happy Birthday, Danny!

Get well soon.

[Brian 48nav]

Danny,

Have a very happy birthday - leave some cake in the crewroom for the rest of us to fight over!

Only 3 years to The Telegram!

[ian16th]

Danny,
Many Happy Returns.

[Icare9]

Get well soon and have a happy birthday. We do miss you, but take it steady!

[Ormeside28]

A very happy Birthday Danny from Ormeside. Big parade tomorrow. Bonfire on the Orme summit tomorrow evening. Kind regards.

[exMudmover]

Many Happy Returns Danny, and get well soon.

Yours Aye

ExMudmover

[FantomZorbin]

A very happy birthday Danny and be very careful of the candles on the cake!! With very best wishes, FZ

[ValMORNA]

Belatedly, just sneaking in to wish our 'Host with the Most' a very happy anniversary today. Congratulations on another successful year, Danny.

[Taphappy]

Happy Birthday Danny. Get well soon.
Ad Multos Annos,
All the best.
Taphappy

[Ddraig Goch]

Can I add my best wishes for your anniversary and a speedy return to the crew room.

[Sandisondaughter]

Thank you very much - really appreciate your time in replying

[Sandisondaughter]

All beginning to make sense with your help - many thanks

[Sandisondaughter]

Thanks very much John - I'll order that through the Library. This thread is so interesting and helpful!

[Warmtoast]

Sandisondaughter

Air Britain's book 'The Squadrons of the Royal Air Force' contains some details of 15 Sqn
No.15 Squadron was formed at Farnborough on 1 March 1915, from a nucleus supplied by No. 1 Reserve squadron and after training moved to France in December with B.E.2c's as a reconnaissance unit. Artillery spotting and photography occupied the squadron for the rest of the war, the obsolete B.E.2c's being replaced by R.E.8s in June 1917. During the German offensive of March 1918, No. 15 was pressed into ground-attack missions against the advancing enemy troops but resumed its corps reconnaissance role after the crisis had passed. In February 1919, the squadron returned to the UK and disbanded on 31 December 1919.
Their bases as below.

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/800x647/image1_zpsxhn2jegk_012e86ef031a75d2daffd5c906c86de566ce553f. jpg

Hope this helps.

WT

[MPN11]

May I very respectfully suggest posting condolences etc. on Danny's dedicated thread? Whilst Danny may have left the room, we still have work to do here helping others unravel the past.

I see the Mods are already moving posts, and a Sticky thread has been created..

[danbenreiter]

Franek.
When I was a staff Wop at Topcliffe in 1946/47 there were a few Polish pilots based there and I flew with most of them on many occasions. Names that spring to mind are F/Lt Kula who unfortunately was killed as a result of a midair collision of two Wellingtons in 1948, WO Marian Zawodny, WO Stepien and WO Ted Poludniak.
They were all great guys.

Please message me again, I've cleared my inbox

[Franek Grabowski]

Please message me again, I've cleared my inbox
Me or taphappy?

[danbenreiter]

Sorry. I should have been more specific. That was for Taphappy. He was kind enough to send me info about my grandfather Marion Zawodny.

[Sandisondaughter]

Thank you very much for your help Warmtoast. I think a little tour of France may be in order for me some time soon.

[Warmtoast]

Thank you very much for your help Warmtoast. I think a little tour of France may be in order for me some time soon.

I wish you luck. Apart from St Omer and Senlis the others are totally unknown to me - I suspect some are no more than fields in farmland!

WT

[NutLoose]

Airfields

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1n6YlZfWZ8WVsV0rT_UCDYdY6GOLjtKxa&ll=50.36837415584327%2C2.3729819444445184&z=9


https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/238359-physical-location-of-rfc-airfields-in-france-and-belgium/

[Sandisondaughter]

Airfields

https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1n6YlZfWZ8WVsV0rT_UCDYdY6GOLjtKxa&ll=50.36837415584327%2C2.3729819444445184&z=9


https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/238359-physical-location-of-rfc-airfields-in-france-and-belgium/
Amazing resources NutLoose - thanks so much for your help

[MPN11]

Re-reading the engraving on my grandfather's WW1 RNAS pipe, I see he served at ...Furnes [1917]
Dunkirk
Izel-les-Hameau
Bray Dunes
Cuizancourt
... and, almost illegible ...
Leffrinckhoucke

[Geriaviator]

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/950x713/front_page_cold_war_0990d6f268d3aeb8ff50839162df505fb3a103e1 .jpg

TODAY we say our last farewell to our dear friend Danny42C, who has been the life and soul of this thread for the past six years. His followers wish to thank PPrune for giving him the honour of his own obituary thread at the start of this Military Aviation section, reflecting his hundreds of posts which provide, as the Mods say, a living history of aviation.

As Danny (Dennis O’Leary) today makes his last journey to St. Mary’s Church in Middlesbrough, we are pleased to announce the second volume of his memoirs entitled Danny and the Cold War. Earlier this year his collated posts were published as an e-book, In with a Vengeance. This second volume encompasses his post-war RAF career; may it form a lasting tribute to his Service and the long and happy life of an eloquent, witty and delightful gentleman.

It tells how a young man struggled to cope with office life after going from dive-bomber to desk; it was no wonder that after three years he rejoined the RAF to fly his favourite Spitfires at last and then the RAF's first jet fighters. When his flying career was ended in 1954 by a persistent lung infection, Dennis transferred to Air Traffic Control and served in Cold War Germany as well as RAF bases around the UK until his retirement in 1972.

As long retired publishers my wife and I were very happy that Danny was able to read his second book a fortnight before he died, and to say that as with the first book, we would very much appreciate your donation of say £10 direct to his favourite charities, the RAF Benevolent Fund and Marie Curie Cancer Care, as per his last wishes. Please send me, Geriaviator, a PM with your email address -- I can’t send you the book unless I have an address to send it to!

Three post-war years in the Civil Service and the prospect of pushing paper for a further 30 years was losing its appeal, but it was the Tale of Two Rats which was the last straw. Told as only Dennis could, this is why he rejoined the RAF.https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/950x200/rat_post_04b8fbba4e2da2e5a3bd2091a6fa9fca602c1c25.jpg

[ricardian]

WW2 pilot - funeral but no family (https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/raf-hero-died-salford-no-15470967)
Now Flying Officer Walter Bentley RAF has died, aged 97.
His funeral will take place at Agecroft Cemetery at 1pm on Monday, December 10.
He worked at the CWS furniture factory on Dumers Lane in Radcliffe - and later as a bus driver for Salford City Transport.
His hobby was building model railway engines.
Few knew of his courage in the heat of one of the most notorious battles of the Second World War. He didn't like 'fuss'.
Walter has donated his medals and his flight logbook to Broughton House.
Walter lived at Alderwood Care Home in Boothstown, Salford.



Walter has no surviving family and only a handful of friends.

[MPN11]

It seems 97 is a dangerous age.

God Speed, Walter.

[goofer3]

And speed he will; "He has left instructions for his funeral, including that the funeral car must not drive slowly, because he hated getting stuck behind a funeral cortege. He was quite a character."

[Chugalug2]

Yes, that tickled me too, goofer3 :ok:

He force landed his burning Stirling at Nijmegen and his entire crew walked safely away (they were supply dropping at Arnhem). Salford Veterans Assn didn't know about him. We didn't know about him. I'm sure that Danny would have been keen to get him online and posting here.

Well, they can compare notes now in the great crew room in the sky.

Thank you for your service, Walter. Fly free now, your duty done.

[Geriaviator]

Our sorely missed Senior Crewman Danny/Dennis had a great sense of humour but highly valued his privacy. Going through our old files, I have discovered a few of the texts we used to exchange in Latin.

SALVE DENNIUS! Greetings, Dennis! I began to celebrate his 93rd birthday. Roma Dionysius sum, he replied. Nit-picking I know, but I am Dionysius in the tongue of the Caesars. Will send you a picture to prove it.

At last, I thought, we’ll get to see what this man looks like. And then he sent this:

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/198x128/dionysius_e044842e56b77826c85d9fe744f9976159156eb7.jpg

[JENKINS]

Pretty sure that I may have divined the classical bent in the posts of the 42C. His school, judging from notes we exchanged, was Saint Joseph's College Blackpool. 'Joe's Jailhouse,' as once broadcast on Radio Luxembourg, with the broadcast leading to expulsions from the Roman Catholic establishment I am told.

[FantomZorbin]

I must admit that Danny's classical references made me grateful that I hadn't thrown away my Latin primer and dictionary … O Level Latin could only take one so far!!

[FantomZorbin]

Lancaster(?) Wings
When I was a child I remember a friend of my father describing a flight he took as a Flight Engineer in what may have been a Lancaster/Halifax. The airframe was to be over stressed in order to reveal causes of failures in the wing structure. The airfield was a company field somewhere just to the north Of London.
Has anyone ever heard/read of such a trial?

[DHfan]

I've never heard of such a trial and I would have thought somebody could have come up with a better plan that didn't involve risking a flight crew.
That said, if it was a Lancaster I assume it would be done nearer the factory but if it was a Halifax, Handley-Page's airfield was at Radlett which is just north of London.

[FantomZorbin]

DHfan
Thank you .. I've been racking my brains trying to remember the airfield - Radlett it was, so it must have been a Halifax.
I agree it seems a strange idea but maybe the exigencies of wartime etc.. The chap involved was a very level headed individual and never one to embellish stories. It's still odd though.

[Fareastdriver]

Aeroplanes built at that time were fairly robust. A Varsity was barrel rolled by a student and it was unknown until his co-pilot, a junior student, let it slip at a late hour in the bar.

They inspected the aircraft and if they looked very closely they could see the ripples in the top skin of the mainplane.

One scrapped student; one scrapped Varsity.

[Geriaviator]

I never heard of Halifax wing structural problems, nor of any with its transport successor the Hastings which used the same wing-engine-undercarriage package. Your trials might have been the major tests about 1943 which followed a series of stall-spin accidents. I think they found that the starboard fin and rudder would stall under certain airflow conditions and the empennage was successfully modified to avoid this.

The problem might have been mentioned by Reg Levy in his posts seven or eight years ago?

[DHfan]

IIRC, early Halifaxes had problems with the rudder(s) locking over which was traced to the swept leading edge of the fin. Later ones had a much larger oblong fin and rudder.

Radlett was easy for me to remember - I passed it every week or two as a kid travelling to see both sets of grandparents. Despite now living in Derbyshire, I'm Hertfordshire born and bred.
For a small largely agricultural county that a lot of people have never heard of, with Hatfield, Radlett, Leavesden and Aldenham an awful lot of aircraft were produced there.

[Wander00]

Fareastdriver - well stude I know who tried to barrel roll a Varsity was not "scrapped" went to V-Force

[Fareastdriver]

Unusual. The multi engine students normally went to transport in its various guises. The V Force was supplied by poor sods like me who were from the jet AFS.
Sending him to V Force must have been a punishment.

[sycamore]

FED, I agree with Wander,knew him well...

DHF,I suspect that the aircraft would have been instrumented with `strain gauges` `g meters.,etc and a series of gradually increasing manoeuvres carried out to determine actual stresses involved ,in support of the designers calculations....

[sandringham1]

Lancaster's suffered from fin failure, the structure was sufficiently strong for normal use but when corkscrewing was introduced as a way of avoiding night fighters fins started to fail due to the forces from side slipping, strengthening mods were introduced. Perhaps the trials were to try and replicate the loads. All Lancaster's were either built to the later standard or so modified by mid 1943.

Richard

[FantomZorbin]

I suspect that the aircraft would have been instrumented with `strain gauges` `g meters.,etc and a series of gradually increasing manoeuvres carried out to determine actual stresses involved ,in support of the designers calculations
Sycamore,
I agree, the chap concerned mentioned that the trial comprised a number of dives amongst other manoeuvres. Unfortunately, I was a young FZ eaves dropping on an adult conversation so not in a position to question him further.

[ancientaviator62]

Begs the question of how many Halifax were lost 'corkscrewing' due to fin stall before the modified version was introduced. Of course we can never know.

[1066]

I was at Oakington a couple of courses after the attempted Varsity barrel roll. We understood the pilot chickened out when inverted and it was the co-pilot who closed the throttles when the a/c was heading vertically down which reduced the rate of speed increase and reduced the height loss during the pull through. Hearsay I know! Can anyone confirm?
1066

[harrym]

Geriaviator-

Re your #12544, I did actually witness occurrence of a Hastings main spar failure, though whether it should be classified as a flying accident is perhaps arguable. One day in the late fifties I was sitting in my Hastings at the holding point for Abingdon's RW 08, watching another on late finals. It seemed a bit on the high side and the attitude did not look quite right, indeed at around the 1 ½ mile point it assumed a most pronounced nose up posture then almost immediately made a partial recovery but with a fairly high rate of descent. Approaching the threshold, no attempt to check this rate was made so it landed heavily in a three point attitude just short of the runway before bouncing once onto the hard stuff.

At the moment of impact I noticed quite clearly that while the left side oleos went to full travel, not only did those on the right do the same but the whole wheel arch casting moved visibly upwards. “Something's busted” I thought to myself, and sure enough as the Hastings decelerated up the runway it gradually tipped over as the starboard wing twisted upwards until the tip dragged along the ground, thus arresting further progress.

As I recall, the actual point of fracture was at the junction of main spar with the centre section. The aircraft was of course a write-off, while the reason for this quite unnecessary accident is lost to my memory thought no doubt is recorded somewhere. The flight was for training purposes, though why the instructor/examiner did not take corrective action I don't know; suprisingly, he continued in post afterwards.

[roving]

harrym is this incident?


https://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19550726-0

[harrym]

Yes Roving, looks like it as I see from my log book that I was indeed flying at Abingdon on that day although a couple of the details look a bit odd. For one thing I quite definitely saw no ground loop, what actually happened is that the aircraft tilted gradually to the right as it decelerated along the runway, finally running onto the grass at a slight angle as the wing contacted the ground; the other oddity is only three crew on board, the missing members being nav & signaller as the Hastings could not be operated without a flight engineer. This was not really legal, although I must admit to once having flown a short Beverley air test with only a co-pilot; other than feeling a bit lonely, there was no problem!

[Franek Grabowski]

The test of Halifax were conducted in early 1943 by a Polish test pilot Stanisław Riess. He did a series of flights to find the reason of structural failures of Halifaxes, and on his last test, on 4 February 1943, the aircraft disintegrated in the air, with the loss of Riess and crew. As far as I have read, the problem was in the wrong ballance of the rudder, which caused uncontrollable falling leaf, and in the effect structural failure of the tail.
I am always feeling cold, when I realise that the man just went for suicidal mission.

[reefrat]

I have been bracing my self for years and pages and pages for the sad news of Danny's departure, and suddenly without even a by your leave he has pissed off. All I can say is Devastated

[FantomZorbin]

Franek, it looks as if my father's friend was very, very lucky not to have been aboard that last flight!

[Franek Grabowski]

Franek, it looks as if my father's friend was very, very lucky not to have been aboard that last flight!
If he was to fly the mission, then he was indeed. If he was flying such sorties, he was still very lucky. It could happen at any moment!

[Geriaviator]

Harry, you had me rather worried there, my father who had to have one Hastings on the line for Met flights at 0800 every morning said that the aircraft was built like a truck and gave very few problems on the airframe side. But I suppose a determined pupil will find a way to break any machine, aircraft or truck!

[Chugalug2]

Geriaviator:-
I suppose a determined pupil will find a way to break any machine, aircraft or truck!

It still astounds me that my instructor put me in charge of a Hastings at Thorney Island as a young PO fresh out of AFS in 1963. His place, having climbed out of the a/c on a running change, was taken by a fellow u/t co-pilot. Off we went for a take-off, circuit, and full stop landing, and somehow survived to tell the tale. Such events (ie Co-Pilot Solos) were published in the flying programme the previous day. That gave families sufficient time to prepare a picnic and set them selves out at a judicially safe distance from the runway to watch the fun and games. The full stop bit of the landings was merely the anti climax, after much kangarooing beforehand in some cases. Fortunately this tradition was made known to me only after the event, so the only person I felt I had to please was my instructor who was patiently waiting for our safe return. Oh, and the poor unfortunates incarcerated alongside me of course.

The self confidence that such P1 time engendered was a great help in learning to cope with the a/c, and was reinforced on the Squadrons on a monthly CPS basis. The irony is that u/t co-pilots on the much less demanding (for landing that is) Hercules could only log P2 time, as the N/W steering tiller was only operable from the LHS. That also meant that a financial saving in training costs could be made by cutting out co-pilot solo time, a long sought after ambition of the bean counters, fiercely resisted until the tiller issue clinched their case.

[ancientaviator62]

Chug,
as I recall the rest of the course used to gather to watch as well, especially those nervous co-pilots whose turn it was next. As you say the Hercules was a less demanding a/c to land. Even I managed it in the sim !

[Brian 48nav]

Chugalug,

Co-pilots did do a solo on the very early Herc' courses - discussed at length on the 'Global Aviation - 60 years of the Hercules' thread - look at the posts around No. 4500.

Regards B48N

[harrym]

Yes Geriaviator, I would not dispute the Hastings' rugged build quality and indeed the only in-flight accident due to structural failure I can think of occurred late in its life and was due to failure of an elevator hinge bracket. Up to about 1960, when there was a radical (and long overdue) review of some of the exercises required by the continuation training syllabus, accurate performance of steep turns was a prime requirement despite the caution in Pilots' Notes specifying ".........manoeuvres appropriate to a transport aircraft". In the Mk 1 particularly such handling resulted in some pretty positive 'g' being applied, and one does wonder if this contributed to a gradual build-up of fatigue in the affected components.

[Chugalug2]

Thanks for the info Brian48nav. Sounds very disorientating, having to switch seats from the one you are learning!
My Herc flying started August 68 and I heard no mention of Herc CPS. Learning the LHS was quite sufficient thanks. Switching seats would have led to needless complication, in my view. I imagine that much the same conclusion was reached at the time.
Pity though, and well done those Co's who scored P1 time on those early Herc courses.:ok:

[ValMORNA]

harrym

Your post #12565, would that be Hastings TG602, temporarily based at RAF Fayid, on 12th Jan 1953? I understand it was doing an air-test after some tech ;problem. It was carrying (possibly) a number of Paratroops to give them air experience.

[ICM]

Copilot Solo was also in vogue in the Argosy force in 1966, when I started, but I've no recollection of any such sortie from around mid-67, when I guess it must have been phased out across the MRT force.

But back to WW2 and the Halifax. The Handley Page history by C H Barnes covers Halifax fin development in detail, and mentions "rudder stalling which caused spiral instability with two engines dead on one side and had led to many crashes on final approach at night." Pretty much as Franek mentioned, above. Several shapes were investigated and that finally used on later Mk IIs and production Mk IIIs had a fin area some 50% larger than on early aircraft.

[Fareastdriver]

The Hastings elevator failure was TG577 on 6th July 1965.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Baldon_air_crash

[Icare9]

Thanks to Danny42C we all know a lot more about that strange Vultee Vengeance and now this appears....
https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Vultee-Vengeance-in-Battle-Hardback/p/15263
There have been previous books, so is this a rehash or new material?

[ValMORNA]

harrym:

Ref my 12567, ASN report on TG602 states, Quote:

The Hastings transport plane climbed away in steep turns after takeoff. At a height of about 2000 feet the starboard elevator broke away, followed by the port elevator and the tailplane. The aircraft lost control and crashed into the ground.
Investigation revealed that a certain modification which included the installation of increased diameter bolts in the tail section had not been carried out on TG602.

[Fantome]

Them plane makers must have taken the old dictum "simplicate and add more lightness" a bit too far.

[harrym]

No ValMORNA , I was referring to the July 1965 accident as quoted in Fareastdriver's # 12658. I had forgotten about TG 602 which anyway appears to have been due to an incorrectly installed mod, for near simultaneous loss of both elevators would unlikely to have been be the result of fatigue - as was definitely the case with TG 577.

[Geriaviator]

Icare9:
Danny mentioned earlier this year that a new edition of Peter Smith's Vengeance book was being produced. I think he provided some material and corrections. Presumably this is the second edition.

[Geriaviator]

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/850x619/stingray_fed7778b7cee9d4b495bc42b826c02ab486848a7.jpg

Leisure activity at RAF Khormaksar in 1951 included swimming from the one-mile beach on the east side of the peninsula, forbidden due to the risks from shark, sting ray, sea snake and/or sting rays, or turning the tables and attacking the wildlife instead. Airmen from my father's section hooked this unfortunate sting ray beside the salt pans north of the airfield. Found this old pic in attic junk ... The beach is now a tourist attraction with sunbeds etc. but I'm not sure that one could enjoy a relaxing holiday there.

[topgas]

Obituary for Sqn Ldr John M'Kenzie-Hall in today's Telegraph here (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/12/20/squadron-leader-john-mkenzie-hall-helicopter-pilot-carried-troops/), but behind a pay wall. He was almost a contemporary of Danny, a couple of years younger, trained in the US and posted as a flying instructor to No1 British Flying Training School at Terrell Air Force Base in Texas. He returned to Britain in July 1944, transferred to the Fleet Air Arm, flying Hellcat fighters with 891 Squadron. He was demobilised in 1947, rejoining the RAF a year later as a flying instructor before transferring to helicopters. He flew with 194 Squadron in Malaya, managing 16 flights in 7 hours in August 1954. He was conducting trials in Cyprus in 1956 when instructed to prepare to fly on to aircraft carriers. He flew the first wave of Royal Marines in the Suez invasion. The following year he set up the helicopter section of the Queen's Flight and commanded it for the next seven years. I'm sure he would have had some interesting stories.

[Fantome]

Talk of flying Hastings and Hercs single pilot reminds me of one day at Perth (W.A.) Airport in early 1965 when an Ace Air Freighters 749 Constellation pulled up on a very quiet freight apron. After shutting down, the front door opened. Then a character, who put me in mind of how I imagined 'Screwball' Beurling was in his heyday, let down a light collapsible ladder. After shutting the door he descended the ladder and set off with a battered leather bag slung over his shoulder in the direction of the cab rank. In those days I was a rather shy and retiring, wet behind the ears sprog commercial pilot, flying a clapped out Cessna 182 for an earth-moving outfit, whereas if it were today, I would not hesitate to attempt to engage him in conversation.

[Fantome]

JENKINS at #12538 -
Pretty sure that I may have divined the classical bent in the posts of the 42C. His school, judging from notes we exchanged, was Saint Joseph's College Blackpool. 'Joe's Jailhouse,' as once broadcast on Radio Luxembourg, with the broadcast leading to expulsions from the Roman Catholic establishment I am told.

Maybe that is why Danny/Dennis did not like his given name 'Joseph'. This he mentioned once to me in a PM.

[Chugalug2]

A Merry Christmas to all the occupants of our trusty old Nissan hut crew room. Drawn together by those who have gone before, we now treasure their memories and give thanks for the technology, in stark contrast to the rusty paint-peeled corrugated iron and mismatched battered armchairs, that enabled them to tell their individual stories of those dangerous years now receding so fast into history. Just as they could recall those years with such amazing clarity, so we will always remember them.

