Gaining An R.A.F Pilots Brevet In WW II
Yes DHfan, that was always my understanding of the policy about evaders returning to 'ops' too. Perhaps it changed as the war progressed.
George went on to have a distinguished career in civil aviation and I believe he was the training captain with BOAC.
George went on to have a distinguished career in civil aviation and I believe he was the training captain with BOAC.
Having lived off a diet of war stories through the late 40's and 50's I also grew up to believe that escapees were not allowed to fly on ops over enemy territory. However, George was never captured so the Germans would not have known of his existence and had no reason to question him had he ever been captured. Perhaps this made it alright.
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Sdn Ldr Reg Reynolds DSO and bar, DFC and bar
Other than references to this officers time on Mosquitos I have not been able to find any references to what would seem to have been a very distinguished career.
I met he and his Canadian wife in Cheltenham maybe 10 to 15 years ago. He had long wanted to retire to the UK and they were then house hunting in the area.About a year later I visited them in their house in a village near Stroud.Reg was in bed after being thrown from a horse and his wife was not happy with some aspects of English village life! They returned to Toronto and I had some occasional phone contact with him for several years.
I believe he had been flying in Toronto for a TV station before he returned to the UK and I gather from an internet source that he flew for KLM after the war.
His wifes obituary was in Toronto papers several years ago and there is mention of an auction of his medals on the internet.The last trace of Reg I could find was at a nursing home in Toronto
Has anyone knowledge of a written account of Reg,s career ---both wartime and susequent
to 1945?
Is their any published history on this well decorated officer and also of his career post WW2.?
I met he and his Canadian wife in Cheltenham maybe 10 to 15 years ago. He had long wanted to retire to the UK and they were then house hunting in the area.About a year later I visited them in their house in a village near Stroud.Reg was in bed after being thrown from a horse and his wife was not happy with some aspects of English village life! They returned to Toronto and I had some occasional phone contact with him for several years.
I believe he had been flying in Toronto for a TV station before he returned to the UK and I gather from an internet source that he flew for KLM after the war.
His wifes obituary was in Toronto papers several years ago and there is mention of an auction of his medals on the internet.The last trace of Reg I could find was at a nursing home in Toronto
Has anyone knowledge of a written account of Reg,s career ---both wartime and susequent
to 1945?
Is their any published history on this well decorated officer and also of his career post WW2.?
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Flight Sergeant "Chiefy" Hynd - WW2 Flight Engineer and latterly Drill Instructor to many Boy Entrants at Cosford.
Information from the RAF Boy Entrants Association:
A few weeks ago Chiefy Hynd was diagnosed with bowel cancer, but due to age and a heart condition etc., it was originally decided to monitor rather than operate immediately. However, as the side effects of the condition worsened this decision was overturned and the operation was carried out on Saturday. After several hours on the table the prognosis is that all the tumour has been removed successfully and he was placed in the High Dependency ward.
Since then, Chiefy has been moved out of the High Dependency Unit and is now in Ward 53. The main surgeon saw him today and told him he will not be discharged before Mon at the earliest, currently a minor kidney problem and they know he lives alone.
It will soon be his 92nd birthday and though there's probably some ex-boys out there who hate or intensely dislike intensely the Admin and DI staff who administered to us, I'm hoping that you'll still feel it appropriate to send him a birthday card. Someone commented "Think of what you were doing on your 19th birthday because he spent his in a Halifax Bomber over Germany."
PM me for his address and/or phone number
Information from the RAF Boy Entrants Association:
A few weeks ago Chiefy Hynd was diagnosed with bowel cancer, but due to age and a heart condition etc., it was originally decided to monitor rather than operate immediately. However, as the side effects of the condition worsened this decision was overturned and the operation was carried out on Saturday. After several hours on the table the prognosis is that all the tumour has been removed successfully and he was placed in the High Dependency ward.
Since then, Chiefy has been moved out of the High Dependency Unit and is now in Ward 53. The main surgeon saw him today and told him he will not be discharged before Mon at the earliest, currently a minor kidney problem and they know he lives alone.
