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Reply To: Wg Cdr Ray Harris ?

Home Forums Historic Aviation Wg Cdr Ray Harris ? Reply To: Wg Cdr Ray Harris ?

#1121924
G-ORDY
Participant

I believe so. I doubt the AWM would not make such an easily spotted “mistake”.
It seems to have been a “perk” for Group Captains etc to have their aircraft “personalised” as they were not on any specific Squadron strength and therefore didn’t carry their codes.
I think Bader and Stanford Tuck for example had their own “Coded” aircraft.
Regular Squadron aircraft carried a 2 letter code plus an individual letter for the specific aircraft.

You will see instances, especially in Bomber Command, of an aircraft carrying the 2 letter/numeral squadron code plus an individual aircraft code of “A2” for example. That’s usually where that aircraft had been under lengthy repair or maintenance and another replacement aircraft had been allocated the original letter. It may have been regarded as a lucky aircraft so, when back on strength, the numeral “2” was added to differentiate from the other aircraft.

Thanks for the response – this aircraft has never been repainted since it was delivered to Australia in March 1945. It was selected for transfer to Australia in May 1944 and was chosen because of its Australian connections (No. 452 Sqdn). The codes were carried when in service at Catfoss with the Central Gunnery School – my question is to determine whether or not they are connected with Ray Harris … and who was he?