IWM Lambeth. D-Day +1, +60 years

That Halifax.

Here are some shots I took of the Halifax at Radlett circa 1957/8.

I have temporally misplaced the original prints so have borrowed these from another well known forum.

IF ONLY. 🙁

Mark

It was at Radlett, and the aeroplane’s serial was PN323. I’m not entirely sure she was the last Halifax to fly, as by that time she was decidedly non-airworthy, but she was certainly the last complete Halifax in Britain, until the recovery of W1048 from Lake Hocklingen in 1973.

If only the forum search function worked; somebody posted up some very good photo’s of PN323 in situ at Radlett a year or so ago.

James – fabulous photo’s, many thanks for posting them. Note to self; must visit Lambeth soon. Great to see the Hess Me-110 section is still extant. Interesting (well I thought so) aside to the Hess story; I spent a week at RAF Gatow in Berlin in August 89, not long after Herr Hess’s passing, and we drove past the site of the old Spandau prison one day. The young RAF Liaison Officer told us the site’s significance, and that the building work we could see was for a new supermarket. He took great delight in telling us it would be called “Hessco’s”…

Becka – fascinating story, no wonder you always make a bee line for Old Fred whenever you’re there. That’s the sort of story that really makes these old aeroplanes so special… 🙂

According to ‘Wrecks and Relics- the Album’ the halifax was perched as if sitting on a nosewheel, with a strange rather home made looking single tail fin, as a device to test radio devices for airliners in the late 50s. It was pretty much a gutted shell, and soon into the 60s the nose was saved and the rest scrapped. I think it was at Radlett, I will check in the book later….

“Old Fred” was written off charge on 4th October 1945, and the cockpit section was transferred to the Museum sometime in 1946.

James…yes, I have seen all the photos, somewhere in one of what seems like 25,000 packing boxes, I have copies. The majority (if not all) of the crew have donated their log books to the Museum too, and I really must go down on a non-work day and have a look at these. The crew also put together a book titled “We flew Old Fred” in the late 1980s…unfortunately it has long been out of print, but if you ever manage to get your hands on a copy, it is a very good read.

Becka

The Halifax was used for something to do with some sort of research until the 1960s, and was complete until then. It was the last airworthy Halifax. I think that the Skyfame collection acquired the nose of it and the rest was scrapped, although I may be wrong there.

I’d assume that the Lanc cockpit was acquired immediately post war (given the original paintwork), and I doubt that there was ever any intention to keep the whole airframe – I can’t think why the IWM would want a complete Lancaster when they only had Lambeth Road to keep it in, and we have to remember that there were quite a few Lancs out there back then – it wasn’t a rare beast.

Great photos James, that takes me back to my visits there (1994 and 1997). A great museum.

Apart from the personal connection mentioned by Ashley, does anyone know the history of the Halifax and Lancaster nose sections? When did the museum first get them, and did they only get the noses or did they receive the rest of the plane but decide only the noses were needed? What happened to the remainder, scrapped? Were they aircraft that served well into the postwar years? or preserved immediately after the war? Or recovered from a dump or crash site? Did the Halifax have a combat history? A pity they would splice it onto the Hendon one and begin a proper restoration.

A shame they were not kept intact but then space is always a problem. I do like the way you can walk into the Halifax, which you couldn’t do if it were a whole aircraft in a museum. I can’t remember if you can go into the Lanc too.

The Hess Bf110 is a fascinating relic with a great history, and always reminds me that it was part of the Home Guard’s finest hour. I love Arthur Askey’s song “Thanks for Dropping in Mr Hess”, such wonderful satire in those days.

Would anyone notice if the Mustang’s drop tanks went missing?

And to wrap up here’s a bit of the good ol Deputy Furher’s aircraft; a rather potent bomb casing and…

…the peace garden opened by His Holiness the Dali Lama in 1999. Very appropriate. Note the pot. Peace is hard to achieve

This is something that has always puzzled me James, and I have never been able to get a proper answer out of anyone here on that. I don’t know if they decided they needed to fill a “gap” in the ceiling display and decided on the Mustang…but to then go and stick a fibreglass replica in the same markings on a pole in the AAM…bizarre! I guess it was easier then hoisting the Lambeth Road Mustang down and transporting her to Duxford for display…

flew 21 missions in ‘Old Fred’ as mid-upper gunner…

Hi Ashley – as you may know, there is a photo of Old Fred and crew during the war in the photo archive. I didn’t pay attention to the names – have you checked to see if he’s in it?

Here’s something Werner was chucking about…

Yawn.

The plaque says it was the first a/c to be restored at IWM Duxford. (Which is correct, but forgetting to mention ARCo did the second restoration before it came to Lambeth to get dangled. Typical of museums; never acknowledge private enterprise. Poor.)

Why it is in Lambeth when it commemorates a DX based a/c is beyond me. And it left DX way before any other a/c was masquarading as BBD.

Sorry if I’ve mentioned this to you before, but my neighbour across the road (when I lived at home with my parents) flew 21 missions in ‘Old Fred’ as mid-upper gunner…he was (I believe) the only Brit member of an otherwise all Australian crew and is credited with shooting down a Me.110 on one of these missions.

Alec is still alive today, a lovely, gentle unassuming gentleman (and I mean gentleman), and it is hard to believe that all those years ago, he climbed aboard Old Fred and took off into the night…not knowing if he would ever see an English sunrise again…and I cannot even begin to imagine the sights he saw and the things he experienced…

Becka

The man in the wheelchair was pointing at me and saying. “Ere. That bloke. Wasn’t he drawn by Roland Searle?”

Old bomber, made from paper & string.

Ground. Seeing Dave. Thanks for the compliment!

Some bits of bombers, and a big drop bomb bit.

Simply love the first one James, it looks as though it should feature on the front of a leaflet for Lambeth Road…a slightly different shot to the norm 🙂

Austral Street…hmmmm…which floor? 😉

Some planes…