Many thanks!

Cee’s a fine idea!! always open to ideas. The cuplua is going to be the hardest part I think.

No problem – just pop up to your friendly UK warehouse to see what they have in stock and on the shelf for loan.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]250630[/ATTACH]

The box of parts for their own FN4 is a bit large so there may be some duplicates

[ATTACH=CONFIG]250631[/ATTACH]

Stafford Store

Ross

Maund’s BEM was gazetted in the New Year Honours list of 1943.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/35841/page/22/data.pdf

The lack of citation and list in NYH suggests a non immediate award rather than for gallantry.

It is possible that it was for gallantry and that recommendation was late 1942 with it being gazetted along with the periodic “Meritorious Service” awards.

AIR 2 or possibly the unit ORB in AIR27 at The National Archives will clarify.

Ross

Looked into the detail for this one a few years ago when fleshing out the RNLI record.

The USAAF records contained some glaring errors on aircraft and pilot compared to the 303rd histories.

The reported location of Pealie Bay threw me until local fishermen told me they knew the place for crab fishing – the USAAF scribe was a commercial snow crab fisherman (Opillo Crab).

Delivered Cheyenne, Wyoming 08/10/43.
Transferred Grand Island 27/10/43.
Assigned 94BG but transferred to 427BS/303BG Molesworth 18/11/43.
MIA, ran out of fuel, ditched into the Channel, Pegwell Bay, Kent.
10 RTD
Source: Freeman

Mission: Leverkusen

Bomber Command Mission 145.

“No trace of aircraft number in Air Force History Support Office.
Eighth Air Force Roll of Honor shows aircraft and pilot Eckhart supposedly listed on MACR 303.
MACR 303 shows a different aircraft and pilot.

Only one loss over Channel 01/12/43 has MACR raised, MACR 1550″
(Source: Letter to R McNeill, Air Force History Support Office, 28/09/98)

“Walmer, Kent.
At two o’clock in the afternoon of the 1st of December 1943, the coastguard reported an American Flying Fortress aeroplane down in the sea a mile north of the Guildford Hotel in Pegwell Bay. A moderate north-west wind was blowing. The sea was smooth. The lifeboat was not needed, and four of her crew put out in the motor boat ‘Terrier’. She was overtaken by two air sea rescue launches and the coastguard signalled the ‘Terrier’ to return.
Rewards £1 to two men. The other two men had been rewarded by the Bevan Trustees.”
(Source: Supplement to Annual Reports of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution 1939-46)

“Pilot and Copilot Names.
Mission: Solingen.
Ditched in Pealie Bay.
10 RTD by AS/R.”
(Source: http://www.303rdbga.com/goldfish.html)

“Crew Names and Serial Numbers.
Pilot Eckhart,
Copilot Jenkins,
Bomb Meagher,
Nav Peacock,
Engr Neuner,
Radio Kuehl,
Ball Gunner Tambe,
Waist Gunner Musasche,
Waist Gunner A N Other,
Tail Gunner Smith.”
(Source: http://www.303rdbga.com/p-rost-defg.html)

“303rd BG(H) B-17G #42-31243 (no name) (GN-Z) was assigned to our 427th Bomb Squadron on 18th November 1943. She ditched in the English Channel at Pealie Bay on 1 December 1943 when the B-17 ran out of gas. The ten man crew was picked up by air-sea rescue and taken to Manston, England. The B-17 was piloted by 2ndLt Alan Eckhart and was returning from a combat mission to Solingen, Germany.”
(Source E-Mail to R McNeill, from Harry D Gobrecht, [email], 25/10/98)

Ross

Ahh..DE119 on 6th Nov 1942. Gianaclis to Shandur. The u/c pump packed up in flight and they were unable to lower the u/c.

As a crew they avoided the unpleasantness at No.5 METS in Sept – nearly every incident was considered by the AOC as carelessness.

All the training that had incidents was listed as Torpedo Training with only one exception being low flying training.

Ross

Not many aerial torpedo attacks on shipping where from head on or full astern. By choice they all were ‘deflection’ of varying angle.

I remain to be convinced of a reality where the Beaufort in 1942 Middle East theatre would regularly take off, climb to position, carry out a deflection shot at target circa 10,000 ft and return to base ‘all virtually under an hour’.

Ross

Not many Spitfires left in store as of 2014.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]244208[/ATTACH]

As to the Stirling and Stafford in general, it’s reminds me of the last scene in the Indiana Jones movie.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]244207[/ATTACH]

But when I first was taken round Cosford it was a similar scene not on public view.

Ross

I attended the talk.

The statement was that display mode was still to be decided – various options were under consideration.

The slide that accompanied this was a block graphic showing a couple of outlines.

Ross