G-AFYO is a Stinson HW-75, using a registration from the (more or less) correct period that was said not to have been used back then.
In support of this contention, http://www.goldenyears.ukf.net/Historic%20G-A.txt says that the registration was allocated to a Bristol Bombay, the third of three, the other two being G-AFYM and G-AFYN. All three are described as “not converted” but G-AFYM and G-AFYN were used as callsigns by US Liberators. There is no such note against G-AFYO.
However, another website clearly shows that G-AFYO was indeed used by a Liberator:
You may have to “cut and paste” this link to see this terrific photo (and others taken at Torslanda, Goteborg). As the caption says, it was taken on 2 April 1944. There is a photo in the “Blockade Runners” book, taken there on the same day, of its crew, the US air attache to Sweden and ABA Swedish airlines representatives.
The same book says that the first flight (a sort of proving flight) was made on 31 March 1944, that the aircraft then carried no registration marks (so presumably used G-AFYO as its call sign only), had no certificate of airworthiness, no flight log and no passenger seats. The US air attache undertook to get the lack of registration marks corrected – which he evidently did.
So, what’s the story on this early use of the G-AFYO registration mark. It is on the Liberator itself but, if it lacked a C of A, was it ever officially allocated?
By: ianwoodward9 - 7th October 2010 at 01:12
We’ve gone a bit off topic now but I found this website:-
http://www.aerovintage.com/warlover.htm
It looks as though I must have gone to Bovingdon in mid- to late-October 1961 to see the three B-17s.
The rights to “The War Lover” appear to be with TCM (Turner Classic Movies) but they seem to have no plans to show it on that channel in the near future:-
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=3836
Sometimes, TCM include a film’s trailer on their website but apparently not on this occasion.
By: ianwoodward9 - 7th October 2010 at 01:06
“The War Lover”, that sounds like it. And 1961 would certainly be the right period for my interest in such things. Recently, some old pocket diaries came to light but, unfortunately, not one for 1961. I have found the 1960 one, which records a visit to Bovingdon on 14 May 1960. That wouuld have been too early, I think, and, anyway, while I’ve noted 17 aircraft by registration, there isn’t a mention of a single B-17, let alone three. I’ve stuck an extra small sheet in the diary on that page, as though I had more to add, but there’s nothing extra.
By: longshot - 7th October 2010 at 00:36
B-17s at Bovingdon
Think that was for ‘The War Lover’ and I think I saw the B-17s when they came through Gatwick about 1961
By: ianwoodward9 - 7th October 2010 at 00:18
I read “Blockade Runners” fairly recently, which is why the photo I saw on the website immediately rang bells. It was indeed Bernt Balchen but, as he was a colonel in the US forces at the time, this is what had stuck in my mind.
The web link with memories of Operation Sonnie was terrific. I was only standing on the north beach at St Andrews, adjacent to the R&A (as mentioned in the article) a week or so ago.
I was also interested in the mention of Bovingdon. In my youth, I seem to recall that it was there that they brought three B-17s used in a film at the time. It was a sort of open day and you could round and inside them. If I took any photos, they’re long gone, I’m afraid. Maybe my memory is at fault.
Thanks for all the help.
By: Papa Lima - 6th October 2010 at 19:41
Operation Sonnie is also mentioned on pages 174-177 of “Blockade Runners” by Lars-Axel Nilsson and Leif A. Sandberg, which I have just read (ISBN: 91-630-4890-6). The laconic quotation above regarding the size and colour of the registration letters was made by Norwegian Bernt Balchen, according to an extract from his autobiography “Come North With Me”, in the afore-mentioned book.
By: longshot - 6th October 2010 at 19:22
Operation Sonnie G-AFYO
You’ll probably find Guy Carnine’s notes interesting, in that Sonnie was disguised as a BOAC operation initially
http://www.b24.net/stories/carnine.htm
If you look at G-INFO site you can view the registration documents for some of the Sonnie CB-24D/C-87s (but not G-AFYO)…10 radio codes were issued in the G-AFY* and G-AFZ* series
The Autumn 2009 Air Britain Archive mag has a short article about Sonnie and G-AFYO
I’ll send you a PM later tonight
By: ianwoodward9 - 6th October 2010 at 14:28
Thanks
David,
Thanks for your help. I don’t have the book you cite, so that was very helpful and clears up the conundrum. It seems that the Liberator in that photograph was only marked as G-AFYO for the 2 April 1944 flight to Sweden and then only because there had been a complaint about the lack of the markings on its 31 March 1944 visit when it used G-AFYO as its call sign.
These flights were in connection with “Operation Sonnie”, a US-sponsored project that had faced a lot of feet-dragging from British officials, only expedited after the intervention of Churchill.
The American heading “Operation Sonnie” referred to arriving in Sweden on 31 March 1944, being told to apply identification markings and asking how large they had to be. He was told, basically, large enough to read. The American then wrote that the markings were applied 10 centimeters high, so that, on a clear day, the black paint could be read at about 3 meters against the green background. The photograph shows that his memory was very much at fault.
Thanks, again, David – I shall PM you on a separate matter.
By: David Legg - 6th October 2010 at 02:37
Air-Britain’s British Civil Aircraft Registers1919 to 1999, often known as The Big Book states the following….
G-AFYO (1) – Douglas DC-5-5: c/n 430 Reservation dated 30/8/1939. Not taken up – cancelled order and transferred to KLM as PH-AXG but delivered to KNILM as PK-ADA in 1940 as DC-5-511. Reservation cancelled 14/9/1939
G-AFYO (2) – Bristol 130 Bombay: Reservation 1939. Cancelled
G-AFYO (3) – Consolidated Vultee CV.32 (B-24D-70-CO) Liberator: ex-42-40551 Registered 3/1944 (Marks used for one flight only). To NC18649 3/1944. Cancelled
G-AFYO (4) – Stinson HW-75 Model 105 Voyager ex-F-BGQP/NC22586 (probably also ex-French Mil with identity “22586”. Registered 25/4/1977
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October 6, 2010 at 12:28 am