It will soon be his 92nd birthday and though there's probably some ex-boys out there who hate or intensely dislike intensely the Admin and DI staff who administered to us, I'm hoping that you'll still feel it appropriate to send him a birthday card. Someone commented "Think of what you were doing on your 19th birthday because he spent his in a Halifax Bomber over Germany."
PM me for his address and/or phone number
Channel hopping on my TV tonight I chanced on the last few minutes of "The Last Passage" on PBS America about the Comet Line! The story of my life I'm afraid. A search on YouTube though produced this short teaser:-
and this short but moving tribute to those who manned the Line, brave men and women all:-
I'll look out for another repeat or on demand availability of The Last Passage, but thought I should share its existence with those who were unaware of it like me.
Edit to say that it's on again at 0020, 1015, and 1455 on PBS America, Friday 11/08/2017 (Channel 155 on Freesat, but no doubt available from other providers). Thank goodness for PVRs, I'll watch the recording tomorrow!
and this short but moving tribute to those who manned the Line, brave men and women all:-
I'll look out for another repeat or on demand availability of The Last Passage, but thought I should share its existence with those who were unaware of it like me.
Edit to say that it's on again at 0020, 1015, and 1455 on PBS America, Friday 11/08/2017 (Channel 155 on Freesat, but no doubt available from other providers). Thank goodness for PVRs, I'll watch the recording tomorrow!
Last edited by Chugalug2; 10th Aug 2017 at 22:01. Reason: times of transmission
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Following on from DFCP's request for information about S/L Reynolds, he and I have exchanged PM.
Reynold's remarkable career maybe of interest to others. This link provides a detailed history.
https://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archiv...&lot_id=258501
Reynold's remarkable career maybe of interest to others. This link provides a detailed history.
https://www.dnw.co.uk/auction-archiv...&lot_id=258501
"The Last Passage" was well made but inevitably it's a snapshot of one particular episode - the arrest of Dédée De Jongh in Jan '43. Moztu Films, the Basque company that put it together, was funded by a grant but sadly, Moztu had to be wound up due to the global economic downturn a few years ago.
A major film could be made out of the Comet story - but there were so many individual stories that the problem would be in deciding the focus.
For those interested in reading more about Comète, I'd recommend Airey Neave's "Little Cyclone".. (PPRuNer) John Nichol & Tony Rennell's "Home Run".. Peter Eisner's "The Freedom Line" and Edward Stourton's "Cruel Crossing".
A major reference work on Comète was published in French last year by Philippe Le Blanc but at 49€ it's beyond the reach of the casual reader. Ten years in the making, the author (a former Belgian intelligence officer) covers the period from 1940 to Feb '43 in 464 pages..
A major film could be made out of the Comet story - but there were so many individual stories that the problem would be in deciding the focus.
For those interested in reading more about Comète, I'd recommend Airey Neave's "Little Cyclone".. (PPRuNer) John Nichol & Tony Rennell's "Home Run".. Peter Eisner's "The Freedom Line" and Edward Stourton's "Cruel Crossing".
A major reference work on Comète was published in French last year by Philippe Le Blanc but at 49€ it's beyond the reach of the casual reader. Ten years in the making, the author (a former Belgian intelligence officer) covers the period from 1940 to Feb '43 in 464 pages..
Last edited by PPRuNeUser0139; 11th Aug 2017 at 19:08.
This recently discovered photograph was taken on a little camera (costing 25 shillings, or £1.25) by my late father who served with 142 Sqn Fairey Battles at Berry-au-Bac in France in the winter of 1939/40. The dispersal area was on the left of the main road between Laon and Reims, the airfield a grass area made from fields across the road.
In early 1940 Flying Off Taylor was detailed to do a show-the-flag flypast for Pathe News and Press photographers. He flew so low that the assembled party threw themselves flat and didn’t get any photos, while he continued through a tree at the far end.
