By: T-21 - 31st December 2008 at 12:14
The Air Britain Halifax file has it as first of a batch delivered 10.2.44 . It served with Nos 35 and 10 squadrons briefly before being shot down with No 51 Squadron on 31.3.44.
By: jettisoning - 31st December 2008 at 09:47
Halifax LV857
Often used photograph of LV857 eg ‘The Nuremberg Raid’ Martin Middlebrook caption :-
LV857 was photographed when new before delivery to 51 Sq at Snaith . Sgt Jack Binder and his all NCO crew , on their third operation , set out for Nuremberg in this a/c but were all killed when it was shot down near Fulda .
in Appendix 4 there is an additional note that the actual crash site was at Schwarzbach , 13 km east of Fulda .
By: galdri - 31st December 2008 at 00:32
Any further research would be best done through the Nation Archives at Kew. You know the time frame, from approx. begining of Febuary 1944 till the end of March. You can order the ORB (operation record book) for 51 squadron for that period, and get the complete movements of this particular Halifax. I´ll have to pay for it if you are not able to go there in person.
If you are next of kind to an airman you can get his details as well, but at the moment I can not for the live of me remember the address. I´m sure someone will come along and provide it!
By: JDA - 31st December 2008 at 00:13
Halifax LV 857
Thanks for quick reply, when I tried Google nothing happened!
By: galdri - 30th December 2008 at 23:41
Google is your friend:D
Here is it´s demise:
http://www.luftwaffe.cz/beckerm.html
Appearantly the crew was on it´s third mission. See here:
http://boards.ancestry.com/surnames.menary/22/mb.ashx
From this site: http://www.lostbombers.co.uk/bomber.php?id=2953 You can get the delivery dates for the aircaft, and it reads as follows:
Serial Range LV857 – LV883. 27 Halifax Mk.111. Part of a batch of 240 HP61 halifax Mk.B.111/A.V11. LV771-LV799; LV813-LV842; LV857-LV883; LV898-LV923; LV935-LV973; lV985-LV999; LW113-LW143; LW157-LW179; LW191-LW195 B.111; LW196-LW210 B.V11. Delivered by Handley Page (Cricklewood & Radlett) between 10Feb44 and 25Feb44.
As can you can see, it had existed for about a month, which would have included a spell a MU (maintainance unit) so it would be fairly safe to say that it had only been with 51 squadron for a few weeks, and maybe this was it´s 3rd sortie as well?? By the way it´s squadron qoutes for the aircraft were MH+H2
But I´m sure you know this all already.
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December 30, 2008 at 11:07 pm