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Hello Fareastdriver,
my Father assembled the Vultee Vengeance, and often mentioned Drigh road. Same place ? |
Some nice pics there,Fareastdriver... and I see Franek's picture has made the listing! Enough Vengeance imagery to get Danny42C interested, too!
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And there is one of T E Lawrence who was stationed there in 1927 as an AC2 Aircraft Fitter.
http://www.telstudies.org/discussion...chi_1927_s.jpg |
MPN11 (#12300),
Not at all - and Seco huts were a step up from half a Nissen hut (and centrally heated, too, if you were lucky) ! Bamboo "basha" in Burma best of all. No mod cons ! re: (#12303), some points: (from the IWM pics put in by FED below). Never knew Karachi, up in NW, It gets cold there in winter, blues still worn a lot. Noted A.M. Arjan Singh DFC; as a Sqn Ldr he had a Hurricane squadron of the IAF near us in the Arakan. The strange (well known) pic of a VV pilot cockpit panel (certainly not a Mk.I-III, must be a Mk.IV, but it is weird). Peter C. Scott's "Vengeance!" uses a line drawing of this as his illustration of a VV panel in one of the Appendices. Two chaps have got lucky (there were no British women's forces in India - WRNS were in Ceylon only). But there were Q.A.s as here (and of course P.M.R.A.F Nursing Services), but they were rare and much sought after. esa-aardvark (#12302), Think the original batch of CKD Vengeances were assembled at Mauripur, maybe later at Drigh Road. Could be wrong. Did your Dad ever you tell the tale of the first batches having to be assembled like giant three-dimensional jigsaw puzzles, as all the paperwork had been lost ? (we'd been flying the things for quite a while before we found that out). I'd love to have had a chat with him. But back to the magnifying glass now ! roving (#12304) Lawrence of Arabia; resigned his Colonel's Commission in disgust after WWI because the British Government welshed on the undertakings he had given (on their behalf) to the Arab kings in return for their support against the Turks and Germans (the consequences of that betrayal linger to this day). Enlisted as a private soldier ("Gentleman Ranker") in the Army, they soon discharged him (too hot a potato ?). Joined the RAF as A/C T.E Shaw. Killed in a motorbike crash in 1935, riding his beloved Brough "Superior". Strangely enough, his wrist watch (with provenance in the form of a repair invoice to a "T.E.Shaw" at the "living out" address he then used) turned up on an "Antiques Roadshow" a few years ago. Danny. |
The remains of RAF Takali/Ta' Qali, 2009, as the Craft Village ... <whimper>
https://i.imgur.com/LdMX9H3.jpg https://i.imgur.com/GqTzs1d.jpg |
MPN11 (#12306),
Only ever seen Ta' Qali from cattle class window of a 320 going into Luqa. Ah, the dear old Nissen huts ! (these look quite decent, but must've been damned hot in summer). |
Someone mentioned the effects of occupation. A friend told us their village, just up the road from here, is still divided...between those that resisted and those that did not resist enough
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https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....7b3aba47de.jpg
In comparison to Changi, here is the airmen's barrack block, one of three, RAF Khormaksar/Aden in 1951. Seats are along side of football pitch in foreground. |
PAVEL:
BBC report this morning covers Bletchley Park's tribute to the Polish cryptographers who first cracked the Enigma machine. Computer historians have staged a re-enactment of World War Two code-cracking at Bletchley Park.A replica code-breaking computer called a Bombe was used to decipher a message scrambled by an Enigma machine.Held at the National Museum of Computing (TNMOC), the event honoured Polish help with wartime code-cracking. Ruth Bourne, a former wartime code-cracker who worked at Bletchley and used the original Bombes, oversaw the modern effort. Enigma machines were used extensively by the German army and navy during World War Two. This prompted a massive effort by the Allies to crack the complex method they employed to scramble messages. That effort was co-ordinated via Bletchley Park and resulted in the creation of the Bombe, said Paul Kellar who helps to keep a replica machine running at the museum. Renowned mathematician Alan Turing was instrumental in the creation of the original Bombe. "During the war, they had about 200 Bombes," said Mr Kellar. "It was a real code-breaking factory. "For its re-enactment, TNMOC recruited a team of 12 and used a replica Bombe that, until recently, had been on display at the Bletchley Park museum next door. The electro-mechanical Bombe was designed to discover which settings the German Enigma operators used to scramble their messages. As with World War Two messages, the TNMOC team began with a hint or educated guess about the content of the message, known as a "crib", which was used to set up the Bombe. The machine then cranked through the millions of possible combinations until it came to a "good stop", said Mr Kellar. This indicated that the Bombe had found key portions of the settings used to turn readable German into gobbledygook. After that, said Mr Kellar, it was just a matter of time before the 12-strong team cracked the message. Ms Bourne said authentic methods had been used by the modern code-breakers but the effort lacked the over-riding stress and tension that accompanied the wartime work. "During the war, there was a feeling of great pressure because the Enigma [encryption] keys changed at midnight so everyone was pushing to get enough information before it went out of date," she told the BBC."The only high spot was when your machine happened to find the 'good stop' and you felt pleased about that," she said. Work on cracking the Enigma machine was greatly aided by Polish cryptographers, said Mr Kellar. Friday's event commemorated 80 years since that information was shared with the Allies. In addition, he said, the early stages of the code-cracking re-enactment were broadcast live to a Polish supercomputer conference in Poznan. |
I do not think Nissen Huts were comfortable in any conditions.
