Research tips requested.

I did this with a Spitfire I was involved with excavating a couple of years ago. We had the aircraft’s movement history from the relevant Air Britain book so I looked up as many units that is was recorded with at the National Archives.

Some recorded operational flights and others didn’t.

The most interesting time, the few days around D-Day, was blank as the squadron flew so many sorties they simply stated that they flew from dawn until dusk constantly turning a/c around (re-arm & re-fuel) and sending them back out.

A Halifax should be fairly easy if it was with frontline squadrons, once it was with an HCU or similar the level of detail will drop to general facts about the unit.

Key sources should be:

Air Minstry Form 78 (RAF Museum, Department of Research & Information Servieces)
Air Britain, serials register (sourced from F-78s but not 100% correct)
Operations Record Books (Form 540 / 541) (National Archvies) AIR 27/### for operational squadrons AIR 29/### for secondary units.

If the aircraft had any accidents they are recorded by the Form 1180 (again at the RAF Museum), these are on microfilm and are arranged by aircraft type and then date of accident so knowing the serial will not always help, your best source of accident dates would be the ORB.

Ndege.
Was the aircraft a loss or struck off during/at the end of the war?
I had some success regarding tracing the relatives of a Lancaster crew who lost their lives in ’45 near where I live. Their relatives were able to tell me some wonderful and poignant personal stories about their lost loved ones.
Go to the last post on this thread…..
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=65336&highlight=RF124

Regards

Ivan.

Ndege.

There’s probably no easy way to do it but it is I suspect possible. If you have the serial number that’s a good start.

The Air Britain list of aircraft serials will give a brief outline of the aircraft’s career and eventual fate. There are posters on here who do have access to the various volumes. Details will necessarily be sketchy but should provide units with which the aircraft served.

The Department of Research and Information Services at the RAF Museum at Hendon (known as DoRIS) will have a movement card for the aircraft giving the same information as the Air Britain books but possibly more detailed. If the aircraft was lost on Operations then there should also be a loss card recording the circumstances where known.

The Operational Record Books or ORB’s are diaries which are completed by RAF units. I believe many of these survive at the National Archives in Kew. For operational Squadrons the entries can be quite detailed giving the aircraft serial, crew, target, time up and time down and a brief record of the raid as given by the crew of the aircraft. It would just be a matter of finding when the aircraft arrived with a particular unit or Squadron and then working through the ORB for each subsequent entry.

There’s probably more but that should get you started.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

kev35

Thank you for your replies, I do indeed have the serial no. and loads of other details, but would to trace it’s full service history: things like who flew it and when, was it damaged by flak/fighters etc.

I apologise for not replying sooner, got summoned to work and fooud the work laptop excluded this and all other forums.

Now, down to work….

Ndege.

Jimbo – I think Ndege was maybe asking for advice on how to carry out the research himself rather than “who can tell me what about this Halifax?”

If I’m wrong Ndege please say so 🙂 (and provide the serial of course)

Roger Smith

Yeah, good point.

Depends where you start though, “My grandad was in a Halifax” compared to “My grandad was in a specific Halifax” so if you don’t know the answer to the first bit then the route is slightly different.

Have a look at the National Archives website and the RAF Museum website. They both have downloadable PDFs that can explain a lot.

Good Hunting,

Jim:)

Jimbo – I think Ndege was maybe asking for advice on how to carry out the research himself rather than “who can tell me what about this Halifax?”

If I’m wrong Ndege please say so 🙂 (and provide the serial of course)

Roger Smith

RAF Museum have the cards with individual aircraft histories

Well, to start with, do you have the serial number?