The Coles crane has lifted the damaged mainplane with embedded boughs from the tree. Note the 250lb bombs on the bomb dolly in front of crane. The bombs were carried in cells within the wings, and on external racks. The next Battle in the line of aircraft concealed in the trees is carrying bombs on the external racks. Flying Off Taylor was shot down a short time later and as far as I can tell survived the war as POW.
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Danny
I wonder if you watched the programme about the partition of India - it was on BBC 1 last Wednesday and the second part is this Wednesday at 2100.
It was not one of the better moments in the history of our former empire!
It was not one of the better moments in the history of our former empire!
Last edited by Brian 48nav; 14th Aug 2017 at 11:15. Reason: poor grammar
Danny, the airmen wore Wellington boots, as shown by the two standing on the wing. The squadron had spent winter under canvas in temperatures down to -20C and my father recalled that their improvised airfield became very muddy once the snow had melted. This photo which I posted a few years ago also illustrates the trestling of the aircraft, it appears that the u/c leg has already been removed although the chock is still there, and the crane has been positioned to lift the mainplane.
Interesting that the crane is civilian registered and even sports a tax disc. As far as I can remember, in the late 1940s military vehicles were still registered as RAF xxxxxx or RN xxxxxx. Perhaps the crane was impressed into RAF service, as were many civil aircraft.
in the late 1940s military vehicles were still registered as RAF xxxxxx
At the outbreak of war lots of old dowagers and suchlike donated their surplus Daimlers and similar vehicles to the Army to assist in the war effort. Most of them ended up rotting away in a field in Devon. I have seen a photographs of them but it's lost in the ether somewhere.
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Military Vehicle Registration
In the inter-war period I believe military vehicles were customarily registered with the London Count Council and so carried the appropriate plates, and I recall seeing a convoy of army lorries in the late 1930s the plates of which were all lettered in the HML series. I particularly noted this as those are my initials!
Of course this became impractical early on in the war, when the system was replaced by using RAF or whatever was applicable, followed by a very long string of digits. However it was early days when Geriaviator's picture was taken, when the new method had yet to be applied (across the Channel, anyway).
Of course this became impractical early on in the war, when the system was replaced by using RAF or whatever was applicable, followed by a very long string of digits. However it was early days when Geriaviator's picture was taken, when the new method had yet to be applied (across the Channel, anyway).
My happy memories of life as a six-year-old in Poona, where my father was stationed 1945-47, were posted earlier this year but this month's fascinating and superbly produced BBC programmes on Partition recall a sadder side. Our Indian bearer was a lovely man called Mahadeu whom we called Pop and who became part of our family. We lived in a row of wood-framed bungalows thatched with palm leaves, pictured above behind the three of us. Mahadeu was very fond of my little sister and by the time we left India she could speak as much Hindi as English.
In May 1947 my father was posted to RAF Drigh Road, Karachi, and Mahadeu said he would like to come with us. Our journey via Lahore on the Deccan Queen took several days and while each Service family was allocated half a coach with sleeping and eating accommodation, we were very disappointed when Mahadeu had to travel in the separate native servants' coach except at eating times.
Partition came as a great shock and my family was given a few days to pack all our belongings before we were flown from Karachi to Bombay where we took ship for England. My parents gave Mahadeu all they could, there were many tears when we parted at the airfield, and Mahadeu left for the railway station and his home in Poona.
We docked in Liverpool three weeks later and heard for the first time of the terrible unrest which was sweeping across India. We never heard from Mahadeu again although my parents wrote to him many times. He was probably among the tens of thousands who perished in the conflict, and until their deaths 40 years later my parents felt they were to blame because they had taken him to Karachi yet could not see him safely home.
Today the general impression is that the British were to blame for the consequences of Partition. But my father often said that all the Indians he met from his arrival in 1945, including those in the Indian Air Force which operated Vengeance aircraft from Poona, made it very clear that they wanted the British to leave without delay. After Partition began the Army and other Service personnel stayed on base and acted only to protect British people and property, for Congress objected to their presence and Nehru stated that he would rather every Indian village go up in flames than keep a single British soldier in India for a moment longer than necessary.