Fantome, the same Ace Freighters Connie (or perhaps its sister) was immobilised on the Changi Western Dispersal for some weeks, with the cowling of the #2(?) engine removed and various bits of the engine removed. Evidently the replacement bits were on order but days passed and none came. The seasonal rains in the meantime gradually washed off the Ace of Spades insignia from the fins, revealing an Aer Lingus Shamrock beneath. In the end the various parts that had been removed were replaced, the engines started, and trailing copious amounts of oily smoke from the said engine she taxied past our Sqn HQ to the Rwy 20 holding point, a brief runup and mag check, line up and then take off. As soon as it was airborne that prop was feathered and the engine shut down, the a/c setting heading for its next destination (Madras I think). Just another day at the office...

[Brian 48nav]

Merry Christmas all. I, and many others I guess, will raise a glass in memory of Danny later today.

[ICM]

I don't know if it was an Ace Freighters aircraft, but there was a tale around when I got to Khormaksar in September 1966 about a charter Connie that had been shutting down engines as it came down the Red Sea sometime in the previous year, and was nearing the end of its tether as Aden hoved into view. The hydraulics must also have been affected as a wheels-up landing was inevitable. The pilot was said to have been aware that the Company was on its uppers, with its future depending on keeping this airframe serviceable so, on final approach, any remaining engines were feathered with the props motored to minimise damage on impact. He landed on the sand by the runway, satisfied he'd done all he could ...... until the intervention of the RAF fire crew who attacked the fuselage with axes to get the crew out from this stricken aircraft.

I've often wondered how true that story was, but I offer it anyway in the spirit of Christmas!

[goofer3]

A link I noticed in the Telegraph regarding a WW2 Lancaster crewman. [Blenheim shown in the video]......https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/12/25/family-world-war-two-lancaster-bomber-reunited-bracelet-74-years/

[Chugalug2]

goofer3, thanks for the link, the relevant part reading: -

Sergeant Frederic Harold Habgood, the plane’s bomber, was betrayed by a local woman to the Gestapo. On July 31 he was taken to the nearby Natzweiler-Struthof concentration camp and immediately hanged. He was 21 years old.

That was how the Gestapo worked (and indeed how any authoritarian regime's secret police works). Relatively few of them could rely upon an army of co-operative sympathisers or compromised informers to provide them with their information. Settling old scores alone accounted for many 'enemies of the people'. Certainly kept Klaus Barbie busy for instance.

The same system was ready to go into immediate operation in the UK following a successful Operation Sea Lion...

[Nugget90]

Having just read Chugalug2's comments upon co-pilot solos in Hastings brought back memories of those challenging days! Chug and I, having navigated our course through Cranwell, and then Oakington in the bitterly cold and prolonged winter of 1962/63, found ourselves on No 103 Hastings course at RAF Thorney Island.

My pilots flying log book records that I, still a somewhat new Pilot Officer, set off on my first 'solo' in the left hand seat of Hastings 1A No 570 on the 3rd of April 1963 accompanied by another Pilot Officer co-pilot (also in co-pilot training although he had previously been a Second Pilot for a tour), a Squadron Leader navigator, and a Master Flight Engineer, Air Electronics Officer and Air Quartermaster. With all that expertise behind me, what could possibly go wrong?

Well, I flew the two take-offs and landings (with a taxi round after the first landing, never an easy exercise as the aircraft tended to expend pneumatic pressure rather too quickly) without losing control and ploughing through the long grass - much to my relief. Indeed, unlike many of my fellow co-pilots in training, whilst under training I didn't lose control on take-off or landing at all - until my final handling test when I managed to deviate from the runway (just a little - or maybe a tad more than just a little)!

But yes, anyone who could spare the time would transport wicker chairs out from the offices to observe co-pilot solos in the expectation that we would make a nonsense handling the heavy machine at some point. Which reminds me, when my instructor, a Welshman of some distinction, was taxying back to the dispersal, as we passed by a hangar we observed an RAF bus parked fairly close to the taxiway. I noticed that the driver appeared to be dozing, but suddenly he awoke and without taking his eyes off us for an instant, switched on the engine, engaged reverse gear and when straight back - into a car parked immediately behind him! At the subsequent Board of Inquiry that my instructor attended, the driver allegedly said, "I reversed - in order to avoid an accident"!

As far as I can recall, my patient instructor had at another time been Duty Officer one night when a non-pilot managed to get airborne in a Varsity (or some such). He telephoned the Air Ministry and spoke to their Duty Officer saying, "There's going to be an accident!" (Try saying that in Welsh dialect). And there was.

[roving]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfxU_fF97wY

Remarkable documentary About Tangmere produced in 1985.

[mikehallam]

Thank you Roving, for posting that Documentary it almost makes one cry seeing all those brave young lives (on both sides) lost in WWII.

I'm especially grateful, as in 1940 at three years old & living in London, I remained alive and later benefitted from the Brave New World of scholarships, free quality education and the NHS.

mike hallam (and still flying a very light two seat LAA ytpe a/c).




Remarkable documentary About Tangmere produced in 1985.[/QUOTE]

[BEagle]

A very well-made documentary piece - thanks, roving!

In 1970 my first ULAS Summer Camp was at RAF Thorney Island. Those who hadn't already completed circuit consolidation would often go to RAF Tangmere for their sessions of circuits and bumps, whilst the rest of us flew GH and aeros over the Isle of Wight. So ULAS Chipmunks must have been some of the last users of this historic airfield; unfortunately as I'd already finished circuit consol., I wasn't able to include RAF Tangmere in my log book as it closed only a few months after we'd returned to White Waltham.

RAF Thorney Island lasted a little longer though; closed in 1976 it was squaddified a few years later.

[FantomZorbin]

Ahh, Tangmere … my very first trip to a BoB At Home Day, bliss! The 'fence' to keep the crowd away from the runway was a rope laid on the grass, even to a <8yr old child it seemed close - brilliant! When the Hunter did a fast low level pass down the runway from the opposite end to what the chap on the PA system said and made us all jump (especially Mother!) - well that was just the gilt on the gingerbread, magnificent!!
I remember a Squadron taxi adorned with all sorts of signs … "Passing side>, <Suicide" etc. etc.
Thank you for that Roving, it brightened my day!:)

[ex82watcher]

When I first went to live in Bognor Regis in 1976,I vaguely remember Andovers from Thorney Island doing air-drops at Tangmere,Some years later a friend and I were investigating the top speed of his new Morris Marina on the runway there,and at the end of it was parked a Russian T54 tank.Odd ! There are some interesting graves in the churchyard,including those of Neville Duke and Teddy Donaldson.

[BEagle]

...investigating the top speed of his new Morris Marina on the runway there, and at the end of it was parked a Russian T54 tank

No doubt the top speed of the latter was somewhat greater than that of the former?

[ICM]

When the 242 OCU was at Thorney Island in the 1960s, Tangmere provided the drop zone for our equipment and heavy load drop training.

Like others, I was quite taken by that 1985 BBC documentary, above, and it's hardly a surprise that it would concentrate on the station's fighter history. Not mentioned was the crash on the night of 19 November 1943 when a badly damaged 10 Squadron Halifax attempted an emergency landing there whilst returning from a raid over Germany. (A landing at RAF Ford, further along the coast, had proved impossible.) The circumstances as regards possible crew injuries are not known, but the attempted approach was abandoned and, initiating a go-around, the aircraft veered away and hit a hangar. All 7 crewmen were killed, and 10 aircraft in the hangar were also destroyed. Checks with Air Historic Branch and the RAF Museum have established that no Board of Enquiry details have survived - but it's worth mentioning that the pilot had successfully landed a damaged, asymmetric aircraft some weeks beforehand. A relative of the Air Bomber on the crew is quite well-advanced in trying to have a memorial to all 7 men, all buried elsewhere in the UK, placed as near to the site of the crash as can now be established.

[Icare9]

ICM: That'll be
Halifax II HX181: ZA-K Op: Leverkusen Took off 1622 Melbourne. Crashed 2135 onto a hangar at Tangmere airfield, Sussex.
1015613 F/Sgt (Pilot) Benjamin HOLDSWORTH RAFVR +
578363 Sgt (Flt. Eng.)Raymond James Harry STEEL RAF +
1390492 Sgt (Nav./B) Clive TELFER RAFVR +
1397140 Sgt (Air Bomb.) Albert James OUDINOT RAFVR +
1119224 Sgt (W.Op./Air Gnr.) Robert Vernon DOWNS RAFVR +
AUS421975 F/Sgt (Air Gnr.) John HARPER RAAF +
1338514 Sgt (Air Gnr.) Charles Edward SMITH RAFVR +
Typhoon EK141 - OV-X - No.197 Sqn. DBF in hangar Tangmere - 20-11-1943
Typhoon JP501 - SA-R - No.486 Sqn. DBF in hangar Tangmere - 20-11-1943
Typhoon JP680 - OV-S - No.197 Sqn. DBF in hangar Tangmere - 20-11-1943
Typhoon JP787 - OV-K - No.197 Sqn. DBF in hangar Tangmere - 20-11-1943
Typhoon JP853 - SA-K - No.486 Sqn. DBF in hangar Tangmere - 20-11-1943
Typhoon JP970 - OV-L - No.197 Sqn. DBF in hangar Tangmere - 20-11-1943
See: The Typhoon & Tempest Story. Thomas,Chris & Christopher Shores. London:Arms & Armour Press,1988. pp.200 & 218.
Note: These six Typhoons, plus three Spitfires and two Lysanders, were destroyed when a 10 Squadron Halifax II HX181, crashed into the servicing hangar while attempting to land at Tangmere. Despite valiant efforts by the station personnel, the crew perished.
culled from BCL and also relatives have added comments on this website: Halifax Accident, Tangmere, 19 November 1943 - Page 2 (http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?10856-Halifax-Accident-Tangmere-19-November-1943/page2)

Question: Would an Op to Leverkusen have been completed in 5 hours? The eyewitness account of the crash seems to indicate that whoever was flying had great difficulty in lining up for landing, suggesting that the pilot was either wounded or someone else less skilled at the controls.

Presumably someone has also looked at the Australian files for Harper?
In Aly's photo on the 10 Sqdn website, the top row are the flight crew and ground crew kneeling. Holdsworth appears to be the middle, with "wings" whereas the others have just the one "trade" wing. it would make sense to accord the pilot the prestige of centre spot, too. https://www.10sqnass.co.uk/research-help/91-readers-posts.html

Medal group for one of the crew described here Aircrew europe grouping (http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/orders-medals-decorations/aircrew-europe-grouping-148085/)

[ICM]

Icare: That is, indeed, the incident mentioned. The question of who was in control during those final minutes will almost certainly never be resolved but, from what is still available at AHB, there does not appear to have been any information available to the Board of Enquiry to suggest that it was not the pilot, FS Holdsworth - and he may indeed have been suffering from injuries sustained over the target area. Were I to speculate, I might suggest that there was an (additional?) engine failure at a height and speed on the overshoot that made regaining full directional control impossible before the impact with that hangar was inevitable.

The 5 hours 13 minutes that HX 181 was airborne that night sits comfortably alongside the range of flight times for those aircraft that recovered to base at Melbourne, east of York. These range from 6:15 to 6:50. (And whatever the case elsewhere in the UK, fog was not an issue at Melbourne that night, though it was throughout the following day.)

[Geriaviator]

Poignant story about a Naval aviator who trekked into the Norwegian mountains to visit the wreck of his grandfather's Hellcat, lost during a raid on the Tirpitz
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-hampshire-46922010/ww2-wreckage-found-by-grandson-on-norwegian-mountainside

[roving]

Flying out of Britain during WWII in a Merlin powered P51, Bud Anderson became a triple ace. In this long video he brilliantly recalls his distinguished career which includes vivid descriptions of some of his dog fights.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmzzuMzOcKM

"Clarence Emil "Bud" Anderson (born January 13, 1922) is a retired officer in the United States Air Force (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Air_Force) and a triple ace (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_ace) of World War II (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II). During the war he was the highest scoring flying ace in his P-51 Mustang (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-51_Mustang) squadron. This was the same squadron as well known test pilot (and first pilot to break the sound barrier) and ace Chuck Yeager (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chuck_Yeager), and they had remained close friends for many years until Yeager met his current wife who cut him off from all his friends.[1] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Anderson#cite_note-1) Towards the end of Anderson's two combat tours in Europe in 1944 he was promoted to major at 22, a young age even for a highly effective officer in wartime. After the war Anderson became a well regarded fighter test pilot, and a fighter squadron and wing commander. He served his wing commander tour in combat in the Vietnam War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War). He retired as a full colonel in 1972, after which he worked in flight test management for McDonnell Douglas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas). A member of the National Aviation Hall of Fame (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Aviation_Hall_of_Fame), Anderson has remained a sought after speaker at aviation and military events well into his 90s."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bud_Anderson

added:

Chuck Yeager describes Bud Anderson as the best combat pilot he ever flew with.

10 minutes 54 seconds in to this recording.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh_mKBVzpA8

In this talk by Bud Anderson -who is still in good health - he describes his childhood ambition to fly and his training in the USA and with the RAF in Britain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9sQg3XkGLg

(On a personal note, and hence my fascination with Bud Anderson, is that like my dad, Bud Anderson wanted to fly as a young boy, and like my dad learned to fly pre war and like my dad initially trained as a "mechanic", in dad's case as a fitter, before both trained and qualified as pilots and were commissioned in the USA at the same time albeit in different locations.Both were at the sharp end of the war in Europe in 1944/45. Both flying Merlin powered fighters. Bud Anderson flying the P51 my dad, the mark IX Spitfire)..

[ricardian]

There are still some good people out there
Tony Foulds saw the American B-17 bomber crash in Endcliffe Park in 1944 when he was eight years old. (https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-south-yorkshire-46762440/sheffield-man-s-pride-tending-to-plane-crash-memorial)

[Geriaviator]

A moving story. In response to a couple of PMs I have received, I did send an obituary for our lately departed friend Danny42C to the Daily Telegraph, his lifelong choice, and to The Times. Sadly, neither could be bothered even to acknowledge it. Dennis did say he flew a forgotten aircraft in support of a forgotten Army in a forgotten campaign ... plus ca change.

[MPN11]

That, Geriaviator, is VERY sad.

Of course, Danny42C was not one of the Few ... he was one of the even Fewer!

[Chugalug2]

"That, Geriaviator, is VERY sad"

But let's be honest, not totally unexpected. The media (print, online, broadcast) these days doesn't reflect the sense of gratitude expressed on this thread for Danny and his remarkable generation for our very freedoms. It's all just so much history, that much despised discipline that has to be constantly revised to suit ever changing sensibilities.

You have made the effort, Geriaviator, on Danny's (and might I suggest our?) behalf. Well done, Sir! That it has been so summarily ignored isn't a reflection upon you, or Danny, or us, but upon the Daily Telegraph, the Times, and I daresay half a hundred others if they had been similarly approached. We live in a Brave New World these days and must learn to conform or become irrelevant. Personally, I much prefer the latter status.

[Octane]

Hi Geriaviator,
Would you be able to post the obituary for Danny you composed? I for one would be most interested to read it..
Thanks.

[mikehallam]

Yes Please,

I too think that Danny's generation should be positively remembered.

They put up with our strapped & sometimes disorganised conduct of the war to do as well as humanly possible what they had to do 1939 -1945.
Fortunately their contribution - and many deaths too (& both sides' combatants suffered) - provided us with a hard won freedom which generations have enjoyed for the last 3/4 Century.

That's quite a giant legacy !

mike hallam

[Geriaviator]

First, we must thank MPN11 for his fitting obituary published on the morning of Dennis's death. Having been away on holiday, I produced the following when I returned. It has perhaps more detail, from experience the Press likes a selection of material from which to choose. This is the version offered to Times and DT, together with the pictures published in my Last Letter to Dennis.

Dennis O'Leary was the RAF's last dive-bomber pilot, piloting a forgotten aircraft in a forgotten Air Force in a forgotten campaign: supporting the 14th Army in the bitter Arakan campaign against the Japanese.

The son of a British Army sergeant who was himself the son of a British soldier, he left an Irish Christian Brothers school at 14 years to become a clerk, joining the RAF at the outbreak of war. Dennis began writing at the age of 90 for the world's leading aviators' website, PPrune. Beginning with his account of training in Florida, his Hibernian wit, modesty and vivid memories were an instant attraction. His dream came true when he returned to England to train on Spitfires and in 1943 was posted to join a new Spitfire Wing set up to combat the Japanese in India, and recalled reaching Maidaganj in NE India to join 110 Sqn after a journey lasting for weeks.

“From the truck we spotted some big ugly things on the flight line. What on earth is THAT?, we asked our driver — That's a Vultee Vengeance, Sarge, they're dive bombers!
We knew nothing about dive bombers and clung to our last faint hope.
What about the Spitfires we're supposed to be getting? — You've had it, Sarge, there aren't any out here!
Oh, Noooo … Oh, Yesss! Not for the first or last time in the RAF, we'd been sold a pup.”

Soon 1000 PPruners per day from all over the world were following his love-hate relationship with the Vengeance and his description of its two-mile vertical dive had them on the edge of their seats; in between came a witty and colourful mix of reflections on India and the life of its European exiles.

Reflecting later, Dennis said that the Vengeance was heavy, slow, cumbersome and virtually defenceless against enemy fighters. “it could be made to do aerobatics, in the way that an elephant could be taught to dance. Fortunately for us the Japanese never sent their Oscar fighters which would have made short work of us. After exercises with RAF Hurricanes their pilots told us that it was easy to keep their sights on us no matter what we tried. But they did say that our camouflage was excellent, once down against the jungle we were all but impossible to spot.” Dennis remembered this on the day his gunner spotted a Japanese fighter, descending to low level and staying almost beneath the Oscar for some 40 miles until it turned away.

The Vengeance, he said, was a one-trick pony, but it did that trick very well indeed. As they retreated through Burma the Japanese defenders dug deep bunkers which they defended to the death, at great cost to Allied lives. Hurricane and Beaufighter aircraft attacked in shallow dives but their cannon and rockets, being angled, had little effect on the deep trenches. “The Vengeance had zero wing incidence, so its dive was truly vertical. Once into the dive nothing could stop us, a yellow line along the nose was all we needed to aim, usually achieving a 30-yard circle. A section of Vengeances could deliver five tons of high explosive in a few minutes, obliterating bunker, gun emplacement and sometimes a complete hilltop. As a dive bomber I thought the Vengeance was very good indeed”.

Dennis was commissioned in 1943. In Feb 1944, on his 33rd sortie, his engine failed probably due to ground fire and he force landed in the jungle, he and his gunner being badly injured.

After recovery he was posted to command 1340 (Special Duty) Flight near Cannanore (now Kannur) in southern India. Working with scientists from Porton Down, its purpose, never publicised until now, was to spray live mustard gas over volunteer British troops to test the efficiency of gas protection equipment. It was expected that the Japanese would use gas in defence of their homeland.

“In return for some pain and discomfort, the volunteers were safe from real harm or so it was then believed. They had three meals a day, a bed and a little extra pay. It was better than being on the wrong end of a Japanese bayonet in Burma. If they wanted to go back there, they had only to ask. I never heard of any who did.”

Demobilised after four years’ service in India and Burma, Dennis joined the Civil Service for three years. “But the prospect of pushing paper around for the next 30 years did not appeal ... I decided to see if the RAF would have me back”. The RAF did, and once again he was back in a Spitfire and the RAF’s first jet fighters, the Vampire and Meteor. In 1954 Dennis was grounded following a long-standing lung problem, so he re-trained as an air traffic controller and became an instructor at the RAF’s central training school at Shawbury before his retirement in 1972, when he became a VAT inspector for the rest of his working life.

Dennis died at his home in Middlesborough on November 13 2018, three days after his 97th birthday. His obituary on PPrune reflected his heyday when it was read by 10,000 people in the subsequent 10 days, with scores of tributes from his followers and his ATC pupils. His wife Iris died in 2016 and he is survived by his daughter Mary, who cared for him in his final years.

Dennis O’Leary, RAF Vengeance dive-bomber pilot in Burma, November 10, 1921 - November 13, 2018.

[Chugalug2]

What a story, what a legacy, what a man! Thank you Geriaviator, a wonderful tribute to Danny and so succinctly told. It would have informed and amused a newspaper readership if published. It wasn't and they weren't. Very SAD indeed!

[JENKINS]

Saint Joseph''s College Blackpool school days.

[MPN11]

Ah, yes ... that sad time. Thanks for the mention, Geriaviator ... things aren’t quite same without Dennis, somehow!

However, we must truck on. Just as Dennis did!

I note his obit thread has been un-sticked, so for reference it’s here >>> https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/615374-farewell-danny42c.html

[harrym]

Many thanks Geriaviator for that superb tribute to Danny; hard to believe our press did not accept your obit, a fitting tribute to a man who deserved its publication far more than some others which make it into print.

harrym

[mikehallam]

This was in my Parish Magazine this month.GILBERT STEERE CGM - A Rusper, West Sussex village Boy at War In 1944 Gilbert was Flight Engineer in a Halifax plane manned by a Canadian crew on a routine bombing rand of marshalling yards at Acheres near Paris.In Gilbert’s own words his nephew Harold Steere relates the amazing story of his Uncle’s bravery,

“On our way , the day being June 6th 1944, we were hit by fIak. I remember being most surprised that we were hit as the target was supposed to be an easy one. We had seen the shipping in the channel making their way across for the Normandy landings. Much to my surprise Andy our pilot gave the order to bale out. Three of the crew did so. I then realised something which changed the whole course of events and to a large extent changed my life - Andy, the pilot, had passed out and the aircraft was nosing down. A quick check of the instruments toId me that everything mechanical was OK. I leaned over and took hold of the control stick. The aircraft responded, the nose started to come up aid I realised we had a perfectly good aircraft with no pilot and the people who could navigate or operate were gone. I told the remaining two crew members we had a perfectly good aircraft and I would try to fly home to England. It must be appreciated at this point that I had never taken the controls of an aircraft, we were only taught the theory of flight at training school but had no practical experience of flying.

At some point Andy the pilot came round briefly and was able to select the lFF distress frequency on the radio . This probably saved our lives because of the very strict clearance of all aircraft, due to D Day precautions, anything unidentifiable would be shot down”Gilbert needed to sit in the pilot’s seat, which with some difficulty he managed to do only to find that his chest parachute, when sitting in the pilot’s bucket seat, blocked his view out of the cockpit. He had no idea where they were.“I just struggled on flying on the instruments trying to maintain an even height and steer a course due north.”Finally he saw the lights of an airfield but then had a problem explaining to ground control that he was not able to land the plane this was a two man job, to try and land this monster would be madness. Meantime the pilot had been attached to a parachute.“I notified ground control requesting they send out the Home Guard, who found Andy dead - he had been shot through the lungs." The remaining two crew then parachuted out, leaving only Gilbert.“I tried to train the aircraft to fly straight and level and remember praying it would stay that way long enough for me to jump clear. I suppose, because I was so afraid of not being able to get out, to a large degree it overcame my fear of jumping.I remember what a beautiful morning it was once my chute had opened. I watched the aircraft go down in an enormous curve and crash, immediately bursting into flames. I saw this field with buttercups growing and cows grazing by the river. It was the cows who had this surprise person fall amongst them !About a month later I was at a crew gathering at our squadron base when the Wing Commander announced that I had been awarded the CGM and the two gunners the DFM.I was so amazed. All I had done was to try and get home with a perfectly good aircraft when I knew our pilot, Andy, hadn’t a hope of bailing out over France.”

