How to find more about the aircraft my Great Grandad flew?

Spitfiresrule,

The simplest thing of all is a) to give us the name of your great grandfather, and b) to post that name, and the one serial number, on two message boards: this one and in the General Category forum at Royal Air Force Commands (http://www.rafcommands.com), another site that is read by some students of the minutia of RAF wartime flying, such as serial numbers.

You might luck out very, very quickly on the RAF Commands forum by finding someone who already has the 76 Squadron ORBs (assuming that nobody on this board has already PM’d you that the ORB copies are in his/her possession) — which, by the way, aren’t guaranteed to list aircrew. ORBs are sometimes lacking in detail, to the frustration of modern researchers. However, typically they will list names, such as your great grandfather’s. An ORB can provide the mother lode of detail.

But to get easy info, provide info. People here and on that other forum are very willing to help you, if you provide basic details. And if you can post a scanned, good-resolution version of the Halifax photo here, then this might spark some very positive replies.

I will assume that you have not seen your great grandfather’s logbook. If you haven’t done so, make enquiries within the family for this incredible document, which, if it exists, can solve so many questions for you.

Good luck.

Hi

The Operational Record Books are of two types Form 541 and Form 540. One is a flight-by-flight record of what crews on what aircraft went where and did what. Your Great Granddads name will be there in full and you can see which aircraft he flew in (may have been more than one). The other form is a monthly record of what the squadron did generally – so you may see an entries such as “enemy aircraft shot up air field – not much damage” you may find a record of when he joined the squadron – but these documents vary hugely in their content.

You can apply for his RAF records as a relative from the Air Historical Branch

The AM1180 form from the RAFM tells you about accidents that the aircraft had. Make sure that you ask them to copy both sides of the form. I only got one side but the reverse has more info (depending on the type of AM 1180 form as they changed over time)

Form AM78 gives you a record of the aircraft history with the RAF – again RAFM

Form AM 765c would have been generated if the aircraft had crashed in the UK when not in combat. You get that by begging the AHB – they won’t copy the form for you but will grudgingly tell you what is written on it (my personal experience)

If it did then there may have been an Air Investigation Board report but apparently these were all burnt as the MOD just couldn’t find anywhere to put them….. Same flaming end to the Crew Log Books they had….. (If only the RAF had large tracts of land with large sheds on it…..)

One day we may be able to access the accident reports detailing how individuals were killed – keep an eye on this forum. Can’t remember the formal name for these – casualty reports?

In the library see if they have books by W.R. Chorely, Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War which is literally a list of losses.

Look for books about the Halifax – there may be one that charts all of the aircraft with a bit more detail – there is one for the Stirling.

I may have got bits of that wrong but Google around the subjects and you should be OK.

Good Luck
James

If you know the time period the Form 540 (Operations Record Book) from the National Archives will be of use, he should be listed in the Form 541 each time he was a part of an operational crew. Unfortunately when the NA had them digitised they split the files up into monthly blocks of the Form 540 and Form 541 so downloading them becomes expensive very quickly. If you live near to SW London then going along in person with a laptop or similar can be cheaper as you can download for free on site. When looking for people you want the Form 541 except for the month of posting in and out as they should be listed in the Form 540 as a personnel movement.

First of all I’d request the aircraft record card from the RAF Museum: they are very good at responding.

Next I’d obtain the 76 Sqn record books (available as PDF downloads in most cases) from the National Archives: go to their ‘Discovery’ tool and search for 76 Sqn. You’ll turn up a lot of hits which won’t be specific to your search, but if you download the results as a .CSV file you can filter the output in Excel to find the date ranges/files you’re looking for. The point is, that in most cases the squadron records will contain crew names and aircraft details for each mission and so you can definitively find aircraft that your great-grandfather crewed.