I’d be wary, Fly.buy.

I’d love to have the control column collection on public display, but I’m not sure it could be accomplished with adequate safeguards.

I certainly wouldn’t loan anything irreplaceable unless I was absolutely convinced that all risks had been minimalised.

Make sure the paperwork is bullet proof, and ask for confirmation of insurance on loaned items, not just their own stuff.

As a small example of what can go wrong, my pal and I loaned our Shackleton panel to the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry many years ago. We reckoned it would display well under the nose of their complete Shackleton, particularly since access to cockpits is so difficult.

Some months later, on a routine visit, we noticed several instruments were missing. It turned out that someone working on the Shack had decided our instruments would help complete it’s panel…

No doubt it was just a lack of awareness/understanding/communication between a volunteer worker and the Museum’s management, but it taught us a lesson.

Thanks for clarifying what a Wanganui is. Interesting codename, I wonder if there was a Kiwi connection in the invention of it.

It was something to do with the home towns of PFF personel.

Wanganui was one, Parramatta was another, Newhaven a third.

Wanganui was a method of marking the target where the markers burst in the air rather than at ground level (e.g. if the target was obscured by cloud, etc.)

Foo fighters were brightly lit “u.f.os” at night, or shining discs/balls in daytime, reported as flying in near formation with allied aircraft. They were regarded (by those witnessing them) as mysterious new enemy weapons, although I know of no reported attack by one. There are some quite interesting reports on-line somewhere from US night fighter crews (Beaufighters) about their encounters. I’ve also seen the odd account from Bomber Command crews.

Trent and his fellow POWs might have seen some or all of the things mentioned so far, but wouldn’t it have depended to some extent on where he was on the night, i.e. proximity to the target area?

You mention he was in prison, but presumably much nearer to Hamburg/Harburg than Sagan (S.E. of Berlin)?

Otis Rush

All your love (I miss loving)

How Blues gave rise to Rock…

Eric Clapton? Overshadowed by a hundred other guitarists. Don’t get me started…

I despair of eBay ever getting the aviation stuff into one, easy-to-access category.

It’s a real ball-ache having to choose which category to put some of my stuff in and, because there are so many categories which might contain aeronautica, it would take a day to trawl thru it all as a bidder. The result is you stand to lose sales and purchases, in equal measure!

It’s a crock of er……..and don’t get me started on paypal!

Hamburg wasn’t bombed on April 5th, but Harburg (nearby) was.

The target was the Rhenania oil plant, attacked by 327 aircraft and severely damaged according to Middlebrook and Everitt in the Bomber Command War Diaries.

I would imagine that many of the “wierd” sights were caused by all that burning oil?