[mikehallam]

Now I'm a young guy at 81 - far too young to contribute much, but our elders have largely passed on. Nor was I flight crew, though today in my 50th year as a Private Pilot I passed my bi-ennial Pilot's proficiency check in my kit built Rans S6-116 (80 h.p. 2 seats, VNE 120 mph)

I did 2 years National Service in the RAF & after suitable training at RAF Locking (Somerset) on "Ground Radar" I spent 1960 based in tented accommodation at the tip of Cyprus tending a static "mobile radar station" called No. 280 Signals Unit.

Songs were sung and the following is an attempt to recall the words of one in which - as it rhymed appropriately - we substituted the name of our unit 'Two Eighty' instead of the 'RFC'.


Now I need help to piece together the true wording and any other hints that it really did begin its Airforce Life in WW I.

So here goes. (No laughing in the ranks please !)


Old King Cole was a Merry Old Soul

and a merry old soul was he,

He called for his Flight in the middle of the night

and he called for his Bomb Aimers three.

Now all ye Bomb Aimers are very fine folk, and very fine folk are Ye.

Steady, steady, steady, steady, Left, said the Bomb Aimer,

I don't care two F**cks said the Pilot, Merry Merry men are we

For there's none so fair as can compare with the boys of the RFC.

How's your Father, Alright,

How's yer Mother, Half Tight,

How's your Sister, She might !

Oompha oompah stick it up your Jumper........

[Taphappy]

Now I'm a young guy at 81 - far too young to contribute much, but our elders have largely passed on. Nor was I flight crew, though today in my 50th year as a Private Pilot I passed my bi-ennial Pilot's proficiency check in my kit built Rans S6-116 (80 h.p. 2 seats, VNE 120 mph)

I did 2 years National Service in the RAF & after suitable training at RAF Locking (Somerset) on "Ground Radar" I spent 1960 based in tented accommodation at the tip of Cyprus tending a static "mobile radar station" called No. 280 Signals Unit.

Songs were sung and the following is an attempt to recall the words of one in which - as it rhymed appropriately - we substituted the name of our unit 'Two Eighty' instead of the 'RFC'.


Now I need help to piece together the true wording and any other hints that it really did begin its Airforce Life in WW I.

So here goes. (No laughing in the ranks please !)


Old King Cole was a Merry Old Soul

and a merry old soul was he,

He called for his Flight in the middle of the night

and he called for his Bomb Aimers three.

Now all ye Bomb Aimers are very fine folk, and very fine folk are Ye.

Steady, steady, steady, steady, Left, said the Bomb Aimer,

I don't care two F**cks said the Pilot, Merry Merry men are we

For there's none so fair as can compare with the boys of the

How's yer Mother, Half Tight,

How's your Sister, She might !

Oompha oompah stick it up your Jumper........
Mike Hallam
My recollection is that the song went something like this.
1 Our wingco was a fine type and a jolly fine type was he, he called for his kites in the middle of the night and he called for his pilots 3
Now every pilot was a fine type and a jolly fine type was he.
I just couldn't care less said the pilot, merry, merry men are we. There's none so rare as can compare with the boys of squadron G.
2. As 1 but for pilot read navigator I'm 10 miles of track said the navigator etc etc
3 As 1 but for pilot read bomb aimer. Left left steady, dummy rum said the bomb aimer etc etc.
4 As 1 but for pilot read engineer. I want 10lbs boost said the engineer etc etc
5. As1 but for pilot read wireless op. dah di di dah di di dah said the wireless op etc etc
6.As 1 but for pilot read mid upper. Corkscrew corkscrew port said the mid upper etc etc
7 As1 but for pilot read rear gunner, I'm bloody cold, bloody cold said the rear gunner etc etc.
No idea whether originated from WW 1.

[mikehallam]

Many Thanks "Taphappy",

The words you have provided fill out a large missing piece in my recollection, as there are the fuller verses & covering every station in a bomber. Certainly there were no such large crewed bombers in WWI but I have a nagging feeling that 'Old King Cole' sired a great many adapted versions to the original more wholesome refrain.
I suspect 'tween original pub drinking refrain and the military it changed from a simple song with a mildly bawdy word or two into more specific spin-offs to suit whatever unit was doing the singing. That multiplication happily seems to have ensured the basic song was preserved (improved on ?) by quite a few succeeding generations.

I'm out of touch with today's equivalent chaps in Rugby Clubs or their HM forces folk, so I can't enquire if the 'Old King' is still extant; never the less the origins surely comfortably precede WWI.

I am therefore convinced the 'King' was likely & as desired overlaid with RFC wording here and there and then he, being a man of the times, quickly adjusted his text to match developing military requirements for a well known (thus singable by all) song with the camaraderie it generated.

It's always a shock to think how very few years - only about a dozen - separate me as an infant school child from those young men at war for us.
Even my brother (91 this year) was just too young in 1945 and yet his airforce career including stunting Meteors was in 'peacetime'.

I hope that with Tarhappy at 93, who is one of the very few of that age contributing to this forum, can inspire we other forum watchers who have manifestly enjoyed the many earlier reminiscences here to find sufficient copy to keep this tribute to the generation before mine going strong !

mike hallam

[Pali]

Last living Czech RAF fighter pilot who fought in WW2 Emil Boček has 96th birthday today. I hope it is appropriate to put the information in this thread.

He is the last of the heroes who helped to keep the honour of our nation high in the darkest hours.


https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/644x843/emil_bo_ek_8020ed9f81158f8a1699fe67515c5ccaca4dab5d.jpg

[Null Orifice]

Happy Birthday Sir!!
Grateful thanks for your service.
David.

[Geriaviator]

Last living Czech RAF fighter pilot who fought in WW2 Emil Boček has 96th birthday today. I hope it is appropriate to put the information in this thread.

Of course this is the appropriate place, Pali, and thank you for posting the event and the superb picture of one of many to whom we owe so much. If I may be forgiven this attempt:
Dobrý den pane Boček ... Všechno nejlepší k narozeninám!

[BEagle]

In Jul 1993 I took a VC10K to the Hradec Kralove air show on static display. On the first day of the show, we noticed a VIP enclosure not far from our jet, in which there were a number of elderly gents in rather faded 'RAF' uniforms. They beckoned us over, so we went to chat with them to discover that these old chaps were members of the Czech Air Force who'd served in the Second World War.

Fascinating old chaps with some tales to tell. At one point a young fellow came over and asked us if we'd like a drink and, if so, please just ask. Not sure of the protocol, after he went away I asked the old boys who he was - "Boss of Czech Air Force", they replied - and indeed he was.

Really good to talk with these brave old chaps who very much still had their marbles - doubly so when enjoying the hospitality of the Czech Air Force!

[reefrat]

I miss our Dinny

[Geriaviator]

We all miss him, reefrat. Our virtual crewroom wasn't built to last so it is crumbling away with the years, damp seeping through its asbestos roof, condensation on the single-skin brickwork, glass cracked in its metal windowframes, our old stove cold and rusting, beside it a worn armchair that cannot be filled again. We're fortunate to have known Danny and those who went before, and we treasure our memories.

[MPN11]

Agreed completely ... it's been the literal end of an era as far as this thread is concerned. Where will we find his like again?

[flap15]

I read these posts with interest and sadness knowing that living history is turning the pages. Personnel memory is becoming dusty paper work in the archives, with no feeling for the times merely hard type on paper. In my brief service of her Majesty during my final months as a gash PO awaiting my release date after being chopped from the JP course in Linton on Ouse I was assigned to a station visit detail. So me and my fellow choppie arrived at the guard room to meet the coach. On board was a motley group of RAFA gentlemen, so off we proceed for the standard station visit. On about the third stop, this being the tower, where my colleague is rattling off his standard spiel I note that we are not really holding the attention of the group. So I politely enquire of one of the group as to what is wrong, "Oh your doing fine its just this is our third visit", "Third visit! why come again?". Well says the RAFA man " We only really come for happy hour". "Would you rather go straight to the bar?", I leave you to guess the answer. So a quick phone call to the mess Sergeant and a brief explanation of the situation I was told the shutters will be up in 5 minutes.

Well what an evening. Apart from being the standard Happy Hour, we had a Hawk pair divert in with a senior with a big fat stripe who was very much of the old school when it comes to beer. However my abiding memory of the evening, tinged with an excess of beer, was chatting to a Lancaster tail gunner who was the only surviving member of his crew which had attempted to crash land after getting to low to bail out after flack damage and engine failure and the oldest member of the group who I did not talk to until the end of the evening, a WWI Sopwith Camel pilot.. I look back and think how privileged I was to be able to talk to these gentlemen and how much more I would like to have done.

Clear skies and good beer to all you fine aviators.

[old-timer]

I miss Danny too but hopefully this thread can be maintained in his memory.
I've met many veterans & have always been very humbled by their stories & experiences, often told with great humour & character, yet they all said they were " just doing their job". They're all heroes in my eyes & long may their services be remembered & recorded for history

[FantomZorbin]

Geriaviator, re the state of our crewroom. If The Clerk of Works/Ministry of Public Blunders and Wonders are unable to fix the jobs apply to your friendly SATCO. I knew an ATC Sqn that could do most jobs in fact it tendered to sort out the Officers' Mess garages at a very competitive price!

It is surprising how many people had extra strings to their bows, artists/DIYers/engineers.

[goofer3]

I think we all miss the first hand stories from Danny et al, but there are quite a few stories worth reading on the WW2 People's War site. For example;
https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/16/a3210616.shtml

[Vzlet]

Heaven for Danny may have been a Spitfire, but there's probably room there for a VV or two!
http://warbirdsresourcegroup.org/pix_for_wix/Factories/Vultee_Vengeance_production_at_Downey_CA_zpsec48dce4.jpg

(From a thread of photos of WWII aircraft production (http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=52070) on the Warbird Information Exchange (http://warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/index.php).)

[pettinger93]

Not sure how appropriate this request is, but knowing how expert so many contributors are on this thread, maybe someone can help?
As mentioned earlier on in the thread, my father, Major Harold Pettinger, after a 'interesting time' in the Western desert and then the first wave of the Chindits, was then in charge of supplying the Chindits in Burma by air using Dakotas. He spent a fair amount f them in the air, sometimes visiting the airstrips in the jungle behind enemy lines.

At the end of this operation in December 1944, he was posted to Western India to prepare for a similar operation against Japan, though this was cancelled. There is then a gap in his otherwise quite detailed memoirs until his repatriation in May 1945. This gap did not bother us, until recently an old friend of his mentioned , in passing, 'did your Dad ever tell you about Yalta?'.

It seems that the old friend had, some years ago, visited the Livadia Palace where the Yalta Conference took place in Feb 1945, where there is a museum dedicated to the conference. The displays are all written in cyrillic, apart from the names of the UK and USA participants, and the old friend had noticed my fathers name written as being an adjutant to someone at the conference. When, later, the friend mentioned this to my father, he reluctantly acknowledged that he had indeed been at the conference, and told an anecdote about an unauthorised foray into the town with his Russian counterpart, but revealed nothing else.

The friend assumed that we all knew about this, but in fact my father had said nothing. The time gap in his memoirs would coincide with the Yalta conference, but we have been unable to verify my father's attendance, nor what or why he might doing there. The Livadia Palace museum does not reply to our enquiries (unsurprisingly, in view of the political situation in Crimea), and my fathers old regimental museum knows nothing. The extensive Yalta Conference files at Kew are not digitised, so are available only to a personal visit once one has registered as a researcher. We have applied for my fathers official military record, but these have not yet arrived.

Does anyone here have any idea how we might check if my father actually WAS at Yalta in 1945, and why?

[Honza17]

I hope it’s OK joining in. I've just subscribed.

I came across this thread searching for any references to my dad. He was Jan Masat, the Czech pilot and later ATC, mentioned back in 12194, 12199, 12200 and 12205.

I saw the photograph of the last Czech RAF pilot still alive. Thought I’d let you know that in 2014 a statue was erected in Prague of a winged lion to commemorate the Czechs who served in the RAF in WW2. In 2017 the names of all the air crew who fought for their country in the RAF were added; my Dad’s name is on the statue.

If he was alive today he would have been 101. He died quite young, before the velvet revolution in 1989 and was never able to take us to visit the country. I think he would have been amazed, and I hope extremely proud, to have seen the statue.

[Brian 48nav]

Honza17

Welcome to the crewroom! Can you tell us more about your Dad's time in the RAF? Particularly for those of us who remember him from LATCC West Drayton.

[Chugalug2]

Honza17, welcome indeed. I've just read the posts you mention and it seems quite a few here remember your Dad in ATC. What isn't clear though is his career as a pilot that preceded his time in ATC and that is hopefully where you come in! :ok:

If the stories of those who served as RAF aircrew in WWII (with or without the OP Pilot Brevet) are to be told from now on, then it has to be the next generation that tells them. Presumably he was a pilot already in Czechoslovakia when it was consumed into becoming a Reich Protectorate? So if you can start there and let us know all that you know about those desperate years, how he got to the UK, and what stations and units he served on, then others here can add the dots and crosses of his odyssey. Hopefully you have his log books and perhaps other paperwork, without which no military organisation can move an inch.


So over to you. You have resurrected this wonderful thread from the depths back to page one. Well done! Hopefully we can keep it bobbing about here, in its rightful place.


The Poles and Czechs were ever present in the RAF family of my day. We owe them much, and it is here that the younger generation can learn why they are remembered with such affection.


Again, welcome.


Chug

[FantomZorbin]

Honza17, welcome to our crew room :)
I remember your Dad well when I was at RAF West Drayton, London Air Traffic Control Centre (Military)* in the early '70s. A great chap to share a night watch with as he had a fund of fascinating stories to keep us awake in the 'quiet' periods.

* Usually referred to as LATCC(Mil) pronounced latseemil

[Honza17]

Thanks for the welcomes.
Brian 48nav asked for some more details of my Dad's time in the RAF. He actually joined twice! This is a summary:

Trained with the Czech air force for about 2 years – I have his flying log book.

After the German invasion he knew he had to leave and managed to get to France where he flew with the French Air Force.

In late 1940 he left from the south of France by ship and reached England. He went through an assessment and training centre which was at RAF Cosford.

He joined 310 squadron (one of the RAF squadrons with Czech pilots), initially based at RAF Duxford, where they were flying Hurricanes. The squadron moved around, which included being based in Scotland. He was flying Spitfires as well as Hurricanes.

He then went to Saskatchewan in Canada where he learnt how to train pilots to fly on instruments using Link trainers. After this he returned to England and was training.

At the end of the war he went back to Czechoslovakia and was stationed in Prague. When the communists took control in 1948 many of the former RAF pilots were imprisoned. He managed to escape from prison and always said that ironically it was a German man that helped him.

He then walked at night to Germany where he was detained in a displaced persons camp. The British and the Americans interviewed him there. The British offered him the chance to return to England and re-join the RAF and he suspected that the Americans wanted him to go back to Czechoslovakia as a spy. He chose the RAF!

For the next period he was instructing not flying (I think at RAF Little Rissington) and in the late 1950s was posted to RAF Khormaksar in Aden. He married my Mum there; she was a nurse and had gone to Aden to work in the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

From there he returned to RAF Uxbridge and then moved to RAF Binbrook in Lincolnshire where I think he started working on air traffic control. The next move was to RAF West Raynham in Norfolk in the mid 60’s. He then moved to RAF West Drayton (LATCC) in 1969, initially on the military side. He also had a couple of short postings to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire and RAF Ballykelly in Northern Ireland.

When he retired from the RAF in 1972 he moved to the civilian side (CAA) at LATCC and became an ATCA. He helped manage the documents and the air traffic control training courses that were run from Hurn, near Bournemouth. He did 10 years with the CAA and then retired.

[Brian 48nav]

Honza17 --Many thanks for that outline of Jan's career, I'm sure that some members of the crew room will want more!

[Chugalug2]

Honza17, any idea how your Dad got to France? I know that many Poles fled south to Romania and then by ship to Gib and thence France, but that was just after the Czechs. Did they make the same journey? I can't imagine it was via Germany!


As Brian 48nav says, any fleshing out of the detail would be much appreciated. No doubt much can be gleaned from his Log Book (types flown in Czechoslovakia, etc) but any details that he shared with you would add much to his story.


We always celebrate the Poles, Czechs, etc in the RAF in WWII, but as you highlight many of them fought in France before then continuing the fight from the UK. So more detail about that period if you can, where he was, what he flew, and where in France he embarked for the UK. A Pole on my Squadron had to cross the Pyrenees, was imprisoned by the Spanish, escaped and made it to Gibraltar. These were desperate times and only moral courage of the highest order could enable those such as your Dad to eventually find safe haven and fight on to avenge their homeland.

That he had to flee from there again is a measure of the tragedy that befell the countries of Eastern Europe. Yet he clearly had a fulfilling and eventful life. You must be very proud of him, and so will all here I'm sure when we know all that you do.

His was a very special generation, brought together by a combined determination to sweep the poisonous plague that was Nazism from the World, and came from its four corners to the RAF to do so. This thread is in their honour, and your Dad's story rightly joins those of the illustrious others.

[Pali]

I've been listening recently to a stunning story how general Heliodor Píka and his son escaped via Romania to France and then to England. Actually H. Píka was in charge of selling about 1/3 of Czechoslovak armament to Haganah in 1938 so Hitler wouldn't be able to use it in case of capitulation. Píka worked at Czechoslovak embassy as a military attaché in Bucharest and organised the escape route not just for Czechs but also for Poles. It was a remarkable story and also a very sad one as H. Píka was sentenced to death by communist regime in 1949 in a show trial.

Story was narrated by his son Milan Píka who was member of RAF (died very recently on 19th of March 2019) and I could hardly keep tears back when he talked about being with his father the night before execution.


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1920x1338/heliodor_p_ka_a_milan_p_ka_kr_tko_po_vojne_1_558d0e296d2dcc7 248495e0616f8bf742d817d82.jpg
Milan and Heliodor Píka after war

[Chugalug2]

Thank you Pali for that informative and very moving account of the Czech and Polish escape route to France via Romania, and of its architect, General Heliodor Pika. That he should outsmart one brutal regime only to be murdered by another yet again illustrates the terrible cost paid by those countries that had the misfortune to be between those two tyrannies.


I once heard of an East German Stasi General being interviewed by an Italian female journalist. " Herr General, how do you explain the fact that you were once a very senior officer in the Nazi Security apparatus, and now fulfil the same function for a Communist one?". "My Dear; left wing, right wing, they all need policemens!".


Do you know who provided the shipping from Constanta (?) to France? I guess that France would have been heavily involved in the arrangements, and was yet to be invaded herself. That would happen soon enough of course, meaning that Viktor (my Polish nav) was on the run as soon as they disembarked.


What a wonderful photo of father and son, both so very proud of each other. What a terrible memory though for the son to bear for the rest of his life, and how the same loss was shared by countless others. I am reading of the failure between the wars of the victorious Allies to stop the descent into abject impoverishment of their ex-foe. A more enlightened attitude would have greatly ameliorated that and hence the opportunity for Hitler to persuade the population to put their trust in him. They regretted it in time, but too late, far too late.

[Pali]

As far I know they embarked ship Transylvania in Constanța and sailed to Alexandria in 1940. From there they traveled with the ship Compiegne to France. Many Czechs, Slovaks and Poles were on the run after Poland was defeated and some of them went to Russia and some to France. Heliodor Píka was instrumental in this endeavour.

Czechoslovak servicemen ended in Russian gulags with the charge of espionage as Stalin had Ribentropp-Molotow pact with Hitler. In France they fought against Wehrmacht but soon had to leave to England once France was defeated.

Even if my countrymen could have any reason to ignore France and UK war efforts due to Munich treason yet they still knew that Nazi Germany must be defeated and fought bravely for the just cause.

If interested, I could provide you with some details how Milan Píka described his story in an interview in 2018 shortly before he died few weeks ago.

[Chugalug2]

Pali, I can only speak for myself but I would certainly be very interested in getting a Czech perspective on the 1938 Munich agreement, or Mnichovská zrada (betrayal) as it is known. I presume that the treason you mention was by the Czechoslovak Government's acceptance of the agreement of Britain France and Germany (done without the Government or its guarantor (the Soviet Union) being present).


Here in the UK of course most rejoiced, in the naïve belief that Hitler's signature on Chamberlain's note did indeed promise peace in our time. I believe that Hitler himself felt cheated by the agreement of his war, having been handed the Sudetenland on a plate. He had a point. He may have felt ready for war but we certainly didn't. The time gained before we were finally at war the following year gave us just time to bring our most critical component, RAF Fighter Command, to full readiness. A year earlier and the BoB would almost certainly have been lost. We would have been forced to sue for peace and Hitler would have been free to turn his entire might on the Soviet Union with a single front war.

Munich was vital to us winning the war and defeating Nazism, just as destroying the French Fleet was. It was done at the cost of Czechoslovakia and then Poland. At least they are free now of those twin tyrannies. Without Munich there is every chance that the Third Reich would now extend from the Pacific West Coast to the Atlantic Eastern one. Who knows? the Channel is our salvation, but being between the Russian and German Empires is the curse of the states of Eastern Europe. No doubt that is the appeal of the EU and its proposed Army, but better perhaps to not pursue that right now....


So yes, more please Pali!

[Honza17]

Chugalug and Brian 48nav, My Dad always said that he went via Poland. I have a book called 'Czechs in the RAF' and it explains that the hundreds of air and ground crew crossed the border illegally into Poland. The Poles did not initially offer them opportunities to join them but the French offered to accept them in the Foreign Legion on the understanding that if war was declared they would be allowed to join the French Air Force. The book states that between May and August 1939 470 airmen reached France aboard six transport ships, they would have gone through the Baltic and into the North Sea. My Dad did end up in Algeria at Sidi-bel-Abbes in the Foreign Legion but only for a short time from what I understand. They then went to France when Britain and France declared war on Germany in September 1939.

I have just looked up the Czech flying school log book and the period was shorter than I thought. There are 414 entries, starting in June 1938 and the last one in March 1939.

Pali, There is a picture in my book of General Heliodor Pika at the ceremony/parade at Prague Ruzyne airport in August 1945 when 54 Spitfires of the Czechoslovak Fighter Group were welcomed back. It does say that he was executed by the communists in 1949. One of the other Generals in the picture Karel Janousek is reported to have spent 16 years in jail because of his involvement in the West. I have a picture of my father in the same uniform

[Chugalug2]

Honza17 thank you, your father must have taken advantage of a very short lived window of opportunity to make it to the West via the Black Sea! Perhaps it was just as well that the Poles didn't offer them the chance to join them or he would have been trapped in the chaos that was shortly to follow. Interesting too that the French offer was to join the Foreign Legion but having no air arm it would have involved many square pegs in round holes, I would have thought. I wonder what he did at Sidi-bel-Abbes during his short time in the Legion? I doubt it was to sit around much awaiting developments. That was hardly the way of the Legion.