As to Vengeances, I guess they were put together at RAF Drigh Road. There were Maintenance Units there, and a large storage area in an airship hangar, approximately where is PAF Museum now. During the RPAF period there were two Maintenance Units operating, No 101 & 102, responsible for overhauling engines and airframes. Re Lawrence, I think he was photographed in one of those buildings. https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....74ff277ead.jpg |
Hello Danny,
yes my father mentioned missing instructions. Also mentioned having to set up engine carburetors whilst not having the essential airflow bench, ie trial and error. Still the engines must have worked for you. John |
esa-aardvark (#12312) yes my father mentioned missing instructions. Still the engines must have worked for you. Danny, |
That is some barrack block at Khormaksar, Geriaviator! Did they get the plans from the Nazi Strength Through Joy Prora Holiday Camp? Nice verandas for the first two floors, but none for the top floor. No doubt reserved for transit personnel, the usual default. :ok:
My theory about standard layouts but with local variations seems now to be disproved entirely. Looks increasingly as though the designs were purely regional at best, if not one offs. Were there any other MEAF blocks like the Khormaksar ones? |
Franek, the Cadix operation in Vichy France still intrigues. Wiki has a page devoted to Polish Intelligence and briefly mentions that the Polish, French, and Spanish cryptologist work continued at Cadix following the Fall of France, but again fails to say what that work was! However the article generally gives some idea of the immense amount of work done in Europe and North Afica at the time, in particular in Algeria, paving the way for Operation Torch, in France reporting on U-Boat operations and of the Wehrmacht prior to and during Operation Overlord , and from Poland itself reporting the date of Barbarossa, the crimes at Auschwitz, and of V1 and V2 development. Altogether almost half of all reports received by British intelligence during WWII were of Polish origin.
The final paras sum up the debt owed but scarcely acknowledged and even denied :- Historians' efforts to gain access to documentation of other Polish intelligence operations met with British stonewalling and with claims that the pertinent Polish archives had been destroyed by the British.More recently, the British and Polish governments have begun jointly producing an accurate account of the Polish intelligence contribution to Britain's war effort. The key Anglo-Polish Historical Committee Report on the subject was published in July 2005. It was written by leading historians and experts who had been granted unprecedented access to British intelligence archives. The report concluded that 43 percent of all reports received by British secret services from continental Europe in 1939-45 had come from Polish sources No doubt Cadix played a significant part in all this, but what part? |
Originally Posted by Chugalug2
(Post 10256582)
That is some barrack block at Khormaksar, Geriaviator! Did they get the plans from the Nazi Strength Through Joy Prora Holiday Camp? Nice verandas for the first two floors, but none for the top floor. No doubt reserved for transit personnel, the usual default. :ok:
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Chugalug
I forgot about the book. I will try to check it, unless it is packed deep. Franek |
Geriaviator, on closer inspection it seems the upper floor of your Khormaksar Barrack Block has railed balconies above the columned verandas beneath. Was that perhaps where you slept c1960, ian16th? I too have vague memories of Khormate! It would have been mid 60's and I recall as a visitor watching a movie at the OM in the open air, as was the norm in ME/FE. Half of the OM members were watching it with me, the other half on armed duty and protecting us.
Thanks Franek. I'm sure I'm not the only one to discover with surprise that Ultra was being worked in Continental Europe under the very noses of the enemy, as well as at Bletchley Park. |
Originally Posted by Chugalug2
(Post 10257699)
Was that perhaps where you slept c1960, ian16th?
The 3 nights were in 2 parts of 1 and 2 nights, on the way to and from Karachi. On the way out, I was concentrating on getting out to buy a duty free 100mm lens. On the way back, we were all suffering from Delhi Belly, 6 guys were put in SSQ and the rest of us told by our M.O. to rest and drink lots of fluids. A voice says, 'Does that include beer Doc?' The reply was, 'Yes, beer is fine.' So we spent the next day at the NAAFI Club at Steamer Point following Dr's orders. It was the only time I saw Aden. Not sorry. But I did see more of Karachi. :sad: |
Fortunately we didn't live in barrack blocks, Chugalug, we had the luxurious MQ pictured below. The three airmen's blocks (from memory 66 years later :bored:) had ablutions in centre of each floor with 20/24 beds in room either side, NCO single room at each end. I don't think anyone slept on balconies, it was probably just as uncomfortable inside or out.
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune....9dcc77bb39.jpg |
Last weekend's Sunday Times carried a touching tribute to the four Garland brothers who died while serving in the RAF in WW2. The first was awarded the Victoria Cross for his attack on the Maastricht Bridges in 1940 when most of 12 Sqn's Fairey Battles were shot down.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/h...d70dad2daf6971 |
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