North African desert aircraft

Off topic? Maybe they’ll start an army thread just like modmil got…;) – Nermal

I know it’s off topic from the thread, but by way of comparison, here is another LRDG truck which actually still runs. Tis was taken at the Armistice Day commemorations here in Cambridge in 2002.

The LRDG Chev at IWM Lambeth was mentioned here early on. Here’s a couple of pics.

Notice the different levels visible in the paint on the flag on the back. wear? Paint types? Co-incidence?

Saw a prog about the Shackleton of SAAF that crash landed in the desert a while back.
Was it left in situ, stripped for parts or what? Does anyone know?

For desert we have..

You’re dead right Kiters,

Mark12, hobble your zimmer over here and show us some more desert photos.

Joking aside, what was the SP on the Syrian Mark 22’s?

Melv

Melv,

Always the Syrian Spitfires.

They won’t go away because since Bob Diemert, yes he of the multi seat Firefly and Mustang, saw upwards of a dozen back in 1967/8 there has never been confirmation that they have been scrapped. My photos show them looking just like those recent Iraqi Furys/Furies posted a few weeks back. They were at Hama and possibly some at Damascus.

Many many have tried on these and I do not include myself although I was in Syria last December. Forever the optimist I believe there could still be something there.

Here is something that should be saved for the Italian nation – what is left of the World’s only Caproni Ca.309 Ghibli.

Unfortunately the map reference is in a file just out of reach from my walking stick but I can tell you it is in the Western Desert – Egypt.

I must ring for the Stana Stair Lift as it is time to go down for Emmerdale.

Mark

Surely is not was

shouldn’t it be

“what is the SP on the Syrian Spit 22s”

He’s got a bike though.

Now Melv. Stop trying to take a perfectly useable thread to Cuba… (Not that I’m not helping) Tsk. Chiz. Oik.

You’re dead right Kiters,

Mark12, hobble your zimmer over here and show us some more desert photos.

Joking aside, what was the SP on the Syrian Mark 22’s?

Melv

He’s got a bike though.

Now Melv. Stop trying to take a perfectly useable thread to Cuba… (Not that I’m not helping) Tsk. Chiz. Oik.

Or they aren’t catching him…

At his age he can’t run that fast . . .

At least you’ve stopped robbing them!

Or they aren’t catching him…

I resemble that remark!

Sorry, didn’t mean to mess up your probation . . .

At least you’ve stopped robbing them!

Melv

Mark12

I was on my first trip overseas to the US when i picked up my copy of the flypaper with the article on the Egyptian spit wreck – At that time I was a clueless clod on who the author was (subsequently I did re-visit the article once i discovered WIX and this board).

The reason i mention is that i scanned the picture (and the relevant Spit Intl entry) and sent it ‘up north’ when MV459 came out of the river bed. I assumed that was a great way to display a wreck and not to junk it because it looked like ‘junk’. apparently they never ‘saw’ the image 😀 But I did show the story to those folks later on.

It is aviation, it is historic and it is very interesting. It is also keeping Mark12 inside and so he is not hanging around outside 7/11 stores frightening the locals.

seriously, to both of you, this is fun.

Melvyn

I resemble that remark!

I hope I’m not straying off topic too much, but I am working my way through these 700+ pages re The Lady Be Good, I also seem to recall a film crew coming out to record this news item.

It is aviation, it is historic and it is very interesting. It is also keeping Mark12 inside and so he is not hanging around outside 7/11 stores frightening the locals.

seriously, to both of you, this is fun.

Melvyn

No there is nothing in my diaries re the recovery of bodies from Kufra that I can see on a quick scan through, as James had said earlier on his post re http://www.ladybegood.com/ the kite was found in 1959 and the bodies recovered in 1960, 3 years before I arrived. It obviously was a talking point 3 years on though! …….and how the mind can play tricks!

Again off on a tangent, down around Kufra there was much petrified wood from forests millions of years ago, the wood was ebony in colour and weighed the equivalent to steel with preservation almost perfect from the dry desert air. We had a chunk of this outside one of the Twynham billets.