Events though very soon allowed for joining the FAF direct. One wonders why the Brits seemed to have shown little or no interest at the time of this sudden availability of so much skilled and fully trained manpower. Everyone knew that there was a full blown war on its way but it was the French who saw that it would need everyone that they could lay their hands on. Of course it is easy to be wise after the event and it might be that the rationale was to see that the French were bolstered for it as much as possible beforehand as they would have to take the initial onslaught.


The cruel fate of those who returned to their homeland only to suffer and even die at the hands of the incumbent regime must have sent a strong message to those who were still in the West. It certainly accounts for the many who remained in the RAF and made it their home. They certainly brought it home to their juniors, such as I, of the cruelty of war and the reason we had to defend our freedoms by standing together under the NATO umbrella to confront the next tyranny that threatened us.

[Niceredtrousers]

Continuing on the Czech pilot front, from a long-time lurker.

I was aware that my wife's great uncle - Tedda Peel (Anglicised spelling) was a Czech RAF pilot in WWII and that family history told the story of his English wife and baby daughter getting the last train out of Czecho before the Soviets moved in in 1948 (only to have the family silver stolen from a platform at Orpington).
They were in Aden in the 60s and then the Southampton area in the 70s, before his widow ("Aunty Val") moved to Sevenoaks in the 80s.
Anyway, I got most of these stories from my father-in-law, and he casually mentioned recently that Tedda had also made his way to North Africa and the French Foreign Legion after getting out of Czecho in WWII. After reading Honza's posts above about his father, this made me sit up and wonder if their paths had crossed.
Unfortunately Tedda died before my wife was born so I'm wondering if anyone here can fill in the large gaps.
Thanks, NRT

[Ewan Whosearmy]

I've increasingly been reading about pilot training (RAF) in WWII, but it seems that the authors don't really explore the part of the process where they learn to fly at night. Most just say 'It was dangerous and it killed people', but leave it at that.

Are there any surviving course notes, syllabus information or original training guides that cadet pilots would have used during the war to learn how to fly at night?

[Brian 48nav]

EwanWhosearmy

David Beaty's novel, 'The wind off the sea', covered pilot training at South Cerney and then night conversion at Bibury in some detail. Beaty had been a wartime RAF pilot and then flew with BOAC before becoming an author.

As an aside, one of the ATCOs on my watch at LATCC in the 70s ( Norman Whitelock RIP ), had spent most of WW2 as a QFI at the above stations.

[Geriaviator]

You'll find all the answers in AP129, the RAF Flying Manual. Wartime version hard to find now, mine had useful info such as hand signals for pre-radio days but I gave it to my aviation society. Our revered posters on this wonderful thread, now alas all departed, have plenty to say if you look back to their heyday in 2008-2015 or so. BE WARNED: Once you start looking back your afternoon will disappear in a flash, as mine has just done! Take this example from Sqn Ldr Rupert Parkhouse, who trained on Avro Tutors and was shot down on his second sortie in the Fairey Battle:At the beginning of December 1939 we started night flying with four paraffin glim lamps in line and two more across the end to form the Tee, with a Chance floodlight on the area where we were supposed to put the aircraft down. I found it very exciting flying in the dark without the standard panel of instruments and I went solo after about three hours' dual. I did three solo circuits and I remember feeling immensely relieved but quite proud afterwards.

I went back to the Mess and was getting into bed when I heard a tremendous thump and immediately thought that someone had gone in. It was Flight Cadet Warren Smith, with whom I had shared a room in my first term, and that was a bit of a shaker. Next day we went out to see the wreckage, rather ghoulishly, and I remember the terrible smell of burnt metal.

We got over it fairly quickly, there was no counselling and in fact this modern craze for counselling strikes me as an undermining of morale because when things like this happen you have to get over it yourself, you have to sort out your fears and just go on.

[alanjpraha]

Honza17, thank you for the information - I came across your story quite by chance. It reminded me of another brave Czech pilot, my daughter's great-uncle, Vaclav (Venda) Jicha. I don't have the whole story of his life but what I think I know is that he was also a trained and qualified pilot in the Czech air force in 1939. At some point he escaped from Czechoslovakia via Poland and arrived in France where he fought and destroyed three German aircraft. On the fall of France he escaped once more and joined the RAF. He flew Spitfires and I believe he took part in the Battle of Britain. He became a Spitfire test pilot at Castle Bromwich, deputy to Alex Henshaw whose book 'Sigh for a Merlin' speaks warmly of Venda. I think he remained in this job until 1945, when he died with three others in an Avro Anson, flying to Scotland for the wedding of a colleague. Long ago I took Venda's sister to his grave in Haddington, near Edinburgh. I've seen some of Venda's logbooks and his medals (three, IIRC, including DFC and bar): the citation for one of them mentions safely landing nine (!) Spitfires with dead engines. And I've talked to some of the people he knew in his time in the UK - he was apparently a charming, modest man and a very skilled flyer.
My involvement in all this was a long time ago - I may have got some of the facts wrong, but not by much. Stories such as these leave me amazed and full of respect for decent men who rose to the desperate challenges of the time, and excelled. Venda's death was tragic and ironic, but in some ways he was lucky. Working in Czechoslovakia in the 1970's I met two men who had flown Spitfires for the RAF: one was a janitor, the other a car-park attendant. Returning to their own country after the war they were treated not as heroes but as probable traitors. I was at the time young, arrogant and 'busy', so I paid little attention to them. My shame!

[Chugalug2]

I have coincidentally been reading The Drift to War by Richard Lamb which describes in detail the period from 1929 of "The series of errors in British policy that led to World War II". Admittedly we look back with the benefit of hindsight, but even so the entrenched views and missed opportunities are staggering.

The key to it all was Austria. The key to Austria was Mussolini. He was against the Anschluss as it would bring the Wehrmacht to the Italian frontier. However, his invasion of Ethiopia caused great anger in the UK, and the sending of Italian 'volunteers' to the Spanish Civil War to fight for Franco was opposed by Britain and France. These two issues obscured the big issue of stopping Hitler bringing the various German speaking populations surrounding her into the Third Reich by military intervention if needed.

Once he had Austria then Czechoslovakia could be invaded from the south, outflanking the formidable defences in the West. Nonetheless there was a mini entente to the east whereby Soviet troops and supplies could counter such an invasion, and some 40 Soviet bombers were flown to Prague by Czech pilots. Also, a possible French invasion of Germany in the West could overwhelm the very reduced German forces there. The German General Staff were so worried that they planned to arrest Hitler and declare martial law if he invaded Czechoslovakia.

As we know all too well, such an opportunity was lost thanks to Neville and his bit of paper. Interestingly he nursed a large chip about his now deceased elder brother Austen having had all the attention from his parents. Of such trivia are great events created...

The author claims that the year gained before WWII benefitted Germany more than it did its opponents (including the UK). One in four of the tanks alone in the French Blitz Krieg came from the Skoda works!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Drift-War-errors-British-policy-ebook/dp/B0774LCNKZ/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=The+drift+to+war&qid=1558809517&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

[Ewan Whosearmy]

You'll find all the answers in AP129, the RAF Flying Manual. Wartime version hard to find now, mine had useful info such as hand signals for pre-radio days but I gave it to my aviation society. Our revered posters on this wonderful thread, now alas all departed, have plenty to say if you look back to their heyday in 2008-2015 or so. BE WARNED: Once you start looking back your afternoon will disappear in a flash, as mine has just done! Take this example from Sqn Ldr Rupert Parkhouse, who trained on Avro Tutors and was shot down on his second sortie in the Fairey Battle:

Geri and Brian48nav

Thanks for the info. I've managed to get hold of a 1941 AP129 and am looking forward to reading it.

Your caution about getting pulled into the vortex of this thread is noted! Will set aside some time in anticipation of taking a look.

[thegypsy]

Night Take Off


Beneath our wheels the flares and glim-lamps race
Each gooseneck stretching taut,then only space
Descends as now the leading-lights are past
And three-dimensioned darkness holds us fast.
We are of night and night hugs close her own
The long black caverns of her sleeve are thrown
Around us and she bids the circling clouds
Encompass us with vigour as with shrouds.

Poem in book named after poem Three-Dimensioned Darkness by Captain Lincoln Lee ( A BOAC Captain ) published in 1962

[pzu]

Not sure if this will interest folks on here but here goes, my late Dad Ken Crossley joined RAF in 1940 and eventually completed training as as an Air Gunner in March 1944, as he said he missed the 'killing fields of Lincolnshire and was posted back to the Middle East were he was attached to the SAAF 34 and later 31 Sqd on Liberators
With them apart from other operations he had bit parts in Operation Dragoon (Invasion of S France) and later the Warsaw Airlift
For Op Dragoon 34 Squadron were tasked to provide EW/Radar Jamming for the actual invasion, have just found the attached document detailling equipment etc (apologies for poor quality copy and insertion method)
Dad used to say he 'had a Good War a) he survived and b) they made him an Officer and Gentleman!!!
Post war he rejoined and became an ATCO - in fact he was stationed at Thornaby as SATCO on 608 Sqd around the same time as Danny; sadly he died in 2001 and therefore I was unable to ask him about Danny - did ask Danny if he remembered him but sadly not

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/585x803/34_saaf_op_dragoon_p1_6823cee44dd2be705a8b938488e8c479aafea4 05.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/562x763/34_saaf_op_dragoon_p2_6dcb7d1983c1a8603a4aa04c59b38b2d2872e9 85.jpeg

[Wander00]

Breathtaking, as yesterday attending commemoration of 3 man team parachuted into Deux-Sevres France, on 16 August 1944 to help organise sabotage and disruption OF German forces post D-Day. The courage of that generation and later just leaves me breathless with admiration

[Chugalug2]

PZU, many thanks for the interesting USAAF paper re Mandrel at D-Day and the Invasion of Southern France. Here is a map of the airborne deception plan for D-Day -1 and D-Day itself, showing inter alia Op Mandrel:-

5701

The currents mentioned are enormous. The noise from the inverters must have been phenomenal. The Hastings had a mod whereby a pallet mounted Doppler Nav equipment could be fitted to the cargo floor of certain pathfinder modded a/c. The noise from that one inverter was painful. 9 of them...?

Wander00, fully agree re that very special generation. The Major General's Review in the run-up to this year's Trooping can be seen on YouTube. One of the neutral marches this year is "The Liberators" which always seemed to be played as the FANYs marched past the Cenotaph on Remembrance Day. Never fails to give me a chill down the back of the neck whenever I hear it. It was of course the cover unit for the brave civilian young women recruited into SOE. No words can begin to describe their cold courage.

Neutral march The Liberators (following Quick March Past):-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygsIZsb9B-0&t=120s

[mikehallam]

Flew the Rans from Horsham to Piltdown (nr.Uckfield) Sussex Saturday 2nd June for the strip owner's annual Fly In for a RAFA benefit day.

Previous years we've had several WW II aircrew including pilots in attendance but, tempus fugit & the numbers were down to just one fellow this year.
He was aircrew (I believe) as a fairly young Flight RADAR operator towards the War's end.
He is pretty deaf so our conversation was necessarily rather limited.
Regardless, A Grand Old Man turning up here every year.




https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1343x1007/rafa_aircrew_wwii_piltdown_020619_b839b36f923e0f5fe8d01f6e5b 1197484c0d8e4e.jpg

[cyflyer]

I am slightly perplexed at the subject of this thread which started as a description of gaining a ww2 brevet some 600 + pages, and a few years, ago, but seems to be a general ww2 subject now, so I'll add a little question to the mix and see if anyone can help. I have a few pages of service history of a ww2 pilot i am researching, and some written things are so difficult to desipher. Has anyone seen this and can maybe shed some light ?
On the movements , on 25.4.44, 'Ferry training: on c/a to 311 FTU'..... what is c/a to 311 FTU (Ferry Training Unit) mean ?
On 8.5.44, 'suby' or 'subig' , anyone know what that is ? or again 'supy-missing"
I.B.P.D. , 'runf' ????

On the promotions page, if started out as an AC2 on 7.10.40, promoted to LAC, 'ASU or ASM' , what rank is that ?, 'T Sarg' or 'F Sarg' , what is a T Sarg ?. Why would his rank from AC2 in 1940, go to AC2 etc again in 1942 ?

Any insights appreciated.






https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x896/img_4265x_0bb31e6d0d9fae6ed72f8327a04bb625f647b535.jpg



https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x896/img_4268x_53619e3395637e0aff6222c1989d76e665185a53.jpg

[Chugalug2]

cyfler, the last member who posted his story IAW the OP title, Danny42C, has sadly passed away and with him a direct link to those dangerous and challenging years. Nonetheless the thread continues to honour those who told their story and to add to our collective understanding of the colossal organisation that the Royal Air Force was then. So your post is both welcome and apposite and I thank you for bringing this unique thread back onto page 1 where it belongs.

Danny could have rattled off answers to most of your questions I suspect, but I have to fall back on Google to seek answers:-

ASU translates as Armament Support Unit in this much later post, but could he have started out in such?
History of the RAF Police at the ASU (http://rafpa.com/asu.htm)

No idea about T Sergt (Temporary, Technical?) whatever it was he goes back to AC2. I suspect this might have been disciplinary move (ie busted to the ranks?), but again not sure.

He claws his way back up, via LAC to T Sgt again, before starting pilot training.

311 was indeed a Ferry Training Unit:-
311 Ferry Training Unit[RAFCommands Archive] (http://www.rafcommands.com/archive/01466.php)

I suspect the IPBD is 1 BPD, ie No1 Base Personnel Depot, as here:-
https://forum.keypublishing.com/forum/historic-aviation/147137-raf-wwii-abbreviations-question

No idea about the supy's, possibly supernumerary due a missing unit (ie its moved location since the posting/attachment order).

Well, there's a starter for ten which will no doubt be heavily corrected by those more knowledgeable than I. Good luck with your research! I suggest placing RAF after the various acronyms, as it can help sort out the search better.

PS I think perhaps that missing means just that. He is missing 13.7.44 which is the date he is later presumed dead. The intervening supy's are probably an administrative procedure whereby he is kept on strength until finally presumed dead.

[longer ron]

I am slightly perplexed at the subject of this thread which started as a description of gaining a ww2 brevet some 600 + pages, and a few years, ago, but seems to be a general ww2 subject now, so I'll add a little question to the mix and see if anyone can help. I have a few pages of service history of a ww2 pilot i am researching, and some written things are so difficult to desipher. Has anyone seen this and can maybe shed some light ?


Did this Pilot start off as groundcrew or a different Aircrew 'Trade' ?
If perhaps you can post some more images such as earlier 'movements' etc it might be of great help.

T Sgt would be Temporary Sgt
'ASU' could possibly be Acting Sgt Unpaid ?? - these hand written forms are a nightmare sometimes.
In the RAF at that time - if somebody 'Remustered' to a different trade they sometimes had to 'officially' revert back to AC2 rank.

[Out Of Trim]

In 1944, 40 Squadron RAF were based in Foggia, Italy. Operating Wellington X aircraft.

Perhaps his aircraft was missing in action that day 13/7/44.

[Chugalug2]

Agree with Longer Ron that more information about his service before U/T Pilot would be of interest. Could runf be reinf, ie reinforcement?

He's sent to 2 Aircrew Reception Centre (Rabat Sale, Morocco) Mediterranean Allied Air Forces wef 8/5/44, and the very next day he is at 1 BPD Hussein and Fort de l'Eau (Algeria). A quick turnaround indeed, and 3 days later he is with 40 Squadron at Foggia, Italy (thanks OOT!).

Tragically within 2 months and a day he is missing presumed dead. Therein lies the brutal reality of war. All that training, all that service, extinguished in 2 months of ops. RIP

Ground Units (http://www.raf-lichfield.co.uk/GroundUnits.htm)

https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7161762?descriptiontype=Full&ref=AIR+29/847

[cyflyer]

Firstly, thanks for all the replies, I am grateful for your input.
Out Of Trim, indeed it was, he was the pilot of Wellington X, KIA on that date 13/7/1944, out of Foggia Main. His name was Charalambous, he was Cypriot. I am researching a small handful of Cypriots that served with Bomber Command, and he was the only pilot.
Chugalug2, thanks for the kind words, i don't think the 'Armament Support Unit' can be correct, this is a rank and there's no such Armament Support Unit then as far as I know. T Sarg, I have never seen in any RAF reference book a reference to such a rank, do you think that could be F/Sargent ? and its written in a strange way ? There should be a course on how to decipher some these people's handwriting ! No1 BPD, you may well be correct, that would make sense, based in Algeria, that would be the logical stepping/route to Foggia when ferrying crews and aircraft, well done. The way they abbreviate 'training', notice it is written 'Tring' every time, the i is always dotted, in that 'supy' does it look like an i, which would be 'supig', which would be short for ??? So what do think ' 'Ferry training: on c/a to 311 FTU' means, c/a... ? Phew, service records give more questions than answers.

longer ron, here is the earlier movements, it doesn't look like he started with a different trade, most of it seems to make sense, even though I cannot understand why he was almost a year at EFTS when it should only be about 10 weeks, when apparently he had his 'wings' by the end of August 1941. There was a photo of him in a local english newspaper on 31st August 1941, and he has Sgt stripes and his wings.

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x842/img_3332_303ae57c8d8808218991afb3e0e65f03868d8494.jpg

[cyflyer]

You're probably going to ask why he was in a local newspaper. The story as I have seen it, he saw a mushroom while flying, and landed in a field to pick it. I know how ridiculous that sounds, but here is the newspaper clip from 'Sunday Chronicle' of 31st August 1941...I didn't believe it either until I saw it. Was he reprimanded or rewarded ? I think the newspaper clip answers that question. The timing of the photo is about right , about 6 weeks after starting at 9 EFTS which would be about right, so it would have been in a Tiger Moth of 9EFTS, so what was he doing there until August 1942 ?

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/600x399/dsc_2980_26c3239bbd6ad3f052e77a0bcdd190d1b081b54f.jpg

[longer ron]

Hi Cyflyer
I assume this is your man .
He was eventually commissioned which is why he was 'Discharged from RAF' in 12/1943,an NCO had to 'officially' leave the RAF on commissioning and then 'Rejoin' as an Officer.
Given his age when he died - it is possible he was a pre war pilot and he was employed as a Flying Instructor in 1941,which would explain his photo with 'Wings'
13.07.1944 - 40 Squadron RAF
[Lost in Wellington X LN270 'O' on an operation against the Milan Lambrate Marshalling Yards]
Name: CHARALAMBOUS, CHRISTAKIS
Initials: C
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Pilot Officer (Pilot)
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: 40 Sqdn.
Age: 30
Date of Death: 13/07/1944
Service No: 162971
Additional information: Son of Charalambous and Haji Maritsa Charalambous, of Nicosia, Cyprus.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: III. F. 8.
Cemetery: PADUA WAR CEMETERY

[longer ron]

On 10/11 July 1944, eighty-nine aircraft were detailed for an attack on rolling stock concentrated at the marshalling yards at Milan-Lambrate.[22] (http://www.danishww2pilots.dk/profiles.php?person=42#fn22) Ten Wellingtons from 40 Squadron participated in the operation. The results of the operation were good and left the target area covered in small fires. The tracks were also cut at both ends, which led to rolling stuck being trapped in the yards. Three nights later,

The target was again the rolling stock at the LAMBRATE Marshalling Yards at MILAN, now pinned in the yards as a result of the destruction of the exits in the previous raid.[23] (http://www.danishww2pilots.dk/profiles.php?person=42#fn23)

Nine Wellingtons from 40 Squadron was detailed for the operation. Wellington X LN270/O piloted by Plt Off. Charalambous (162971) took off from Foggia Main at 20.20 hours. Høyer was the navigator of this aircraft. The attack was successful, but six aircraft were lost in the operation. LN270/O was one of them. Apart from Plt Off. Charalambous and Høyer, the crew of the aircraft were Fg Off. Martin, FS Shephard, and Sgt Knight. It was Høyer’s fourteenth operational mission.



The Navigator Lt KAJ HØYER (SAAF) was Danish

[Dan Gerous]

ASU, Acting Sergeant, Unpaid? I was an Acting Corporal for about 7 months, but luckily paid. Rank was annotated as A/Cpl on forms.

[pzu]

Acting Unpaid

Seem to remember in the ‘Army’ that Acting Unpaid only applied for 28 days then you were paid, not sure if you got back pay for the first 28 - was often alleged that certain unscrupulous staff would stand you down for a few days at day 27 then resume status for a further 27!!!

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

[Chugalug2]

I agree with ASU meaning Acting Sergeant Unpaid.

I think that all the variants of Supy mean Supernumerary, ie a temporary administrative attachment to a unit rather than a proper posting to it. In this case, other than his one day at 2 ARC Rabat/Sale, it seems to occur after he is posted missing and until he is presumed dead. Supig rings no bells with me. These are hand written entries by Admin Clerks, no doubt with their own idiosyncratic ideas about spelling and abbreviations.

As to "on c/a to 311 Ferry Training Unit", how about Course Attachment?

Interesting that commissioning from the ranks means leaving and then re-joining the RAF. You learn something every day! Thanks LR.

ACDW is the Air Crew Disposal Wing, Brighton

http://www.raf-lichfield.co.uk/GroundUnits.htm

[Icare9]

A bit more on this old thread on another website Details of Missions flown... [Archive] - Luftwaffe and Allied Air Forces Discussion Forum (http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/archive/index.php?t-21514.html)
I missed Hoyer

[longer ron]

I still have not worked out the drop in rank - unless it was a disciplinary matter ?? or perhaps loss of Flying Medical Category ?? (although it would seem harsh to bust him all the way down to AC2).

But if it was a discip matter he would then seem to have been commissioned on the very day he regained Temp Sgt (22/12/43) - which would also perhaps seem a little unlikely.
A bit of a puzzle.

On RAF Unit Histories (RAFVR) - it has a link to a Biography in the Cyprus Weekly but the link does not work - but if you are local ??

Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) Officers 1939-1945 -- C (http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RAFVR_officers_C01.html)

http://www.cyprusweekly.com.cy/main/115,1,500,0,6289-.aspx

The reference to - PPP Wolverhampton will be No3 Pupil Pilots Pool Wolverhampton.

[sycamore]

His Service number has also changed on commissioning...

[cyflyer]

I assume this is your man Indeed it is, and as someone else mentioned, the crew were Kaj Hoyer (Danish), Edward Martin, Ernest Shepard, James Alfred Knight. Would like to trace any of their families. The family of Charalambous I have visited in Cyprus. Longer ron , that Cyprus Weekly article of many years ago, I have it.
So much useful info from all of you, so many thanks.
That Acting Sergent Unpaid makes sense now, as it was only for a month or so.

