Vampire FB 5 Flight to Seletar, 60 Squadron, 1950; question about route

Laurie: while I would agree that the squadron ORB and Flight magazine records the arrival date of the Vampires as 2 December 1950, the date comes from the log book of one of the ferry pilots. He makes no mention as to why he arrived some time after the main party and I acknowledged “18 December 1950” in the list as being the completion of the first ferry convoy from the UK.

Dave, can I ask where the arrival date, 18 Nov 50, of the first six Vampires delivered to Seletar came from?

All reports that I have seen, Flight magazine, local (Singapore) press and the 60 Sqn ORB (F540), give the arrival date of these aircraft as 2 Dec 50.

Convoy Serial A: six Vampire Mk.5s dep Chivenor 6 Nov 1950 – arr Singapore 18 Nov 1950.
Convoy Serial B: six Vampire Mk.5s arr Singapore 9 Dec 1950
Convoy Serial C: six Vampire Mk.5s arr Singapore 23 Dec 1950
Convoy Serial D: six Vampire Mk.5s arr Singapore 6 Jan 1951
Convoy Serial E: seven Vampire Mk.5s arr Singapore 20 Jan 1951
Convoy Serial F: seven Vampire Mk.5s arr Singapore 3 Feb 1951
Convoy serial G: seven Vampire Mk.5s dep Chivenor 30 Jan 1951 – arr Singapore 17 Feb 1951
Total: 44 Vampire FB Mk.5s
Route: Chivenor – Dijon 420m; Dijon – Istres 240m; Istres – El Aouina 471m; El Aouina – Castel Benito 312m; Castel Benito – El Adem 549m; El Adem – Fayid 451m; Fayid – Muharraq 366m; Muharraq – 366m; Muharraq – Bahrein 565m; Bahrein – Sharjah 268m; Sharjah – Mauripur 628m; Mauripur – Delhi 590m; Delhi – Kanpur 218m; Kanpur – Barrackpore 500m; Barrackpore – Mingaladon – 555m; Mingaladon – Bangkok 320m; Bangkok – Butterworth 508m; Butterworth – Singapore 330m. Total 7,641m.
‘Shepherd’ Mosquito PR 34s drawn from OFU / 81 Squadron
First Vampire Mk.5s (WA237, WA238, WA240, WA241 and WA246) delivered to No.60 Squadron on 4 December 1950

To add to the detail above, an example of routing is documented in the sqn diary:

“Overseas Ferry Unit pilots flew the aircraft from Hawarden-Chivenor-Middle East, then MEAF pilots took over for final delivery. For example, Sgt Hilliard of 249 Sqn flew WA242 on 14 Dec 1950 routing Fayid-Mafraq-Habbaniyah-Shaibah-Bahrein-Sharjah-Jiwani-Mauripur-(two nights rest)-Palan-Kanpur-Barrackpore-Mingaladon-Don Muang-Butterworth-Tengah, an eight day journey.”

Five of the initial delivery aircraft were aircraft allocated to 60 Sqn were WA237 (R?), WA238 (D), WA240 (O/F?), WA241 (K), WA246 (S/F?).

The aircraft displayed at Kallang for the Singapore Air Day were WA238 and WA237.

A snippet on the Mosquito, for you Farmgate:

“[On 27 Dec, during the 3rd Vampire ferry flight,] near Seletar, WA257, flown by Flt Lt EL Jacobs of the OFU, broke formation and collided with the escorting Mosquito RG268 flown by Fg Off JJ Connors of that unit. The wings of both aircraft were damaged Cat 3. Fg Off Connors landed at Changi to get a Green Endorsement. Altogether, 44 Vampire FB5s were delivered from Chivenor to the Far East.”

Sycamore, thanks. My mistake. VG703 was indeed an F3.

Laurie, VG703 was an F3,not an FB5,on the FE trials unit..

Thank you Lauriebe. I always assumed the photo of a lone FB 5 in Indochina indicated a ferry flight to Seletar. My reference was a photo from Soumille’s book on the topic. I will review this carefully and thank you again for setting the record straight.

Farmgate, I researched the delivery of Vampire FB 5 and 9 aircraft to the Far East a few years ago. The routing would not have included Indo-China.

A good article on the delivery flights can be found on the link below:

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1950/1950%20-%202162.html?search=Vampires%20to%20the%20Far%20East

The first FB5s arrived at Seletar during the afternoon of 2 December 1950. No.60 Sqn received its first four aircraft on 4 December 1950 and displayed them at an Air Day at Kallang Airport during the afternoon of 9 December 1950.

FYI, Vampire FB5, VG703, was demonstrated at Saigon circa October 1948 as part of a tour of the Middle and Far East. Could the aircraft in your photo be that one?

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Documents-avion-FB-Mk-5-Vampire-n-VG-703-en-Indochine-/251813706186

Thanks Sycamore. This is helpful. I was wondering if they stopped in Saigon. Thank you again as I am especially interested in the navigation Mossie as well.

The aircraft were ferried out by No 1 Overseas Ferry Unit at Chivenor in groups of 6/7 with a Unit Mosquito as Nav ,then another from the FEAF Ferry Flight ,betweenNov`50 to Feb `51.60 Sqdn did not receive them until Dec`50,as they were busy with Spit18s in Op.Firedog.. First jet strike by 60Sqn on 26 April `51.

Might be worth asking on the pprune History and Nostalgia section – I am pretty sure there are some old Vamp/Venom pilots on there : )

Edit – just realised that seafuryfan is involved with 60sqn history so you may not need to bother with prune !

Hi Farmgate, I may be able to help, but will get back to you Monday unless someone else knows the answer.