Hello everyone.
I posted the pictures in this thread on another forum and it was suggested that the good folks here would like to see them too. So I joined up and here they are.
They were taken by my father during the 1950s. Dad joined the RAF as an air gunner and served on Lancasters and Lincolns before he was posted to 115 squadron at the time they were equipped with the B29 Washington, obtain on a lend-lease basis from the USA as a stop-gap until the UK was able to develop its own long range strategic bomber. The photo below seems to be the only one that has survived from what I know was a collection of others including exercises over Heligoland…
From 115 Sqn he moved on to 209 Sqn in the Far East and a tour on Sunderland flying boats. Here is a photo taken of my dad at his office; the waist gun of a Sunderland…
The next couple are of squadron aircraft formating with his own…
A vist to Cat Lai in French Indochina (Vietnam) caught this USN Marlin doing a JATO takeoff…
During the Korean war they were sent to Iwakuni in Japan, here are a couple of photos of the base entrance and a poignant sign in their accomodation…
A USN Mariner moored at Iwakuni..
And a USAF B29 on the tarmac…
The Far East proved to be the end of the line for many Sunderlands and at the end of their service life most were simply stripped of anything useful such as engines and weapons, towed out to sea and scuttled…
This aircraft broke free of its moorings during hurricane Grace and got blown onto the sea wall. It too was simply scrapped….
And thats it. Hope thats not too self-indulgent for a first post on a new forum.
By: TonyT - 26th July 2012 at 22:58
And some, if i remember corretly, the last Sunderland to go through a major there was going to return to the UK, sadly they decided with the lack of support on route and the cost of it to abandon the plan and it to succumbed to the scrappie’s axe.
By: AutoStick - 26th July 2012 at 22:16
Excellent photos & many thanks , I love this sort of thing . It ‘s interesting to note the sad end of some of the Sunderland flying boats.
By: TonyT - 26th July 2012 at 22:09
Really excellent, a sadly now deceased colleague of mine was on the Sunderlands in Singapore at the end, I remember him telling us, if you ever saw an attractive local female….. It wasn’t female.
By: a-sum-pea - 26th July 2012 at 22:07
Thanks for the comments folks, much appreciated.
Fantastic pictures, thank you for joining and sharing.
Although there were a handful of post-war RAF types armed with turrets you don’t really associate air gunners with the period, so these pictures provide a valued glimpse into that role.
Thats very true. Its kind of scary to think that had one of these lumbering great whales come up against even a first generation jet the gunners efforts would have proved pretty futile. Fortunately, for dad (and me!) that never happened.
Do you know which Lancaster unit he served with?
Good question, I should know because I’ve pored over his flying logbook often enough. I’ll have to look when I next see my mum in a couple of weeks.
The Marlin is a favourite flying boat of mine, so great to see a pic of the one above.
Here’s another shot of a couple moored at Cat Lai…
By: pagen01 - 26th July 2012 at 21:02
Fantastic pictures, thank you for joining and sharing.
Although there were a handful of post-war RAF types armed with turrets you don’t really associate air gunners with the period, so these pictures provide a valued glimpse into that role.
Do you know which Lancaster unit he served with?
The Marlin is a favourite flying boat of mine, so great to see a pic of the one above.
By: Der - 26th July 2012 at 20:59
Super photos. Thank you for sharing.
By: Seafuryfan - 26th July 2012 at 20:42
Hello ‘Sumpy’ 🙂 A great collection of photographs. I agree about the compositions – your Dad had an eye for this, and it helps make for a unique record of the time. I particularly like the B-29 photo – many photographers would have waited until those ‘pesky’ personnel were out of the way.
I’m sure I’ve come across 209 Sqn recently in our own sqn records, possibly undertaking Operation Firedog missions? Perhaps it was another sqn, I will check, but Sunderland bombing in Malaya using those exdendable bomb racks was a much appreciated addition to airborne firepower against the ‘Communist Terrorists’.
By: pistonrob - 26th July 2012 at 20:31
excellent selection, its always nice to view a private collection of old shots like this, thanks for sharing
By: RPSmith - 26th July 2012 at 20:30
May I be first to welcome you to the Forum and to thank you for posting an excellent set of photos.
There’s real artistry in many of them – the Mariner with the sea swell in the foreground is fabulous.
Roger Smith.
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July 26, 2012 at 8:22 pm