Given his age when he died - it is possible he was a pre war pilot and he was employed as a Flying Instructor in 1941,which would explain his photo with 'Wings'
No, I don't think he was a pre war pilot, his family would have known and told me, according to them he was studying at Cambridge (not proven, vague information passed on from family members), before joining up. If he joined 9 EFTS (at Ansty near Coventry) on 15 July 1941, the courses would have been about 6 weeks, so makes sense that by 31 August 1941 he would have been awarded his wings. What doesn't make sense is why he went to Aircrew Dispatch Wing the following year in August 1942. What was he doing meanwhile for a year? If pilots are to be instructors, they have to go to SFTS first, I believe, not carry on at EFTS, I could be wrong.

Chugalug2, that ground units list is amazing, I visit the Archives and have pulled many AIR29 files but have to check against your list. Generally I have found that those AIR 29 units ORBS contain very little info. More to follow.....

[Chugalug2]

Is it possible that the entry "No 21 OTU 91 Grp 25.4.44 Ferry Trg : to c/a 311 Ferry Training Unit" is a move from which he and his crew (c/a = crew attachment, crew aircraft?) never return to 21 OTU? In other words they are now fully operationally trained and their next job is to ferry an aircraft (and hence themselves) to MAAF (Mediterranean Allied Air Forces). 311 FTU teach them to do just that and launch them accordingly, arriving 2 ARC 8.5.44.

Once in Theatre they are posted as "reinf" (reinforcements) to depleted units. Given the very high loss rate on the Milan raid this must have been an ever present need.

Just trying to see some woods rather than trees here, but perhaps not...

[cyflyer]

His Service number has also changed on commissioning... Thanks, I wondered why two different service numbers.
Thank you to everyone who contributed , all very helpful, and I am still processing the information. I recently also got the service record of another Greek heritage Bomb Aimer who was KIA with Bomber Command, but this young man was a Canadian national and with the RCAAF. The RAF service record I posted earlier was basically 4 A3 pages with the limited information you saw, and costs 30 pounds a pop. The service record from the RCAAF, was about 200 pages, every detail from previous employment to medical records, to service records, even a recruitment photograph of the recruit, and it is a free download, no cost. Unbelievable the difference between the RAF and RCAAF service records.
I bought a book called 'Training for Triumph- A History of RAF Aircrew Training in WW2' which gives a wonderful insight of the said subject. I scanned the entire book onto my onedrive, and by way of thanks, if anyone would like to read that book, PM me and I will give the link which you can access and download the book to your pc. I don't want to put it on a public forum.
Regarding the other members of the crew:

Lt Kaj Hoyer (danish) SAAF - Navigator
F/O Edward Martin - Bomb Aimer
F/O Earnest Shepherd - wireless operator
Sgt James Alfred Knight - gunner

Would like to make contact with any family of those men. They may have a photo of the crew that is better quality than the one I have.
Not sure why he was an apparent celebrity, maybe because he was the only Cypriot origin Bomber Command pilot, apart from the newspaper clip, when he started on ops, apparently the BBC made a sound recording of him speaking in Greek, about his experience on ops, and it was broadcast and heard in his village in Cyprus at the time. Would those broadcasts be preserved, and where would one search for such a recording ?

[Chugalug2]

cflyer, I think it is for us, well me at least, to thank you for giving this very special thread such a boost. In doing so I suggest that you have opened up another possible topic that perhaps needs more attention, the coming to this country of volunteer aircrew from all over the world. No doubt they came with varying motives, but underneath all the bravado was a common belief that the tyranny that threatened not only Europe but the whole world had to be defeated. Whatever defines a World War as against any others might be open to debate, but this one factor says it all for me. They came here from every continent (well, OK, perhaps not Antarctica) often never to return. Without them we would have been the weaker, in a conflict that was always a close run thing.

Your list of crew members reminds me that the bomber crews were formed up at OTU. They chose each other without any official input. They were ushered into a hangar and told to organise themselves into crews. This crew would have done just that at 21 OTU, RAF Moreton-in-Marsh. Wikki tells us that two of the instructors there were one "Stinker" Richard Murdoch and Kenneth Horne. The BBC show Much Binding in the Marsh supposedly owes its name to that RAF station :-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Moreton-in-Marsh

[cyflyer]

Ok, here we are again. Been digging deeper, and here's some answers to some of the questions, I think.
re: 2ARC
He's sent to 2 Aircrew Reception Centre (Rabat Sale, Morocco) Mediterranean Allied Air Forces wef 8/5/44, and the very next day he is at 1 BPD Hussein and Fort de l'Eau (Algeria). A quick turnaround indeed,

Whilst browsing the '1 BPD' files, I noticed the following page and reference, the opening of the 'Airmens Rest Camp' as part of the 1 BPD. Do you think this is '2ARC' ?

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x525/img_4371_d5dee8a913392f09b1bff7071febd6e838997ceb.jpg

Re the why the reduction in rank in 1942, he was Court Marshalled in 28 January 1942, for 'low flying' , punishment 'severe reprimand', would it take until July for the busting in rank ? I found the general court listings but haven't found his actual charge sheet yet to see the details. His RAF offence code is given as 39A2B 40, but don't know what that means.

As to my wondering why he was at 9EFTS for almost a year, I can confirm that he was indeed there for that period because in May of 1942 , while at 9EFTS, there is reference to him having 'force landed' at B...... can anyone make out that location ?
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x120/8x_aa0acfc60c309d47daad0ad7f9e3afb4fa829ce0.jpg

EFTS would take approximately 6 weeks, and then they would be awarded their wings, true ? Is it possible that pilots would be retained to carry on teaching at the EFTS ? I thought they went through SFTS before being re-directed to instructing duties.

[Chugalug2]

cyflier, if the Airmen's Rest Camp was indeed at 1BSD (which your pic seems to confirm) then the initials are pure co-incidence. 2ARC was in Morocco and 1BPD was in Algeria. Airmen in this case suggests other ranks, though including SNCOs it seems. Aircrew suggests Officers, Commissioned and Warrant, and SNCOs (Sergeants and above).

As to the CM for Low Flying, was that when he was collecting Giant Mushrooms? :E Maybe it went to appeal? That would have slowed things up a bit.

The forced landing site seems to have given the person making the entry some trouble, let alone us! It could have been the name of a village, hamlet, or simply a farm! Intrigued about the White, and Black and White Flags. Don't remember those as part of the standard Signal Square. Is that where Black Flag comes from (ie no flying at all due wx)? An FTS thing?

[mabmac]

Could the forced landing have been at Bedworth, about 4 1/2 miles Northwest of RAF Ansty (ie 9EFTS)?

[longer ron]

EFTS would take approximately 6 weeks, and then they would be awarded their wings, true ? Is it possible that pilots would be retained to carry on teaching at the EFTS ? I thought they went through SFTS before being re-directed to instructing duties.

Through reading many autobiographies it seemed to usually take somewhere between 6 to 12 months from 'Ab Initio' to being awarded 'wings',but there were always anomalies - there were a few military pilots who never actually did a flying training course but were awarded their wings on the basis of previous experience (early in both WW1 and WW2).

Glad you found out about the Court Martial - I suspected it was a Low Flying CM - anything more serious would probably have precluded eventual commissioning,the reason I suspected a CM was the amount of time he spent as an AC2 after demotion from Sgt.I also originally thought the same as Chugs that it might be related to the mushroom incident ?

edit - looking again at your posts - he was awarded a severe rep from the Jan 1942 CM - was he perhaps Court Martialled again for another flying misdemeanor ?

[longer ron]

Just a thought Cyflyer
Was he a member of Cambridge University Air Sqn ?
Using that as a search term - I got this result on Google

Royal Air Force (Volunteer Reserve) Officers 1939-1945 -- C (http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RAFVR_officers_C01.html)

www.unithistories.com/officers/RAFVR_officers_C01.html (http://www.unithistories.com/officers/RAFVR_officers_C01.html)

Wireless Operator/Air gunner, 75 (New Zealand) Squadron RAF .... Son of Charalambous and Haji Maritsa Charalambous, of Nicosia, Cyprus. ...... Mechanical Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge(1938; joined University Air Squadron).


If he was a member of CUAS from 1938 - he could have already been a fairly experienced pilot by sept 1939.
Knowing how google search returns 'work' (in that they sometimes 'jumble' info) - the reference to Wop/AG on 75 NZ Sqn possibly does not refer to Chris,also the reference to Trinity and CUAS may or may not refer to Chris but it would perhaps fit in with his RAF career.Of course none of it is visible when you use the link to RAF Unit Histories so it must be information from a 'cached' page of unit histories.

[cyflyer]

Could the forced landing have been at Bedworth, about 4 1/2 miles Northwest of RAF Ansty (ie 9EFTS)?
I do believe you may be correct, makes sense, thanks. Even though, they seem to have spelled it as Badworth.

Chugalug2 I'll accept your explanation, its logical. The fact that they wrote Airmens Rest Camp with capitals makes it look like a 'unit'.
As to the CM for Low Flying, was that when he was collecting Giant Mushrooms?
He joined 9EFTS on 15/7/41 and the newspaper clip was published 31/8/41 just 6 weeks later. So the mushroom picking must have happened during those 6 weeks. The court marshal happened on 28/1/42 and the demotion happened on 14/7/42, 6 months later. I thought RAF action was probably swifter than that. The charge would probably been 'unauthorised landing' rather than 'low flying', and would the powers that be, have permitted the newspaper clip if they were going to court marshal him for it ? I found the CM on a summary listing of day to day CM's but I need to find the actual charge sheet for the offence, unless anyone knows what is RAF offence code 39A2B 40.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1200x136/7x_3a2f95d8b7618dc3e79a6e9d5af129e319961834.jpg

I'll correct something I said earlier, about the pilots recieving their wings after 6 weeks/after EFTS, thats wrong. I believe it must be after graduating from SFTS that the RAF wings were awarded, and before going to the OTU's. Something that raises questions in the timeline of events. If joining EFTS on 15/7/41, and photographed 6 weeks later (newspaper/mushroom clip on 31/8/41 irrefutable evidence) already wearing his wings, and being at the EFTS more than a year later, what does that suggest ?
longer ron, my train of thought was also swirling around the notion that he may have had previous flying experience, and hence after initial EFTS, be awarded wings and retained to train other EFTS ab-initio students for the next year. That would explain many things.
Mechanical Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge(1938; joined University Air Squadron). how did you get this connection to him ? Googling 'Cambridge University Air Sqn' doesn't seem to bring up that connection. Any connection there would help explain a few things. His family did mention to me that they 'believed' he was at Cambridge before the war, but I thought they were mistaken because was at 2 Initial Training Wing, which happens to have been at Cambridge.

[Chugalug2]

RAF WWII locations tended to be Stations, Bases, Centres, and Depots. I don't think the RAF used Camp as a location (though possibly the Army did). I think that this Airmen's Rest Camp was simply the proud creation of OC No1 Personnel Base Depot and no doubt maintained his Airmen's morale as indicated in the Unit Diary you illustrated.

Talking of morale, much the same can be said of the 'story' and picture of an RAF Sgt Pilot and his Giant Mushroom. This was straight out of the RAF PR Department, who probably provided the mushroom as well! It got the RAF into the newspapers, promoting both it and civilian morale. It also shows a volunteer from the Empire who has answered the call to arms. Tick! Tick! What it tells us is that at that date this was a fully qualified RAF pilot, witness Wings and Sergeant's Chevrons. If he was at an EFTS then he must have been an instructor there (unless of course his tunic was also part of the props, along with the mushroom). I rather doubt that. There were hundreds of thousands of fully qualified RAF pilots, why invent one?

If he started the war as a fully qualified RAFVR pilot, as suggested by Ron, would that account for it? Would he still have to go through basic training as an AC2/LAC? Don't know, Danny would have!

[longer ron]

longer ron, my train of thought was also swirling around the notion that he may have had previous flying experience, and hence after initial EFTS, be awarded wings and retained to train other EFTS ab-initio students for the next year. That would explain many things.
how did you get this connection to him ? Googling 'Cambridge University Air Sqn' doesn't seem to bring up that connection. Any connection there would help explain a few things. His family did mention to me that they 'believed' he was at Cambridge before the war, but I thought they were mistaken because was at 2 Initial Training Wing, which happens to have been at Cambridge.

I just used this search term in google - Charalambous cambridge university air squadron

Which brought up this result (as in my previous post)

Wireless Operator/Air gunner, 75 (New Zealand) Squadron RAF .... Son of Charalambous and Haji Maritsa Charalambous, of Nicosia, Cyprus. ...... Mechanical Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge(1938; joined University Air Squadron).

The trouble is - the way google search works - the reference to 75Sqn and Trinity College are not necessarily related to Chris - they may or may not be as this sort of google result (especially with dotted lines in between sentences) can mix up different entries/cached data.

[cyflyer]

Ok longer ron, found it., thanks. The web page on RAFVR pilots, the 'Mechanical Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge(1938; joined University Air Squadron).' refers to one of the other pilots on that page, .... unfortunately.
Chugalug2, so agree with everything you said. But, we need to join the dots, and show the logical progression on paper. I have to try and find the court marshal charge sheet to see the details of that CM. (PS how were those books ?)

[Chugalug2]

Indeed cyflyer, but quite a bit has been unravelled already, hasn't it? The trick is to try putting oneself back with Chris Charalambous in those hectic times. The more dangerous they were the more one lived each day to the full. I imagine that Courts Martial of the kind he faced were ten a penny, as the authorities frantically tried to keep the lid on a pot that was always on the verge of boiling over. At the end of the day if you faced the enemy and did your duty no-one on a low flying rap was going to suffer the effects for long. It is even possible that his sentence was carried out only after his flying training duties were completed in full. There is a war on you know!

The books are patiently awaiting my attention, thanks. Unfortunately so are our Grandchildren and a Wedding, which Mrs C says have priority. :)

Don't worry, the books are on the Kindle and next in line. Thanks again! :ok:

[cyflyer]

Well, after a day of pulling files and wading through much paperwork at the archives, some knowledge was achieved, progress ! The low flying happened on 30/11/41, court marshall on 28/1/42. Yes, he was an instructor ! He was charged with flying at 100ft over Rugby, with his student. The charge sheet suspected complicity between the instructor and the student, doesn't say what happened to the student. "whilst carrying out the duties of flying instructor to LAC Hughes in Tiger Moth XXXX, permitted the said LAC to fly at an altitude of 100ft". Punishment 'severe reprimand', and rank reduction 6 months later. I believe he retained his rank of Sgt, because he was an instructor, and technically you cannot have an LAC as a flying Instructor, and was busted in rank later on. Importantly, it confirms he was instructing and hence why at EFTS for a year, as per suspicions. It means he must have been flying before the war, probably, but not proven, at Cambridge University Air Squadron. The CUAS files do not list student flyers, and there's no way of confirming if someone did attend Cambridge University.

It was amusing reading through some of the other wartime courts marshals. There's enough material there for someone to write a book on wartime CM's, loads of low flying courts marshals, and the one that impressed me the most was five airmen from one OTU that were charged, two with flying their Spitfire under the Severn Railway bridge, and the other three for low flying their Magisters over Bornmouth Square ! That OTU had a decipline problem (they were all RAAF and RCAF).

Also, with regards to the crew he was killed with, they were not the original crew he started out with. The Danish/Sth African Hoyer was only on the crew that one time. Before him, for all the other missions it was F/O J Trigg and Sgt Knight was preceded by F/O D Bromwich. Would like to contact any family of any of those for possible photos of the crew.

Lt Kaj Hoyer (danish) SAAF - Navigator
F/O Edward Martin - Bomb Aimer
F/O Earnest Shepherd - wireless operator
Sgt James Alfred Knight - gunner

[Geriaviator]

I am slightly perplexed at the subject of this thread which started as a description of gaining a ww2 brevet some 600 + pages, and a few years, ago, but seems to be a general ww2 subject now,
Welcome to our virtual crewroom, Cyflyer! I read your post on return from holidays. This forum has taken so many twists and turns over the years that its theme became blurred as the original contributors carried their stories into the post-war years and as one of the Mods have said it became a living history of RAF aviation. Sadly our WW2 contributors have made their last takeoffs but their stories remain as a tribute to those who gave so much and a rich source of information, as you have seen. Good luck with the rest of your quest.

Our last much-loved contributor was the wonderful, witty and eloquent Danny 42C who passed away late last year. His tales of training in Florida, operating the Vultee Vengeance dive-bomber in Burma, and post-war RAF life as pilot and ATCO kept us spellbound for seven years. In fact they were so absorbing that they have been published as two e-books, In with a Vengeance and Danny and the Cold War. If you or anyone else would like copies send me your email address via PM -- Pprune does not handle attachments. All we and the late Danny ask in return is a contribution to the RAF Benevolent Fund.

[Vzlet]

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/432x648/sofarfromhome_168f40f8123a30bedd99a6923b7da6c550bb4832.jpg

https://www.airuniversity.af.edu/ASPJ/Book-Reviews/Article/1381627/so-far-from-home-royal-air-force-and-free-french-air-force-flight-training-at-m/

[Chugalug2]

cflyer, good sleuthing, well done! The known unknown here is when did he gain his wings, and where? Danny informed us that it was general practice for the best performing students to become instructors, having gained their own wings. I wonder if that was the case here? Having blotted his copybook and done his penance, he moves onto OTU (as deemed to be a bad influence on student pilots?), gets a crew, and goes to war...

I'm sure that most crews had individual members coming and going, due to medical, personal, or a hundred other reasons. The fact remains though that for better or worse having selected one another on the most spurious and random basis, Bomber Crews lived or died together thereafter. But just as others stepped in to fill the voids, so crew members could temporarily do the same for other crews, including the pilots.

Geriaviator, welcome back from the hols. Hope you enjoyed them! Educated as we all are now in the arcane practices of the wartime RAF thanks to Danny, it is fascinating to see it come to life in the unrolling story of this Greek Cypriot RAF pilot. The exceptions to rules are the most fascinating aspects to my mind. The essential dynamic was to recruit, train, and put into the fray ever more replacements for the toll among operational aircrews. At the same time discipline and morale (opposite sides of the same coin?) had to be maintained. All illustrated in cyflyer's informative posts.

Vzlet, thanks for the link. The vital part played by the USA in the training of Allied aircrew was front and centre of Danny42C's story on this very thread. Thank you for posting a link to one part of that enormous contribution. It paved a 'Special Relationship' between our respective Armed Forces that pertains to this day, no matter the vicissitudes of political comings and goings.

[longer ron]

I believe he retained his rank of Sgt, because he was an instructor, and technically you cannot have an LAC as a flying Instructor, and was busted in rank later on. Importantly, it confirms he was instructing and hence why at EFTS for a year, as per suspicions. It means he must have been flying before the war, probably, but not proven, at Cambridge University Air Squadron. The CUAS files do not list student flyers, and there's no way of confirming if someone did attend Cambridge University.


Well done on confirming the Court Martial Cyflyer !
I would have thought it likely that any pre war service with either CUAS or RAFVR would have been noted on his service record (although I must admit that I do not know for sure ) but as I have alluded to in a previous post - there were less orthodox ways of getting 'Wings' in the early stages of both World Wars.One scenario might be that (say) if a prewar pilot was a civvy QFI then the RAF in 1939/early 1940 might well have given the civvy QFI his 'Wings' on the proviso that he was restricted to elementary flying instruction - any other/further role would then require SFTS etc.

If anybody thinks that is an unlikely scenario then I would mention R A Carter.

Carter went solo in june 1935 at Cambridge and I suspect by 1939 had still not amassed a huge number of hours (lack of money) - anyway he arrived at No2 CPF (Coastal Patrol Flight) Abbotsinch in Dec 1939 attired in Plus Fours and a Pork Pie Hat without uniform (so obviously had not even been through ITW or any other service training) and another pilot kindly sewed his wings and chevrons onto his brand new uniform for him.The CO (P/O Tillet) said ''Whatever have they sent me now - a pilot without wings ? ''.Nevertheless - one check flight and Carter was off on his own for some 'sector recces' and then onto 'Scarecrow Patrols' off the West Coast of scotland - the winter of 39/40 was quite severe so not a pleasant few months.
Carter survived the war and went to South Africa - there was a R A Carter commissioned into the RAF Regiment later in the war but not sure if the same gentleman.
(some details in The Tiger Moth Story by Bramson and Birch)

In WW1 - Frank T Courtney joined the RFC as an AM2 (Air Mechanic 2nd class - equivalent to A/C Plonk in the RAF) and volunteered to instruct (there was a critical shortage of instructors at that time) on the strength of his apprenticeship at the Grahame-White Aircraft Company in 1913 and attaining his civilian pilot's certificate in Aug. 1914 - he was eventually given his 'Wings' whilst still an AM2 (later - Corporal) - eventually he managed to get out to France and fly operationally even though Trenchard was against this idea (FTC wore spectacles),he finished the war as a Captain RFC and later became a well known freelance test pilot.
More details in his excellent autobio Flight Path - some great stories in there - including test flying Cierva Autogyros.

[longer ron]

I have just had a look at P/O Tillet and found this on the Battle of Britain Monument website - sadly he did not survive the war.

F/O J Tillett



James Tillett was the adopted son of Maud Reynolds of Courteenhall, Northamptonshire. He entered RAF Cranwell College as a Cadet in September 1937.

The College's list of graduates records that he was of St Lawrence's College, Ramsgate, and was a Flight Cadet Sergeant, his sports being athletics, cross country and hockey. He graduated from RAF Cranwell and was promoted to Pilot Officer with effect from 29th July 1939.

He joined 52 Squadron at Upwood on 4th August 1939, flying Fairey Battles. He was serving with 2 Coastal Patrol Flight from December 1939 to April 1940.

By August 1940 Tillett was serving with 12 Squadron at Eastchurch, again flying Battles. His first operational sortie was attacking shipping in Boulogne harbour at nightfall on 18th August. Tillett returned to base with a faulty aircraft.

His next sortie was on the night of 19th/20th August, again attacking shipping at Boulogne. Again his aircraft gave trouble and he returned with a faulty magneto and a leaking fuel tank.

Tillett’s third and last operation with 12 Squadron was an attack on ‘E’ Boats in Boulogne harbour at first light. It was a successful sortie.

He must have volunteered for Fighter Command as on the 7th September he was posted to 238 Squadron at St. Eval. He was shot down and killed, possibly by Major Helmut Wick, on 6th November 1940, his Hurricane V6814 coming down at Park Gate, Fareham.

Tillett is buried in Ann’s Hill Cemetery, Gosport.

[Fareastdriver]

I've just checked my course photo when I started training on Provost T1s at Tern Hill.

One of our number was a National Service pilot inasmuch as he was trained to 'wings' standard and then continued with a reserve squadron after his two years. Despite that he was not able to wear wings, possibly on the basis of having to serve six months on a squadron. I had reason to look at his log book and it had a few entries on Harvards after his training.

He had to do Basic and Advanced before he got his wings back again.

[kenparry]

FED:

That is strange. When I was a UAS student at the end of the 50s, we had a former National Service pilot and a former National Service navigator as students on the sqn. Both wore their respective flying badges throughout their time as UAS students - and kept their commissions, while we plebs were Cadet Pilots.