Edited to show alternative website in detail

http://www.qmfound.com/lady_be_good_b-24_bomber_recovery.htm

Would Jack recall this taken from my diary Jan 3rd 1965:

3rd January 1965 El Adem Standby helicopter (Sycamore) and 70 Sqn Pembroke called out as the Air Attache to Cairo, a group captain, was involved in a car crash on the Libyan/Egyptian border. .

He told me the story a couple of years back. I will pass on your best wishes.

Mark

John,

You will be pleased to know that they are both still going strong.

Although I haven’t seen it yet, you might see a face you recognise in the August ‘Other Aviation Mag’. ‘Jack’, a 2nd TAF Typhoon/Tempest veteran, was over the D-Day beaches in a Dakota at this past month’s commemoration.

Mark

That is good to hear, please pass on my best wishes.

Would Jack recall this taken from my diary Jan 3rd 1965:

3rd January 1965 El Adem Standby helicopter (Sycamore) and 70 Sqn Pembroke called out as the Air Attache to Cairo, a group captain, was involved in a car crash on the Libyan/Egyptian border. Car hit donkey in a sandstorm at 70mph, left the road, hit a boulder, car safety strap broke but had already lacerated G/C neck severely. Helicopter lost way in sandstorm and strayed 5 miles over Egyptian border at Salum, aircraft impounded, pilot arrested and taken to Egyptian gaol for 3 hours. An ambulance was despatched from El A but broke down, helicopter eventually brought G/C to EL A SSQ and then transferred to Benghazi hospital for treatment.

This item is unlikely to appear in the Public Archives at Kew as it caused a diplomatic stir at the time as the UK and Egypt were not then the best of friends.

I hope I’m not straying off topic too much, but I am working my way through these 700+ pages re The Lady Be Good, I also seem to recall a film crew coming out to record this news item.

That Spitfire looks quite remarkable Mark12. When you say it came out of the Med, do you mean the region or the actual sea? If it was underwater, it is all the more remarkable.

Dave,

The Spitfire was recovered from the sea just a few hundred metres from the shore. It was located 145 km west of Alexandria.

The attached photo/clipping appeared in the Times in July 1999, with a report that Egyptian Navy Divers had recovered what was thought to be a Spitfire.

The Egyptians were very reluctant to communicate on the matter despite the best endeavours of our then Defence attaché in Cairo. When we finally got the all clear to go and see it the reason was clear – they had been restoring it, most probably at Almaza. It was not the pile of corroded metal I was anticipating.

The full story was written up in June 2001 ‘Flypaper’.

Mark

Quote from diary:
Saturday 28th November 1964
“Group Captain Frost (Jack) C.O. of El Adem, came and visited Terry Bone and myself and said he would go and see Pauline (my wife)” as stated he didn’t but your Aunt did. I have to say Mark I spent quite a bit of time in hospital whilst in the RAF and this was the ONLY time that a CO visited me anywhere. I also recall he was not a man for parades, that was the measure of the man!

John,

You will be pleased to know that they are both still going strong.

Although I haven’t seen it yet, you might see a face you recognise in the August ‘Other Aviation Mag’. ‘Jack’, a 2nd TAF Typhoon/Tempest veteran, was over the D-Day beaches in a Dakota at this past month’s commemoration.

Mark

John,

From a close up shot the serial of the Pembroke ends in a ‘6’.

Lady be Good was discovered by BP oilmen in May 1958.

That’ll be my Auntie Shelagh then.

Mark

Mark

That ‘Percy’ could have been a ‘borrowed’ one, good picture, they were not the most serviceable of aircraft especially with oil leaks from the engines.

Quote from diary:
Saturday 28th November 1964
“Group Captain Frost (Jack) C.O. of El Adem, came and visited Terry Bone and myself and said he would go and see Pauline (my wife)” as stated he didn’t but your Aunt did. I have to say Mark I spent quite a bit of time in hospital whilst in the RAF and this was the ONLY time that a CO visited me anywhere. I also recall he was not a man for parades, that was the measure of the man!

I’m sure there is some mention in my diaries of bringing some bodies back from a WW2 crashed bomber, I will try to hunt this out. I know on one occasion I should have gone to Kufra to rectify a fault on a Bev Centaurus engine but on this occasion I drew the long straw and didn’t go. I do recall in my time at El A a lot of talk re this crashed bomber.