[ricardian]

This was posted to Facebook today by Pierre Seillier. It seems this place is where the story belongs.

On this day in 1944, my beloved mate Denis Vaughan "Ned" Kelly celebrated his 21st birthday with his mates of the crew of the Avro Lancaster PO-F, N°467 Squadron RAAF, in occupied France, hidden by French resistants. He is my hero, my Aussie Grand Pa, I love him. Today Denis turn 96,
HAPPY 96th BIRTHDAY NED.

Denis Vaughan « Ned » Kelly’s story
Denis Kelly was already married with an infant son when he joined the Air Force at 19, wanting to be a fighter pilot. A lack of depth perception discovered at Initial Training School in Victor Harbour saw him chosen instead for wireless training, which he completed at Ballarat. He sailed to war via the USA (including an unauthorised couple of days in New York), did some more flying at Llandwrog in north-west Wales and crewed up at RAF Lichfield with an Australian pilot named Tom Davis.
Posted to 467 Squadron at Waddington, Denis and his crew began flying operations in late April 1944. They were on many of the same trips as the crew of B for Baker, including Mailly-le-Camp on 3 May (though not the fateful Lille raid a week later), two missions over the village of Saint-Pierre-du-Mont, in Normandy ( the famous Pointe du Hoc) were the 2nd and 5th Ranger Battalions of Lieutenant Colonel James Earl Rudder lande). Life on operations was a continual strain, broken only by wild parties in the Mess or short periods of leave. Denis was convinced that with each trip, his supply of luck was steadily being used up. “Every op you completed brought you one closer to the one that would get you.”
On 18 July 1944 the crew attacked Revigny, in France. Close to the end of their tour, this one would indeed turn out to be the one that got them. “We had dropped our bombs,” Denis recalled, “and we’d just turned round and [were] making for home and then BANG, we were hit.” His radios exploded as the aircraft started to burn. The pilot yelled to bale out. Denis immediately clipped on his parachute and went down to the door at the back of the aircraft, pulling on the mid-upper gunner’s legs as he went past to signal that he was about to go. He opened the doors to the rear turret to help the 19-year-old gunner inside to escape, to be confronted by a shocking sight.
“His head was… well, he was dead.”
Denis’ parachute pack and battledress was beginning to smoulder by this time, and the pilot was still yelling to get out.
“So I went to step out – and then I remembered, never step out of a Lanc, you gotta dive.”
Denis dived.
“Next thing I know, I was falling, I was smoking, so I pulled the ripcord at the exact second I hit the ground.”
The impact caused him severe injuries: he later discovered that it had compacted his legs and spine so much that he was a full three inches shorter afterwards. “I thought I broke my spine,” he said. More immediately, his legs simply refused to work.
Denis dragged himself painfully over to a nearby tree. “I thought, ‘my wife’s not going to know I’m here, she’ll think I’m dead. She’ll get the telegram, I can’t do anything about it…’”
Two other members of his crew had landed nearby, and all three held a council of war to decide what to do next. Unable to walk, Denis decided he would be a liability and convinced the others to go on without him. They left – and Denis began a courageous attempt to crawl his way across France. “It was marshy ground, fortunately,” he said.
For the next two days, Denis dragged himself laboriously along on his elbows, moving about “50 yards every three hours.” At one point he slithered into a canal and swam, until he came to a bridge that had German guards on it. In the water he beat a cautious retreat. Getting out of the canal was difficult without the use of his legs, but after several attempts he managed and continued on his slow, determined but excruciating way. He came to a road, started crawling across it – and mercifully passed out.
Evidently deciding he was safe enough, Denis’ mind simply shut his body down. “The Harley St people said it was mind over matter, [my] mind said ‘you’re safe there,’ so…” The next thing he knew, he was being prodded by the boot of a curious French civilian. Lying there, Denis croaked the only French he knew: “Je suis Anglais parachutist – soif.” – “I am an English parachutist – thirsty.” The Frenchman produced a full bottle of beer, and Denis gulped the lot. Then the Frenchman rolled Denis into the ditch at the side of the road – and left him there.
“I thought, I’m done, I can’t get out of this ditch, I’m gunna die here. And that was frightening.”
After Denis spent a terrible day in the ditch thinking the worst, that night the Frenchman returned. He brought with him two others, some spare civilian clothes and a bicycle. Dressing Denis in the clothes, they propped him up on the bicycle, legs hanging below, and took him just a little further downstream from where Denis had scrabbled out of the canal to the house of a lock-keeper named Victor.
Denis stayed here for several weeks while his immediate injuries healed and while he figured out how to walk again. At one point he was taken to see two other members of his crew, in another safe house nearby. This happened to be on Denis’ 21st birthday. Unbelievably, when Denis informed one of the Frenchmen of that fact he produced a bottle of Moet champagne, and all present enjoyed a glass.
After leaving Victor’s care, Denis was hidden, guarded by a gigantic and fierce dog, in the locked room of an unknown house, and later in the attic of a hospital. A little later Denis was picked up again, by a pair of Resistance fighters driving a car fuelled by a charcoal-burning contraption bolted to the back of it. They informed him that a British aeroplane was coming to pick him up that night, and that they were taking him to the landing ground. But on the way there, they saw an identical little car being towed by some German soldiers. The Frenchmen, recognising the car as belonging to one of their comrades, panicked. Clearly the operation had been compromised. The car stopped, the Frenchmen jumped out and urgently knocked on the door of the nearest house, and Denis was unceremoniously pushed inside. (Denis was later told that a British aircraft did indeed land to pick up a whole bunch of evaders, and that the Germans waited until it was loaded and had taken off before shooting it down in cold blood.)
Denis’ new host was not enamoured with the idea of involuntarily sheltering an Allied airman, and by the third day, despite not sharing a common language, he made it clear that he was not welcome. So Denis left.
He was now alone in occupied France.
For the next little while (he isn’t certain how long), Denis wandered between farmhouses scrounging for food. It was at one of these places that he met an American airman, a Thunderbolt pilot who he knew only as ‘Tex’ who had been shot down some nine months previously. They decided to join forces. For a while all was ok, but scrounging sufficient food for two was even harder than it had been when they were on their own. As they got hungrier they started to take more risks, and one day it all came unstuck.
They were in a café and the plan was for Tex to cause a distraction at the counter while Denis pinched a loaf of bread. Unfortunately, two German soldiers walked in at the exact moment that Tex began talking, in his broad Texan accent, to the girl behind the counter. The game was up. The two unfortunate airmen were handcuffed and taken away.
Interrogated half-heartedly by an elderly German soldier who reminded him of a nice old school teacher, Denis was informed that as they had been caught in civilian clothes it was being presumed that they were spies. They were to be taken to Berlin for further interrogation by the Gestapo. “I’d visions of my fingernails being pulled out,” Denis said with a shudder. Sure enough, the next night Denis and Tex were taken to the station, handcuffed together, and were on the point of being bundled onto the train when one of their two guards ducked around the corner to answer a call of nature.
“Tex looked at me,” Denis recalled. “He didn’t say anything but I knew he was going to [do something].” Denis watched wide-eyed as Tex kicked the remaining guard in the groin, stole his gun and shot him in the head. Predictably the other guard then stuck his head around the corner to see what the fuss was about, and Tex shot him too. And then, still handcuffed together, the two airmen ran. Amazingly they were not chased. They spent the next few nights in several barns until they managed to convince one of the farmers to remove their handcuffs with a cold chisel.
Despite their shared perils, however, Denis and Tex went their separate ways shortly afterwards. And here’s where Denis’ story gets truly bizarre. He was just outside a forest one day, foraging for food, when he heard some tanks approaching. So he high-tailed it into the forest and up a tree – then watched in horror as the tanks, which were German, stopped and proceeded to set up their own camp directly underneath his tree.
They stayed there for four days.
FOUR DAYS.
For all of that time, Denis remained in the tree, having used a piece of his parachute which he had been carrying to tie himself to the branch so he could sleep. He sucked the dew off the leaves to survive. The hardest part, he told me, was smelling the aromas when the troops were cooking their rations. The tanks eventually packed up camp and left – and not once had anyone looked up.
Denis crawled down from his tree, very stiff, very sore, very hungry and very thirsty. He had a drink from a nearby stream and, stumbling across a calf, hacked a piece of flesh out of the unfortunate beast’s side. Suddenly beset by terrible stomach cramps from the unaccustomed nutrition, he drifted into an uneasy sleep just outside the forest. He awoke the next night to the sound of a big aeroplane circling very low nearby.
It was a lone Shorts Stirling bomber, and it dropped something big on the end of a parachute. Denis watched as the parachute descended and was making his way over to investigate when suddenly he heard a deep, threatening and unmistakably British voice. “You German bastard,” it growled, “you stop where you are!” Denis turned around, very slowly, to find a mean-looking soldier levelling an equally mean-looking submachine gun in his direction.
“I’m not a German,” Denis squeaked. “I’m an Aussie!”
It turned out that he had blundered into a small platoon of SAS commandos, operating from a well-hidden base behind the lines. The Stirling had been dropping them a Jeep. Denis would stay with the commandos for several days. At one point while they were out on an operation he snuck into their camp, found their radio and tapped out a desperate message to England. “They never answered and I never knew if it had been received,” he told me, “but I found out later from my wife that the federal police came to her [at home] and told her that I was safe at that time, but still behind enemy lines.”
Some time afterwards the commandos handed Denis back to the Resistance who placed him in yet another safe house – where he found Tex and several of his own crew waiting. Knowing that the fighting front was getting closer, the French were collecting their fugitive airmen in one place to wait for liberation.
It was not long coming. “We heard guns,” Denis recalled, “and thought, that’s real firing. So we went up the road, and it was General Patton’s mob, so we waved them down.”
Once they had convinced the Americans that they were Allied airmen who had been in hiding, the Yanks invited them into their tanks, and Denis had the surreal experience of standing in the gun turret, being handed bottles of wine from the grateful inhabitants of several villages as they were liberated.
Denis was sent back to Paris and eventually flown back to England in early September 1944. He had been on the run behind enemy lines for nearly three months. He eventually returned to Australia and his family.
Perhaps unsurprisingly after his experiences, Denis is still coping with the effects of his war. He still occasionally suffers nightmares – “it’s horrifying how realistic it is” – and he said he’d told me things during the interview that he never told his wife (who died about fifteen years ago). It’s clearly hard for him to talk about. But a decade or so ago, his son sat him down and said, “look Dad, you’ve got grandchildren and great grandchildren now – you should leave your story.”
And so Denis wrote. Only ten copies of the resulting manuscript were ever printed. The book includes his whole story, from enlistment to demob and beyond, and it’s uncompromising in its detail. It’s in need of a good edit but its raw honesty, and the astonishing story it tells, makes it one of the more remarkable aircrew memoirs that I’ve read.
As well as setting the incredible tale onto paper, the act of writing the book, I suspect, helped Denis to in some way cope with the demons he’s carried for so long. But something else helped too. There’s a photo on Denis’ wall of him with his son at the Bomber Command memorial in London. It was taken in 2014 when they went on a pilgrimage to Europe.
As well as England, they went across the Channel to France. They visited the lock keeper’s house where Denis had been hidden. They attended receptions in town halls with ceremonies and local dignitaries. They even found a woman who, as a young girl, had been present at the impromptu party when Denis celebrated his 21st birthday behind enemy lines. But most important of all, they visited two lone war graves in two separate churchyards: those of rear gunner Sgt Col Allen and pilot P/O Tom Davis, the two members of Denis’ crew who did not survive the crash.
Standing next to the grave of his brave pilot, Denis broke down in tears. “I bless all of you for coming here today in memory of my comrade,” he told the gathering of local townsfolk. “But also a very important agenda on my plate today is to say thank you, thank you, thank you.”
During Denis'pilgrimage in 2014 I was during all the week with him and his son Dennis Junior, followed by a team of ABC Australia;

https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/d-day-veteran-returns-to-thank-french-villagers/5503802

In 2015 Denis was awarded French Legion d'Honneur by French Government for his contribution in the liberation of France during WW2.

[MPN11]

Awesome personal courage ... and luck! Thanks for posting that ... another unsung true hero.

[David Thompson]

I am posting here on the suggestion of Geriaviator and would like to draw PPRuNer's to a thread about Elwyn already running in the 'Where are They Now' section , see here ;
https://www.pprune.org/where-they-now/555640-flt-lt-elwyn-david-bell.html .
If anyone can help or as ever know someone who can then please get in touch .
Thank you

[radar101]

A dust-producing video there, Ricardian

[India Four Two]

Not a pilot’s story but very deserving of a wider audience - Wally’s War.

https://wallyswar.wordpress.com/

The story of Wally Layne during WWII. The blog details his training as a WOP/AG, his operations on Hampdens and Lancasters and his time as a POW. I found his experiences as a POW fascinating, particularly the stories of forced marches, as camps were evacuated ahead of the advancing Russians.

Posted with permission from his son, David.

[David Layne]

Many thanks for posting my blog India Four Two. I would appreciate any suggestions, corrections and hopefully more information.

[mikehallam]

Me thinks it's a shame if this forum subject falters when, inevitably, the very old initiators pass on, because I believe there's stuff out there that their children, grandchildren or other relations have knowledge about which they could write.
It would be a tribute - if ephemeral - to all those grand fellows,
This 'thread' now needs your contributions.

For my part all I can offer is that last week at 82 and thanks to them all clearing the way 1939/45, I flew solo unmolested by enemy fighters or flack from a grass strip in UK Sussex to mid Chauvigny France and a few days later back at a sedate 78 1/2 mph.

mike.

[Geriaviator]

Congratulations on your epic journey, Mike! Your four years' seniority makes your achievement all the more commendable. It's a long time since I flew my favourite Tiger Moth, it was just like riding a bike after 25 years but the traffic and the vast expansion of controlled airspace was something else. Alas my over-enthusiastic pull into a loop led to hydraulic failure. For the youngsters, the Tiger Moth does not have a hydraulic system; the exact problem you will understand in another 30/40 years when we're long gone!

This thread has indeed run its course, as we always expected, for very few of that wonderful generation remain. It was our privilege to hear their stories in these pages. However, as you suggest there are still stories out there, and I have come across one of these in the course of family research. So here goes:

What's the connection between the Emperor Napoleon imprisoned on St Helena, South Australia, and Operation Jericho, the Mosquito attack on Amiens Prison? Watch this space!

[mikehallam]

With bated pen !

[Geriaviator]

OPERATION Jericho was one of the most spectacular operations of the war. Three squadrons of Mosquito bombers carried out a low-level attack on Amiens prison, blowing down the walls and enabling Resistance prisoners to escape. This is the inspiring story of one of the pilots, Sqn Ldr Ian McRitchie, DFC, Royal Australian Air Force, as told to me by his daughter Anne in Australia.

Around 1800 a young Scotsman called Thomas McRitchie left his wine business in Leith, the port of Edinburgh, to become a merchant in St. Helena, the island in the South Atlantic. Today it is isolated but it was then a very busy supply stop for sailing ships which would follow the trade winds around the world, the journey from London taking a year or more.

Its best-known if unwilling resident was Napoleon Bonaparte, exiled there after the battle of Waterloo, and Thomas’s name appears on a list of those suspected of smuggling letters for Napoleon during his exile. A century later the McRitchies had emigrated to Australia, where Alexander Ian McRitchie was born in Melbourne on 16 June 1915.

Ian, as he was known, was educated at St Kilda College and South Melbourne Technical School. When his father, a stonemason, died in 1926 at the age of 62, the 13-year-old boy had to start work to help support his widowed mother and brother. He continued his studies at night school and in 1935 he gained an engineering cadetship with BHP. Between 1935 and 1940 he worked as a metallurgist at Newcastle (New South Wales) and Whyalla in South Australia.

In 1936 he was placed in charge of the Heat Treatment Plant at Whyalla, supervising the controlled heating and cooling operations used to change the physical properties of a metal to improve its structural and physical properties for some particular use.

It was in Whyalla, a remote part of Australia blessed with clear blue skies day after day, that Ian began what was to become his lifetime hobby – flying. He was so determined to fly that he purchased a second hand book on flying for one shilling and after studying it he entered a competition and won free flying lessons! He was the first person to obtain a pilot’s licence with the Spencer Gulf Aero Club in 1937 and by 1939 he was chief flying instructor of the Club.

But meanwhile, on the other side of the world, the clouds were gathering ...

[Chugalug2]

Given that Operation names were not supposed to give any hint of their intended purpose, I have always wondered about Jericho. Could not German Intelligence have put two and two together and looked around their estate for walls that might be possible targets? Of course it might have been a cunning plan worthy of Baldrick that the last thing they should worry about were walls, given the deviousness of the Brits!

Looking forward to your tale, Geriaviator. The Empire and Dominion volunteers that flew with the RAF were an essential part of the hard fought victories over European Fascism and Japanese Nationalism.

[mikehallam]

This is beginning well !

Thanks for entering the start of an apposite WW II exploit here.

[Ormeside28]

As a “newly winged “ RAF pilot expecting to fly Spitfires or Mustangs, because of the casualties suffered by the Glider Pilot Regiment on the 17th September 1945 and the following week, I became a voluntary conscript in the Glider Pilot Regiment. On the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden I would like to acknowledge those who died. at Arnhem and the survivors who trained us for the Rhine Crossing on the 24th March 1945.

[Brian 48nav]

Thank you for the reminder - such brave men.
We had an ex-Glider Pilot regiment man in the control tower at Boscombe in the mid 80s, John Leatherbarrow ( now sadly RIP ) who had previously been at Pershore until it closed. I saw him again after he retired when he was in a group ( Aircrew Association? ) who visited the tower at Heathrow in the 90s.Top man.

[Fareastdriver]

My Valiant captain, Fred Jones, started his flying career with the Glider Pilot Regiment at the end of the War. After his demob in1947 he joined the RAF and became a powered pilot.

He departed this world earlier this year.

[Geriaviator]

WHEN World War II began Ian McRitchie expected to be called up for the RAAF but the authorities had other plans – they wanted Ian, a skilled metallurgist, for the vital tasks of steel-making and heat treatment. As the Germans raced across Europe he made repeated requests to go to England to join the RAF but as he was in a reserved occupation in Australia his requests were refused.

Thanks to his friend Captain J Maitland Thompson, harbour master for Port Lincoln south of Whyalla, he boarded a ship for England as a greaser in the engine room, paid threepence a week plus his keep, that’s 1.5p in today’s money if we still had halfpennies. He arrived in Bristol in October 1940 after a ten-week voyage which earned him 30p (or 12.5p today) and as an illegal immigrant he was promptly detained at His Majesty’s pleasure. Subsequently and fortunately for Ian, the RAAF’s Directorate of Air Force Recruiting gave approval.

But the Battle of Britain was on, the blitz on London was fierce and anyone arriving in the country with instruction experience and a commercial pilot’s licence would be welcome. In November Ian was granted a pilot officer’s commission in the RAF and was posted to 151 Squadron, operating Hurricanes and Defiants in the night fighter role from Wittering.

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The Merlin-engined Boulton Paul Defiant has a mixed reputation because of its terrible losses when used as a day fighter earlier in 1940, though most accounts say it was pleasant to fly albeit no great performer due to the weight of the turret. It was designed to Air Ministry requirements as a bomber destroyer with a four-gun turret behind the pilot but no forward-firing armament. The gunner could turn his turret so that the guns could fire along each side of the pilot while the enemy presumably refrained from attacking round the back.

The Defiant resembled the hump-backed Hurricane and some Luftwaffe pilots made the mistake of attacking what appeared to be a novice pilot stooging along straight and level, or of passing alongside to be hit broadside by the gunner. But they soon discovered the Defiant’s weakness and attacked head-on; over Dunkirk the German Me110 pilots were overheard saying “Easy meat” as the luckless Defiants were blown out of the sky. With losses up to 80% the Defiants were withdrawn from day operations.

Ian was given a few months of advanced training before he began operations in June 1941, by which time the night Blitz had reached its heights. Airborne radar was still being developed and had a very short range so the fighters were given steers by ground stations, one method involving a radar-equipped Douglas Havoc using its Turbinlite searchlight to illuminate the target so the accompanying fighter could attack.

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On the evening of October 31 Ian and his gunner, F/Officer Sammy Sampson, attacked four Ju88 bombers east of Great Yarmouth. Sammy shot one down while the others jettisoned their bombs and turned for Holland, pursued by the Defiant. They managed to catch up with one and and began a 15-minute battle in which Sammy scored numerous hits before his guns jammed. The Ju88 pilot obviously knew the Defiant’s weakness, for he turned to make a head-on attack which Ian successfully evaded by diving to sea level while Sammy struggled to clear his guns.

With the turret in operation again, Ian chased the bomber almost to the Dutch coast before they could make another attack, Sammy’s four-second burst being seen to strike all over the Junkers. Only then did Ian break away and return to Wittering to claim one destroyed and one damaged.

Luftwaffe activity decreased as winter drew in and weather deteriorated, but Ian and gunner Sgt Albert Beale destroyed another Ju88 which was trying to attack a convoy off Great Yarmouth. This was 151 Sqn’s only kill for November, but at long last airborne radar was improving and even better, so were the aircraft. As a New Year dawned, 151 Sqn was told they were to re-equip with Mosquitos.

[Pali]

On Friday, one of the last living Czech RAF pilots Kurt Taussig passed away in the age of 96 years.

In fact he was of German/Jewish origin from Sudetenland who was arrested in 1939, escaped as a one of Nicholas Winton's children and fought in RAF against Hitler. Served in 224th Squadron and wanted to join Czechoslovak unit but wasn't admitted due his German nationality.

Rest in peace, sir.

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[BEagle]

As I once wrote:

A couple of years after the Velvet Revolution, we took a VC10K to Hradec Kralove in the Czech Republic for a static display. On the first public day, we noticed a number of elderly gents in rather ancient RAF uniforms sitting in a VIP enclosure. They waved us over and we found out that they were survivors of WW2 who'd escaped to Britain to fly against the Nazis. Fascinating old chaps; whilst we were chatting a youngish fellow in a civilian suit asked us if we'd like a drink from the amply stocked bar. Of course we did, then asked one of the old chaps who he was "Him? Top Boss of Czech Air Force. Good guy!" he told us. The old chaps had many interesting tales to tell, but we had to say our thanks and get back to our aircraft.

There was an amazing hangar party afterwards - the invitation card from the Commander-in-Chief of the Czech Air Force stated that there would be food and drink, folk dancing, a beauty competition...and a striptease show! All of which happened, although some Victor groundcrew idiot insisted on using a squadron patch to demonstrate the velcro effect... The girl smiled sweetly though.

I can just see The Sun headlines if the same thing had happened in the UK and Air Chief Marshal Sir Hardly-Worthitt had issued visiting aircrew and groundcrew with an invite to a strip show....

[Geriaviator]

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Ian McRitchie’s 151 Sqn received its first Mosquito night fighters in April 1942, replacing its cannon-armed Hurricane IIcs, and the Defiants were replaced in July. It was the aircraft he had been waiting for.

Within a few weeks of conversion, on the night of July 30, he shot down a Dornier 217 about 60 miles off the Norfolk coast, but his radio failed so he returned to base at Wittering in the absence of ground radar guidance, on the way noticing some anti-aircraft fire which might indicate the presence of more raiders.

His radar op, Flt Sgt Fred James, then picked up a target at the extreme range of his Mk 5 airborne radar, but lost it. They were in the Wittering circuit for landing when Ian noticed AA fire and searchlights over Farnborough to the south and as they climbed towards it Fred picked up another target on his radar.

They caught up on the raider and just as Ian began his attack a searchlight illuminated the Mosquito. Alerted, the German pilot made a diving turn which was difficult to follow on the AI Mk 5 and they lost sight of it.

As they climbed again at around 2am they spotted another raider in a searchlight beam and a target appeared on radar coming towards them. Ian entered a tight turn and found another Dornier 217 in his sights, but the searchlight again illuminated the Mosquito and the German began evasive action, closely followed by the Mosquito which was nearly hit as the bombs were jettisoned. The German gunner also scored hits on the Mosquito wing, but could not avoid the 20mm cannon shells hitting his wings and fuselage.

By this time the pair were down to 1300ft and Ian had difficulty seeing the Dornier against the dark ground, while the radar returns were lost against the surface. After firing all his ammunition Ian broke off and returned to Wittering after a four-hour sortie, claiming their second victim as damaged.

Next day they heard that the AA detachment had claimed a Dornier 217 shot down around the same time as their action. The aircraft crashed into bogland near Peterborough, its four crew being killed.

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The incredibly cramped cockpit of the Mosquito night fighter has barely enough room for the instrument panel and radar screen. The radar operator/navigator sat slightly behind the pilot so their shoulders could overlap as there was insufficient room to sit side by side. Imagine doing a four-hour sortie in this tiny space ...

On the night of September 8/9 Ian and Fred caught another Dornier, jinking violently at 200 mph and heading north. Ian opened fire with a four-second burst from 300 yds, causing a fire in the fuselage.

His combat report stated: “Enemy a/c began diving turns with ineffectual return fire but failed to avoid a further three-second burst which set the port engine on fire. Another three-second burst hit the wings and the bomber dived into the ground, exploding in a vivid white flash”.

The Dornier 217, which crashed at Orwell near Cambridge with the loss of all crew, was Ian’s last combat victim. After 105 sorties he was promoted Flt/Lt and in July 1943 was posted to 51 OTU as an instructor, leaving a major engineering development of the Mosquito night fighter as his legacy. More details next week!

[Ddraig Goch]

Great stuff Geriaviator. This exactly what our dear friend Danny used to enjoy.

[Geriaviator]

For newcomers to the thread, this story begins at post #12692

This story of Sqn Ldr Ian McRitchie was told to me by his daughter Anne, who lives in Australia. I also received considerable information from the late Jack Fishman, author of And the Walls came Tumbling Down, an account of Operation Jericho (Souvenir Press, 1982). Jack travelled to Australia to interview Ian for his book, and told me that he was one of the most interesting men he ever met. -- Geriaviator

AS WELL as being a superb pilot, Ian McRitchie had a well-honed technical mind which he put to work just as soon as he became familiar with Mosquitos. Realising that the aircraft’s existing gunsight was unsuitable, he modified it by removing the optical flap from the sight and projecting the target image directly onto the windscreen, fabricating the necessary brackets in station workshops. It was an early head-up display, no less.

Anyone who knows the RAF knows that such DIY mods are viewed with disapproval. Fortunately he had the ear of Air Vice Marshal Basil Embry, who ordered that Ian’s successful mod should be installed in all the group’s Mosquitos. Embry had survived the 1940 raids which all but wiped out the Blenheim squadrons, having been shot down and escaped from France, and was a thorn in the side of officialdom because he flew all the types used in his wing and would fight his crews’ corner at every opportunity.

He not only approved Ian’s gunsight mods, but ordered it to be fitted to all the 2TAF aircraft. When Ian worked out that the RAF’s standard harmonisation pattern for the aircraft’s four 20mm cannon was inappropriate, he worked out a new pattern and again this mod became the new standard.

Until 1943 RAF night fighters were painted black on the recommendation of Farnborough research scientists, until Ian discovered that none of them had ever flown at night. Not satisfied, he tried different finishes with the help of his aviation artist friend, Roy Nockolds. Their experiments led to Fighter Command changing its night fighter camouflage to a very light grey-green with white along the leading edges, which proved much more difficult to spot against the sky or ground. Coastal Command had the same idea and painted their aircraft white, for oddly enough the Sunderlands, Catalinas and Liberators were rendered extremely difficult to spot among the grey Atlantic skies.

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Aviation artist Roy Nockolds and Ian McRitchie discuss a picture of Ian’s first kill, painted after the two men had produced a successful camouflage scheme for the RAF's night fighters.

Realising Ian’s true value, Basil Embry tried to have him shifted to a night fighter development unit, but he joined the Armament and Instrument Development Flight instead to work as a researcher and test pilot in the Aerodynamic Flight at Farnborough. There he flew 25 different British, American and German aircraft types and gained the reputation of being innovative and able to find creative answers to technical problems.

Ian’s experience with American aircraft led him to warn Embry that the Vultee Vengeance dive bomber being recommended for the 2nd Tactical Air Force (TAF) was unsuitable for operations in Europe, although designed to a British specification. He said that the Vengeance was too slow, had a poor climb rate and could not carry a sufficient bomb load. (Our much loved contributor Danny 42C, who flew the Vengeance on ops in Burma, would heartily agree with this assessment).

When 12 Allied air officers at a conference tried to force the Vengeance onto Embry, he replied that he would not be a party to his men being killed in the Vultee Vengeance. The discussion became heated until Embry demanded: “Have any of YOU flown the bloody thing?” They replied that they had not. “Well, I have”, said Embry. The top brass received another broadside from Embry, and 2TAF received their Mosquitos.

Ian became increasingly eager to return to operational flying, badgering Embry for a posting. It came on 18th January 1944 when he joined 464 Squadron, the Australian unit at Hunsdon in Hertfordshire to fly the new Mosquito in the 2nd Tactical Air Force. He would be flying Mosquitos again but this time it would be bombers, not night fighters. He quickly adapted himself to bombing techniques and trained his pilots in the versatility of the Mosquitos he knew so well, beginning with a raid on Munster and from February the attacks on the Pas de Calais V-weapon sites.

On February 12 he and his navigator Dick Sampson became separated from the squadron over the Channel and flew alone to their V1 target. Ian lowered the undercarriage to reduce speed and released their delayed-action bombs into the front door of the concrete building through which the V1s would be taken out to the launch ramp. As they climbed away they looked back to see the entire roof of the building rise many feet from its foundations. Nobody believed them on their return to Hunsdon until next day, when a recce Spitfire confirmed the site’s destruction.

Ops continued over the next week until sleet and snow made them impossible, so Ian took a 24-hour pass to visit his wife and nine-month-old daughter Anne -- who would tell me this story 75 years later. On Ian's return his Australian friend Bob Iredale said: “Basil was here and was sorry to have missed you. He briefed us for an important raid due any day”. No more was said, but Ian knew that if Basil Embry had visited to deliver a personal briefing, it would be for something very special.

[mikehallam]

Multiple thank you Geriaviator for presenting another fascinating chapter and with details how one man's skills & determination, amongst many others of course, helped the winning side.

It was pleasing to read the inclusion of Danny's Favourite (??) steed's rejection for European op's and hence his own sudden need to recycle/adapt his Spitfire training to use the Vengeancequite quite differently, & in India instead.
Apparently nothing was completely wasted, just passed on down the line !

[roving]

Geriaviator, I too have really enjoyed each part of your serialisation of this highly skilled and brave pilot and look forward to the next instalment.

So much have I enjoyed it, that it has whetted my appetite to rummage through the dark corners of Youtube in search of recent relevant uploads..

There are no Mosquito fighter bombers in this 1990's full colour production. But with commentary provided by AVM Johnnie Johnson, Grumpy Unwin, Mark Hanna, sadly all now passed on, together with US aces, and flying versions of all the aircraft described in this tribute to aircrew KIA in WWII, I hope it is of interest to others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwKfG-OZEBU

[Geriaviator]

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MUCH HAS been written about Operation Jericho, the low-level attack on Amiens prison, so I propose only a brief outline except for the part played by the subject of this story, Sqn Ldr Ian McRitchie. In summary, the French Resistance asked for the prison to be attacked because hundreds of their members, including network leaders, were being held there by the Gestapo, many of them being tortured while awaiting execution.

The brutal explanation was that if the walls could be blown down the prisoners could escape; if they were killed it did not matter because so many were due for execution anyway. The task was entrusted to three Mosquito squadrons, 487 (NZ) 464 (Australia) and 21 (RAF), the last to carry out backup attacks if necessary. Accompanying them would be a Mosquito from the RAF Photographic Unit, which would film the raid from 500ft above them.

The raid would be led by Group Capt. Percy Pickard, one of Bomber Command’s best-known figures following his appearance in Target for Tonight, the Oscar-winning documentary produced in 1941.

Briefing revealed a five-foot square model of the target, which I last saw in the Imperial War Museum many years ago. The route from Hunsdon would be flown below the German radar to ensure surprise and the raid would be at lunchtime to ensure the prisoners would be in their mess hall and the guards in their quarters.

The Kiwis of 487 Sqn would form the first wave and would breach the prison’s 25ft outer walls by placing their bombs into them from below the wall level -- Pickard suggested the crews should approach at 10ft above the ground. Next would be Ian and his 464 Sqn, who were instructed to breach the inner walls of the prison, the most delicate task of all. They would also bomb the German guards’ quarters, two lean-to buildings against the main wall.

Pickard concluded with a terrible choice for the crews. “If I see prisoners escaping I shall radio 21 Squadron to return home. But if none are getting out I shall radio the squadron to bomb the prison. We have been informed that the prisoners would rather be killed by Allied bombs than by German bullets”.

The Mosquito fighter-bomber’s four 20mm cannon projected into the bomb bay, requiring specially shortened casings and fins for its 500lb bombs. Thanks to his expertise as a metallurgist, towards the end of the briefing Ian took Pickard aside to ask if HQ had considered the need for a speed limit when putting bombs into a masonry wall. The bombs were fitted with 11-second delay fuses to allow aircraft to clear the explosion, but at speeds over 240 mph the casings would probably fracture and render the weapon useless.

Pickard immediately passed on this warning to the crews and Ian contributed further advice: “On the runup for the attack, don’t fly in our usual formation, but go line astern so we should be able to get the bombs straight into the guardhouse.”

With the murderous Gestapo setting the timetable, there could be no delay due to the weather and the Mosquitos took off in blizzard conditions -- so bad that their Typhoon escort was unable to rendezvous with them. And as they crossed the French coast the alarm was sounding across the Luftwaffe fighter base at Abbeville, not far from Amiens.

The RAF Film Unit Mosquito accompanied the raid and its spectacular footage of 464 Sqn outbound over the Channel and en route to the target can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qUuNfl3jEk

[Geriaviator]

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/783x800/amiens_prison_bombed_a8e792fbedeff2bd094ad03a7483881307d4a89 d.jpg
Dramatic photo of a Mosquito, bomb doors open, pulling up after delivering four bombs against the prison wall and buildings. A cloud of masonry dust is rising but the bombs have an 11-second delay before they explode. Tailwheel of the photo Mosquito, just ahead of the attacking aircraft, is in centre. BELOW: Seventy-five years later the repaired breach in the outer wall is still visible.

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FOUR Mosquitos lost contact with the formation and had to return to base and one had to turn back due to engine trouble, leaving nine to carry out the main attack with four in reserve.

At one minute past noon they reached Amiens, three of the 487 Sqn aircraft aiming for the eastern and northern walls of the prison, while the other two made a diversion attack on the local railway station, before returning to the prison. The attack began with an approach along the main road, the Mosquitos flying at 60ft to clear the poplar trees along each side of the road before descending to 50ft, release their bombs, and pull up to clear the prison buildings.

Two 464 aircraft attacked the eastern wall with eight 500 lb (230 kg) bombs delivered from 50ft but observers did not see any damage to the prison. Within a few seconds, two Mosquitos bombed the main building from 100 ft.

Ian McRitchie’s 464 Sqn Mosquitos were too close behind and had to circle while the bombs detonated. Ian bombed the northern wall, causing a large breach, with another bomb scoring a direct hit on the guardhouse. Pickard, circling at 500 ft, saw the prisoners streaming from the prison and told 21 Sqn to return home. As he himself turned, he was attacked by a Fw 190 of JG 26; its cannon severed the tail of his Mosquito, which crashed and burned. By this time some of the Canadian Typhoon pilots had managed to reach Amiens despite the weather and one was shot down while protecting the Mosquitos, though they in turn destroyed at least one Focke-Wulf. Another Typhoon was lost when it flew into a hillside while trying to reach base in a snowstorm.

A total of 255 prisoners escaped, though 182 were recaptured. The diversion attack on the railway station delayed German reinforcements, sent to recapture the escapees, by two hours but the Luftwaffe was called in and found it easy to spot the prisoners against the snow-covered countryside. The terrible price was the 102 prisoners killed and many others wounded. The number of German casualties is unknown as the direct hit all but obliterated their quarters.

On the return flight after the raid, approaching Caen at 250 mph and under 100 feet, Ian went straight over a flak battery. Its 20mm shells struck the starboard side of the fuselage and shrapnel severely wounded Ian in the right leg and arm in 26 places and hit his temple, blinding his right eye. He called to his navigator, Dick “Sammy” Sampson for help, but he had been killed instantly.

Wiping blood from his head wound and the windscreen, Ian managed to keep control of the damaged and tricky to handle Mosquito and make a successful belly-landing near the village of Frenouville in the flat Somme countryside. The tiny door in the starboard side of the cockpit was of course shredded by the flak shells, so Ian had to release the canopy and clamber out despite his wounds. Then he passed out.

[Geriaviator]

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/905x599/dick_sampson_and_baby_36f7c07d10649b8b1b7013e045f7e94797922f 2a.jpg
This delightful picture of “Sammy” Sampson was taken a few months before he was killed. The little girl is Anne, the daughter of his friend and pilot Ian McRitchie -- and seventy-five years later Anne is relating this story from her home in New South Wales. He is buried in St Denis Eglise cemetery near Amiens.

WHILE Sqn Ldr Ian McRitchie lay unconscious alongside his wrecked aircraft after being shot down on the Amiens prison raid, his navigator and friend Dick “Sammy” Sampson was dead in the cockpit.

Both men were among the thousands of Commonwealth personnel who journeyed halfway around the world to fight for the cause of freedom. In the case of Richard Webb Sampson his determination was such that he took three years off his age so he could train as a pilot.

Richard Webb Sampson, inevitably nicknamed ‘Sammy’ when he joined the RNZAF, was born at Dannevirke, a village in the Manawatu-Wanganui region of North Island, New Zealand.

He became a farmer and while working as a stock agent he learned to fly with Auckland Aero Club. When war broke out he applied for service with the Royal New Zealand Air Force in January 1940, reducing his age by three years, and was posted to Ohakea, North Island where he trained as an air gunner and was promoted to Sergeant.

Dick arrived in England in early September 1940 and after training in Scotland he was posted to 151 Squadron at Wittering as a gunner in Defiant night fighters. He carried out 64 operational sorties during which he shot down two German bombers, a Heinkel 111 and a Junkers 88. During this time he met Ian McRitchie and flew with him on many occasions.

In July 1941 he qualified as a navigator and was promoted Flying Officer as 151 converted to the Mosquito NF MkII. He flew armed patrols, shipping strikes and low level attacks, one being on the German radar site at Plancoet, France. He was promoted Flight Lieutenant in July 1943 and after a period in Headquarters 2 Group RAF he was posted to 464 Squadron RAAF at Hunsdon, where he once again paired up with
Ian McRitchie.

Dick Sampson is buried in St Denis Eglise cemetery at Poix de Picardie, 25 kilometres south-west of the city of Amiens. His was not his family’s only sacrifice, for his younger brother, 34 year old Henry Wools Sampson, was killed in July 1942 while flying his third operation as a gunner with 149 Squadron. His Short Stirling was shot down by a German night fighter in north-east France.

Next post: Ian recovers in hospital from severe injuries and finishes the war in a prison camp.

[Chugalug2]

Geriaviator, thank you for the story of Ian McRitchie and his antipodean comrades. The tenacity with which he defied the authorities in Australia and "greased" his way to the UK in order to fight its enemies was only a hint of what was to come. Chasing a Junkers 88 nearly all the way to Holland was bordering on the reckless, given the defences lined up against them, but they got their damaged Junkers (likely a kill?) having already secured a previous kill. All this in a Defiant, a fighter designed by committee if ever there was one!

The snug arrangements in the Mosquito cockpit no doubt made for good crew co-operation, but what a versatile aircraft it was! As you say, Amiens prison and Jericho are well known and possibly its greatest exploit. Whether the wretched incumbents had actually asked to be bombed is a moot point and the overwhelming shadow of the approaching Invasion of Europe must have dominated all operations given the secrecy that success was dependent on. Whatever the purpose, the crews played a blinder. Dumb bombs maybe, but smart crews certainly.

Looking forward to the rest of this story of a truly remarkable Aussie.

[Geriaviator]

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SEVERELY wounded by the flak burst which killed his navigator “Sammy” Sampson, Ian McRitchie awoke in a Dieppe hospital to which German troops had taken him, and later he was moved to Amiens for treatment in a military hospital not far from the prison.

There he was told that several of the delayed-action bombs had gone clean through the prison wall, one exploding in a field, another skidding into the hospital grounds where it exploded and killed a number of German soldiers. It was later found that the ancient walls had been built dry-stone, without mortar, and therefore offered far less resistance to impact than a cement-bound masonry structure. This is why the wall was not breached despite the accuracy of the bombing.

Seventy-five years later, Ian’s daughter Anne tells me that although her father rarely talked about the war as she was growing up, in later years he told her that when he was flying at night and there was no action, he would pass the time practising flight with one arm and one leg. Without this practice it was doubtful whether he would have been able to make a successful crash landing given the extent of his injuries, which would affect him for the rest of his life.

When he was well enough, Ian was placed in solitary confinement and interrogated for 42 days, an ordeal in itself. He then spent another six or seven weeks in Dulag Luft at Oberusel, the Luftwaffe’s transit camp for allied British and US aircrew before they were assigned to a POW camp. After more fruitless interrogations he was dispatched to Stalag Luft 1 at Barth to see out the war.

Stalag Luft 1 was ‘home’ for around 7000 Americans and 850 British and Commonwealth airmen. Although at first his injured arm was of little use, Ian soon joined the camp’s escape organisation where his skill in heat-treating metals led to a wire cutter ‘factory’ being set up under his supervision. One might wonder why charities should send POWs a gift of ice skates, but Ian immediately saw the possibilities in hardened steel blades to produce efficient wire cutters which it is believed were used in escape attempts as well as raids on German stores.

But one of the most significent events of his captivity was his meeting with Sqn Ldr Ken Watts, RAAF, whose P40 Kittyhawk had been shot down over Italy. Ken Watts later recalled that they had never met until then, but they had been mates ever since.

“Over the years bits of shrapnel from the flak and plywood from the Mosquito used to emerge from his right arm, and the RAF uniform which he was wearing in the camp had many flak holes in the sleeve. I have never met a man with such enterprise and such a wide knowledge of all sorts of matters. He read well and copiously. While guests of the Third Reich, one section of Kriegies [prisoners] called him ‘Fixer’ and the others called him ‘Professor’. He was equally at ease with both.”

Early in May 1945, the camp was liberated by Russian troops, and within a fortnight the prisoners were repatriated to England. Ian and many thousands of colleagues were free again. He would never fly a Mosquito again, but his flying days were far from over.

[mikehallam]

Thank you again,

What a lot of individual acts of heroism & bravery, which - largely only known to those near them - must have been an underlying reason for our eventually beating the Axis states.

Apropos Ian's 'gaunt' appearance as an ex POW, Ken Watts looks positively blooming ??

[Octane]

one recovering from grievous injuries, the other not

[Union Jack]

The Military Aviation forum at its very best! Very grateful thanks to Geraviator, and of course Anne McRitchie - Danny would have been so proud, dare I say "with a Vengeance"......

Jack

[Geriaviator]

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RETURNING to England, Ian McRitchie was reunited with his wife Joyce, sister of a fellow airman whom he had met in 1941, his daughter Anne who had been born in 1943, and her little sister Lynne whom he met for the first time as she was born while he was in prison camp.

His duty done, Ian did not stay long in England and after His Majesty presented him with the Distinguished Flying Cross in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace, the McRitchie family set sail for Australia to his home town of Melbourne where his mother Cassie was waiting to welcome him. As he had left for the war while he was working in Whyalla, the town honoured him by naming McRitchie Crescent after him.

His return as a distinguished RAAF pilot in World War II was announced with a full page photo spread in the Australian Women’s Weekly on 20th October 1945 although most of the photos were of Anne as a baby and the heading was ‘Australian Baby on British Posters’. This was a reference to the fact that Anne had been chosen by the British Ministry of Food to model for a series of posters on ‘How to Bring Up Baby’!

His Service days behind him, Ian and his ex-prisoner friend Sqn-Ldr Ken Watts founded the Watts McRitchie Engineering Company in Hawthorn with Ian as managing director. The company soon became established as a leader in metallurgy and Ian had neither time nor money for flying which had once been such an important part of his life.

By 1962 Ian had become Honorary Secretary of the Australian Institute of Metals and then Federal President. He was a Fellow of the Institute of Metallurgy. One of his greatest loves was his association with engineering and manufacturing colleagues – in the Metal Trades Industry Association, the Institute of Metals and especially the Vernier Club, which had been established in 1942 in Melbourne as a fraternity of down to earth engineers whose purpose was to promote dialogue amongst those with a practical day-to-day involvement in the technical world. He was President of Vernier on two occasions, about 20 years apart and a long-time member of the Vernier Committee.
After many years of successful operation, Watts McRitchie Engineering Company was sold to McPhersons and Ian stayed on until 1964 when he formed his own firm, Melbourne Heat Treatment and Metallurgical Services Pty. Ltd and worked there almost every day for the last 33 years of his life until the end of 1997.

To many people in engineering manufacturing at that time, heat treatment was considered to be a ‘black art’. Ian saw the need to improve technical knowledge and scientific understanding and he encouraged learning and professional activities in this field. Every year he hosted a dinner sponsored by Melbourne Heat Treatment to which he invited many of his friends and clients. It was always an occasion for Ian to have as his guest speaker someone who reflected his own ideals of courage and independence such as the Antarctic explorer Dr. Philip Law or Dr. Reg Spriggs AO, a well-known geologist and petroleum explorer. But eventually he found time for relaxation, and took to the air again.

[thegypsy]

I have always wondered about films of POWs showing them in their uniform but that picture of Stalag 1 after the war shows the guy still in his uniform but what about those who were in POW prisons for almost the whole war. Did their uniforms not wear out or did they keep them as Sunday Best??

I wish now I had asked my uncle who spent from Jan '42 to May '45 in Stalag Luft 3 amongst others after his 40 Squadron Wellington came down in the sea off Wilhelmshaven.

[Geriaviator]

This is the final instalment of our inspiring story of Sqn Ldr Ian McRitchie, DFC, and is told by his daughter, Anne Joyce McRitchie.

WHEN my father arrived back in Australia, his focus had to be on making a success of his new business with Ken Watts and supporting his family. He did not have the financial resources to pursue his love of flying. However, in my late twenties I had a boyfriend who owned a light aircraft so I started learning to fly at Moorabbin airport on the outskirts of Melbourne. I was transferred to Sydney for work before I qualified for my licence, but my interest had renewed my father’s love of flying and at 55 he took it up again.

He went on to own a variety of aircraft including a Beech Baron twin, and for many years my father and mother enjoyed weekend flights into country areas, parking the plane, hopping onto a motorbike, and whizzing into town for lunch before the flight home. He often flew the 600 miles north to Arkaroola, in the spectacular, rugged mountains of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia's remote Outback, to visit his good friend Dr. Reg Spriggs, who ran Arkaroola Station.

His other favourite destination was Western Australia where he went to visit his mentor from his RAF days Sir Basil Embry, who after retiring from the RAF in February 1956 had bought a largely undeveloped farming property in the south west of Western Australia. He also acquired land at Cape Riche, east of Albany, and moved there in the late 1960s. I sometimes accompanied Ian and Joyce on their visits to Cape Riche where we were warmly welcomed by the Embry family.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/900x531/ian_in_beech_baron_0daea197748033ce8b80d9727c17a56ec2dbacb1. jpg

Flying with my father was not for the faint-hearted! Whenever I flew with him to Western Australia he insisted on flying along the Australian Bight at cliff height, Mosquito style skimming the waves while he pointed out rock formations in the cliffs of the Nullabor. When he had the plane on auto-pilot he would often appear to drop off to sleep which could be very unsettling for the passengers although he would immediately spring to attention at the slightest change in the movement or sound of the plane.

One day I was flying with my parents out of a small aerodrome near Melbourne. My mother was sitting in the front seat with me alone in the back. I was rather unwell at the time having come to Melbourne to recover from heavy bouts of chemotherapy and radiotherapy after surgery for cancer.

Suddenly my father told my mother to change places with me so that I was sitting at the dual controls. Once this manoeuvre had been successfully carried out, he told me to fly the plane along the valley we were in. Of course I did not have my licence, was recovering from medical treatment and it was several years since I had piloted a plane. Just climbing into the front seat exhausted me.

However I did my father’s bidding after he explained that there appeared to be a fault with the landing gear and he wanted to study the Operations Manual! The result was that he had to land not knowing whether the undercarriage was down or not. Of course with his flying skill it was a perfect landing and fortunately the wheels were locked down despite the warning light.

When Dad felt that he could no longer qualify to fly on medical grounds he switched to an ultralight, which he was still flying in his eighties – there was no medical examination or age limitation to fly an ultralight. My father of course was not content with any old ultralight so he and his good friend Bert Flood searched the world for the best performing machine available. They settled on an Ultravia Pelican, which was designed by Jean Rene Lepage and produced in Canada in kit form for amateur construction. My father built his own Pelican and spent many pleasurable hours in it, even flying to Arkaroola for the weekend.

Another long-term hobby was motorbike racing. After touching down in Arkaroola, Dad would take to the bush tracks with my mother riding pillion – two 80 year olds on a motorcycle exploring the countryside they loved so much. When he died there was still a motorbike stored at Arkaroola.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/930x470/ultralight_d766c2e195393606de92e10112182feb6a14bac6.jpg

After the war, my father was told that he probably would not live much past his sixties as a result of his war injuries. Not one to give up without a fight, he lived until 83, having had prostate cancer for several years beforehand. He was still active up to a few months before he passed away peacefully in a Melbourne hospital on 29 January 1998.

Dad’s funeral was a big event attended by hundreds of mourners. His friends had arranged for a piper playing ‘Scottish Soldier’ to lead in the coffin while several aircraft made a flypast.

Former flight lieutenant John Lyndquist spoke glowingly of Sqn Ldr McRitchie’s deeds when they were fellow prisoners-of-war. He said my father had single-handedly boosted morale and supplies for the Allied prisoners through secret raids on German stores. “He helped make our lives slightly more bearable,” John Lyndquist said. “He fought our battles for a tiny bit more food, any warmth that might be going”.

Flying friend Bob Rowe said my father liked anything that could fly, and any challenge. “If Ian could have grown wings, he would have”, he said. Emeritus Professor Endersbee give the funeral oration, concluding with these words: “Ian McRitchie was courageous, purposeful and optimistic, industrious, adventurous and fearless. He encouraged these qualities in others. He was a loving husband, father and grandfather”.

For myself, I recalled my brave, skilful and loving father as a spirit that soared. And that’s how I shall always remember him.

[MPN11]

Awesome! Life lived to the full!

[Chugalug2]

Another proud daughter of an illustrious pilot father. The pride and the love emerge from every sentence. It sounds as though she has led a notable life herself, starting with a staring role in Woman's Weekly! No doubt the Emeritus Professor did a worthy job of the oration, but I think Anne would have delivered one full of the emotion and love that clearly she feels for her lost Dad.

What a country for pilots is Australia! Immense distances over empty wilderness. No wonder so many retired there after the war. It sounds as if Sir Basil Embry (Whose wife was Australian) took fate by the scruff of its neck in making the decision to become a Sheep Farmer (Rancher surely, his spread was 1400 acres!). A write up was as follows:-
"He was both charming and rude, prejudiced and broad-minded, pliable and obstinate, dedicated and human." (Group Captain Peter Wykeham, No 2 Group 1944–45)
No wonder he was an excellent wartime commander!

Anne's tribute to her father reminded me of Christine Olds tribute to hers. It's an hour and threequarters presentation, so be prepared, but I would commend it to all if you haven't yet viewed it. Always quite a bit of dust in the air when watched:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwBK0a3n658

[Pom Pax]

Keep your Ranches in Texas

[Geriaviator]

Sir Basil Embry didn't always find favour with his subordinates, who included our sadly missed contributor Danny42C. Having flown Vengeance dive-bombers in Burma Danny returned to his old job in the Civil Service in 1946 but found its stuffiness unbearable, so he rejoined the RAF and at last was given a Spitfire to fly. His bid for a permanent commission was going quite well until he encountered Sir Basil, as he wrote in his e-book Danny and the Cold War:
So far, so good. It looked like a re-run of my original commissioning in '43. All I had to do now was wait. Done and dusted, or so I thought.

But it happened that Fighter Command was then headed by the redoubtable Air Marshal Sir Basil Embry who in one of his escape efforts had killed a German guard with his bare hands — which did not endear him to his captors when they picked him up again — and who in 1939 had dismissed the Vultee Vengeance as worse than a Fairey Battle.

As at that time we were not fighting anybody in particular, he found time hanging heavy on his hands. To keep himself busy, he decided to check out a selection of the young gentlemen who had been put forward for PCs in his Command. Which is why later in the year I was bidden to present myself to the great man for inspection.

He greeted me cordially enough, but the difficulty was that he had done his homework, and worked out that the best I could hope for was a "scraper" around the age of 40 — not quite what he was looking for at all! That was bad enough, but when he found that, although I'd been to a rugby school I didn't play even for the Station, he lost interest in me completely; my fate was sealed. Thumb down.

Most followers of this wonderful thread will have copies of Danny's e-books In with a Vengeance and Danny and the Cold War but if anyone hasn't, send me a PM with your email address as Prune cannot handle attachments.

[harrym]

Seems like I had an experience similar to Danny's, during my end of SFTS course interview with the station commander. On discovering I had attended a Rugby-playing school, I was asked which position I played in: to which I responded "none if I could help it" (or words to that effect), "I was no good at sport and didn't like the game anyway". So who ever said 'honesty was the best policy' I reflected, on leaving the station as a Sergeant Pilot rather than Pilot Officer; but in the long run perhaps I had after all said the right thing, for NCOs seemed to pass through the blockage that was the Harrogate holding unit rather quicker than the commissioned - and so it proved to be for me.


Sir Basil Embry didn't always find favour with his subordinates, who included our sadly missed contributor Danny42C. Having flown Vengeance dive-bombers in Burma Danny returned to his old job in the Civil Service in 1946 but found its stuffiness unbearable, so he rejoined the RAF and at last was given a Spitfire to fly. His bid for a permanent commission was going quite well until he encountered Sir Basil, as he wrote in his e-book Danny and the Cold War:


Most followers of this wonderful thread will have copies of Danny's e-books In with a Vengeance and Danny and the Cold War but if anyone hasn't, send me a PM with your email address as Prune cannot handle attachments.

[Ian Burgess-Barber]

What a genuine joy it is, in these dark and desperate days (of both the weather, and the zeitgeist) to hear a pertinent word from one of this epic thread's great contributors (95 and still batting) - so all respect to harrym!
More please harry - however brief - your reminiscences are a priceless link to the core of this fascinating historical thread.

Keep well, keep warm Sir - and keep coming in on this frequency.
Very Best to you
IanBB

[harrym]

Thank you IABB for your kind words! Over the years most of my WW2 reminiscences have appeared on this thread, but now & then someone will post something that triggers a remote corner of my memory - so hopefully I'm not done yet!

Cheers - harrym

[MPN11]

On that note, I would mention that tomorrow, 10 Nov, would have been our dear departed Danny42C's 98th birthday.

"Gone but not forgotten".

[Chugalug2]

On that note, I would mention that tomorrow, 10 Nov, would have been our dear departed Danny42C's 98th birthday.

"Gone but not forgotten".

Here, here, MPN11. He brought to life those dark days of WWII and was the very life of this thread. He also brought with him the politeness and tolerance for others that seems so lacking these days. We learned so much more from him than the fascinating stories with which he regaled us. I will never forget Danny, nor the qualities for which he stood.

Rest peacefully, O Happy Warrior!

[Geriaviator]

Our dear friend Danny 42C (sometime Flt Lt Dennis O'Leary) passed away one year ago today, and I think we all agree that this thread hasn't been the same without his memories, his wit and his wisdom. His devoted daughter Mary, who cared for him in his last years, sends her regards to the crewroom; while she misses him terribly, she recalls the many happy hours her Dad spent on his laptop with Prune and reflects that he would have been in his element discussing today's political antics!

Our thanks to recent recipients of his e-books In with a Vengeance and Danny and the Cold War for their generous donations in his memory to his chosen charities the RAF Benevolent Fund and Marie Curie. Plenty more ebooks in stock if you PM your email address to me, Geriaviator. Finally, I've had several requests for my own tribute posted last year in the FAREWELL, DANNY 42C thread on this forum. As the link doesn't always work and people say they cannot find my post #122, may I once more seek the Mods' indulgence and repeat it below?

[Geriaviator]

Hello again Dennis, my dear old friend,

Can it really be six years since you first cast your spell on us Ppruners? Already enthralled by the long-running Brevet thread for World War II aircrew, we logged in every day to read your latest instalment.

In your time foreign travel was undreamed of for most people, let alone flying, yet your 18-year-old self, yearning to fly a Spitfire, joined the RAF and was sent off to learn to fly in Florida.

Through your writings, a rich mix of humour, knowledge, and vivid memories of times long gone, we followed your shaky steps into the air and your sense of wonder at this strange land where everything was plentiful. We shared your delight when you returned to England and your dream came true with training on Spitfires and posting to a new Spitfire Wing in India.

Four years later I would follow in your footsteps when my mother took me to rejoin my father in RAF Poona. Long before Bombay came into view we too picked up the exotic smells, from spices to sewers as you described them. From the deck of HMT Strathnaver we too goggled at the Victorians' vast Gateway to India, wondered at the teeming humanity, picked our way through the seething platforms of Victoria Station to our reserved carriage. At Poona, the aviation bug infected me for life the instant my father lowered me into the cockpit of a Vengeance, perhaps it was one that you had flown.

That was when our electronic friendship began with your first greeting Namaste, chota-sahib! An address I had not heard for 70 years, and the once-familiar terms of the Raj that my father used until he died 22 years ago: memsahib, chai, jeldi-jeldi, dhobi, tiffin, charpoy. We shared memories of basha and bearer, of cobra and Kipling, of monkeys and monsoons. We even enjoyed a few phone calls despite your deafness, which had started with many hours behind a thundering Wright Cyclone and later a Merlin.

Back on PPrune you kept us spellbound with your rail journey across India and our hearts sank with yours when you eventually reached Madhaiganj and you spotted a big ugly thing on the apron.
What on earth is THAT? we asked our driver. That's a Vultee Vengeance, Sarge, they're dive bombers! We knew nothing about dive bombers and clung to our last faint hope.

What about the Spitfires we're supposed to be getting? — You've had it, Sarge, there aren't any out here!

Oh, Noooo ... Oh, Yesss! Not for the first or last time in the RAF, we'd been sold a pup.

Soon a thousand PPruners per day were following your love-hate relationship with the Vengeance and your description of its two-mile vertical dive had us on the edge of our seats; in between came your witty and colourful mix of reflections on India and the life of its European exiles. Then a Japanese bullet severed an oil line and you were badly injured in the ensuing forced landing, thankfully to recover and to command a special Flight carrying out gas spray trials until the war ended.

In your 90th year, you began writing all your stories on an elderly laptop with touchpad, a laptop which became increasingly unreliable as the years went by -- just like ourselves, we laughed. So we decided to produce your story as an e-book and all through last winter we exchanged drafts and yet more memories, leading to In with a Vengeance in April this year.

This first book was so well received that my wife and I began work on your second volume, Danny and the Cold War, for which with great effort you transcribed the first 22,000 words. Once again we hung on every word as you rejoined the RAF, converted from Spitfires to jets, only to be grounded by your lung problem in 1954. Then you regaled us with life as an air traffic controller on airfields around England and even to Berlin during the Cold War. All the while you watched the RAF and its personnel change from a wartime to a peacetime and different Service.

But despite the loving care of your devoted daughter Mary, your responses became slower and I detected a faint note of resignation. We're pals for life, you told me, and said you would like the book produced even though you might never see it, and I promised I would see it to completion.

It was a poignant moment when we read of your loving care for your little daughter in her playpen, and we thought how your lives had turned full circle as little daughter Mary was now caring for her dear Dad. As your bad days increased, we worked flat-out to finish your book at the end of last month, and we are so glad we did as you were alert to the end and able to see the first proof copy. Thank you, thank you, thank you, you wrote, and it gladdened our hearts to know you were pleased.

But at 4am on November 12, Mary told me, you became restless, you asked for your laptop, and you called on your last reserves for a brief mail which brought tears to my eyes:
Well, Doc says my life span is a week or a fortnight: it had to come sooner or later, I suppose, but I had hoped for a bit more ... Now, I would wish you to offer the book on PPRuNe as we agreed ... My favourite charities would be the RAF Memorial Fund and Marie Curie ...Heart too full now,must break off now.

A few hours later, you 'slipped the surly bonds of earth and soared the skies' for the last time, leaving a void that can never be filled. But now, far beyond the sparkling clouds with their towering castles and sunlit canyons, you have joined your beautiful Iris once again. May you have eternal happiness together.

Ever your pal, Michael

[MPN11]

How can I have dust in my eyes when it's pi§§ing with rain?

Cheers, Geriaviator ... and Danny of course.

[Brian 48nav]

MPN11 - me too!

Thanks again Geriaviator and Danny - RIP.

[Chugalug2]

What a combination, Danny42C and Geriaviator! You capture completely the love and affection that came from all here who were privileged to read Danny's numerous entertaining and informative posts. He grasped at once the opportunity this challenging new internet technology provided him to tell younger generations of his journey from Liverpool schoolboy to gaining the OP wings, plying his trade of dive-bombing the Japanese Army, and returning to a peace time RAF and thence HMC&E. After a few hesitant tries wherein the PPRuNe dog repeatedly ate his homework, he was soon the equal of any latter day blogger.

We miss your wit, your amazing memory, your gentle manner Danny. Thank you for taking us to a far off country of which we then knew little but we now know so much of. I see that the movie Midway is now released. We learnt the significance of that victory from you, along with so much else. You told your story and spoke for a generation that you always denied was special. With respect, Danny, it was, and so were you.

Goodbye dear friend.

Chug

[Ormeside28]

Thank you Danny. You welcomed me so many years ago. I was lucky enough to be trained at 1 BFTS in Texas, you suffered under the Arnold Scheme. I am glad that we were able to communicate one to one last year. You are sadly missed.

[Geriaviator]

So good to see that Harry and Brian, our two senior members, are still on frequency. Good health gentlemen!

[MPN11]

One aspect I will always personally remember is how his magnificent lifespan managed to capture the lives of so many of us. From WW2 pilot contemporaries to late-comer Air Traffickers like myself! Even Fighter Controllers got a look in!

Oh, such a richly filled span of years. Cheers again, Dennis, and sad you weren’t my Instructor at CATCS!

[Brian 48nav]

Geriaviator

I hope you aren't thinking of this Brian as a senior member! I'm just a sprog of 73, though it is almost 50 years since the odd occasion I flew with Chugalug2 on 30 Sqn!

Regards

B48N

[Ormeside28]

Thank you Geriaviator. Still around!

[old-timer]

Tha'ts a wonderful post Gerivator & many thanks for details of Dannys books & very pleased to make donations towards both RAFBF & MC charities, per ardua ad astra & forever blue skies Danny.42C

[Geriaviator]

Sorry for ident confusion, Brian48nav, I'm so glad to see that the Brian I mentioned is still squawking around Llandudno!

[NutLoose]

I missed Danny's Anniversary, but he is never far from our thoughts, indeed none of you are.

[mikehallam]

Surely there must still be a goodly crowd who scan this tribute thread several times a week which 'proves' that its spirit continues - as does our need for any scraps of reminiscence.
When yet energized over recent years by Danny's multiple and historical memories of his life both during, and post WWII, it flourished.

I'm grateful to note, despite their admittedly great age and yet who are skilled in using the Internet, that at least two of his contemporaries have continued to find & post us comments.
Other colleagues e.g. in Poland and France have likewise broadened our knowledge of the past events (including revealing some of the less wonderful things the British Government did & did not do !)

A Happy Christmas and a glass of cheer to both present and departed friends.

mikehallam (Jackrell's Airfield West Sussex).


I missed Danny's Anniversary, but he is never far from our thoughts, indeed none of you are.

[pzu]

Was just googling and came across this link

The Vultee Vengeance in the RAF ? RAFCommands (http://www.rafcommands.com/articles/the-vultee-vengeance-in-the-raf/)

Not sure if it’s been on ‘Danny’s Thread’ so thought I’d post it in his memory

PZU - Out of Africa (Retired)

[MPN11]

Nice find, pzu. :ok:

A reminder of that VERY long nose, for a start. And photo 10 begs for an Ikea instruction leaflet and an Allen Key ... “Attach Part 47 to Part 2”. :)

Cheers, Danny ... gone but not forgotten!

[Tr.9er]

I just bought the magazine and there’s a 13 page section on the Vultee Vengence. Dive in chaps!

[Ddraig Goch]

With reference to above re. the Vultee Vengence

The paragraph below is taken from an article I read about the "Oslo report", a piece of intelligence covering many important military technical and scientific advances which were in train in Germany, It was dropped off at the British embassy in Norway in 1939.



" What would the information on the Ju-88’s dive-bombing capability have meant to a British analyst in 1939? If such an aircraft was to operate as a dive-bomber, the Germans were apparently able to build strong aircraft—but given the reputation of German engineering that could hardly have been in doubt anyway. But the mere mention of “dive-bombing” would have tended to douse the interest of a British analyst nurtured in the catechism of the RAF, for the concept of dive-bombing went against the RAF’s very psychological grain. Pin-point accuracy bombing reeked of a subordinate role of aviation in direct support of the army, and the raison d’être of the RAF was as an independent force on an equal hierarchical footing with the Royal Navy and the British Army. Hence, dive bombing was regarded as anathema in the RAF, so much so that the use of the word itself had been forbidden. Since 1938, it had been decreed (ref. 7) that the only acceptable expression was “losing height bombing”! The psychological make-up (and concern about their career prospects!) of RAF analysts would thus tend to make them regard any reference to this “confounded losing height bombing” as irrelevant.

When I read this piece I immediately thought of our friend Danny. He couldn't understand why the RAF never used dive bombing tactics elsewhere, The answer may lie above.

[kghjfg]

Morning all,

hope everyone is ok during this latest oddness.

I realise I have never procured a copy of either of Danny42C’s books and this is something I really must do.

Does anyone know how I can go about it?

[Geriaviator]

Yes, you are welcome to either or both books if you send me your email address via PM. This is because Prune's system cannot provide attachments. In return we ask for a donation (say £10) to the RAF Benevolent Fund, Danny's favourite charity. Incidentally the RAF BF has received almost £1000 from his generous readers.

[esa-aardvark]

MPN11 - photo 10.
My late father helped assemble those at Drigh road.
According to him the had no manuals (Ikea or other)
and had to work out wow to do it. Also no "airflow bench"
for engine setup, he had just done the course, I believe at Pratt
& Whitney, yes I know it was a Wright engine.
Late response as I have been 70 days at sea, virus dodging,
or at least the Captain was.

[MPN11]

Danny had mentioned the 'No Manuals' scenario. But, hey, there was a War going on and everyone did the best they could with what they had. And in this case, it seemed to work!

Meanwhile ... 70 days?! I hope the virus-dodging is over, and you're safely isolated at home.

[alan douglas]

I'd like to add a correction to your entry about Ralph Hollis. In 1977 I was appointed as General Manager of Royal Brunei Airlines. My first job was to select a new Flight Operations Manager and I went to Britannia Airways where I selected Ralph. He did a wonderful job and became a close friend. We were devastated when he had the heart attack on the golf course.
As you were on the Berlin Air Lift you will be interested in my website eyewitnessarchives.co.uk where there film of the Air Lift taken by Reggie Langtry.

Regards Alan Douglas

[mikehallam]

Having watched the BBC TV programme broadcast from outside Buckingham Palace this evening I am conscious that without the likes of thousnads of Danny's and all our folk, we wouldn't be able to enjoy our todays.

The Queen said her piece nicely, and being born in 1926, she has adult memories of how things were.

I was taken at 6 1/2 to live in Wales to stay with a kindly little family in 1944 after my mother was put in touch with them as by then she felt with the Buzz Bombs too, it was more than enough risk. Anyway our own Infants school and others around here were closing so we kids had to go somewhere. Mother at that time worked in Walkers jewellers factory in Streatham, S. London, inspecting parts - for gunsights I believe.

Around post VJ Day I was brought back home and found that our road had great burnt patches at intervals along it from the VE Day party bonfires, but of course I missed out on that !

So in grateful memory I raise a glass to our forefathers, some of whom still are on this Earth - and I hope one or two still scan this forum.

TTFN, mike.