It was illegal to take photographs anywhere near a military installation. Every public access route was posted.

Neither film nor processing was available to the general public. Some Aircrew were able to get some military film and cut it to the correct size to fit their cameras and then get the Photo Section to process it, but for the enthusiast, no film, no pictures and it was even illegal to make sketches!

When the Americans joined in they had access to film through the PX but you had to know an American who was willing to buy the film for you and get it processed.

I managed to get one roll of Geavert (Belgium or Dutch) film at the end of war but the local chemist messed up the processing, either due to his lack of skills or due to his lack of suitable developer!

From my recollection the nose and tail fuses were installed by the armourers when loading the bombs.

Usually there would be an arming wire run from each fuse and this was attached to the aircraft. When the bombs were released the arming wires were pulled out and the fuses then started to arm themselves by the small propellors on each fuse. The bombs had to fall a specified distance before they were armed. This then allowed the aircraft to dump the bombs on takeoff, should they lose an engine, without destroying friendly folks and potentially themselves.

Unlike the B-17’s and 24’s there was no access to the bomb fuses in the bomb bays of the Lanc and the Halifax once the aircraft took off.

Meteor Mk8 at the ASF Hanger, Waterbeach, in 1954 or 55.

The Meatbox was coming in for servicing and it was parked between the ASF hangar and the Clothing Stores, the riggers had removed the canopy and the Armourer was standing in the seat working on disarming the top cartridge. For some reason the cartridge fired and the seat came up and hit him in the face.

The armourer should have safety pinned the top cartridge and removed the second charge in the back of the seat before attempting to remove the top cartridge, but he had not and the seat went through the full ejection cycle sending him high in the air, the seat landed on the roof of the Clothing Stores and the armourer fell and hit the horizontal tailplane of the Meteor.

He survived, but he spent a long, long time in hospital but I do not know how long he was kept in. He was a National Serviceman who was coming to the end of his service when the incident happened. The RAF kept him in the service until he recovered.

Why did it happen? Who knows? Was he distracted by his soon-to-be-discharge?

As an engine mechanic we were told that the sequence for disarming the ejector seat was to insert the safety pin into the top firing mechanism and to always remove the mid-travel, large cartridge in the back of the seat, before attempting to remove the top cartridge firing mechanism.

Jules,

Another PM sent regarding stand dimensions.

Deryck

Yes, Thanks, we can probably work out the dimensions from our display Merlin.

Deryck

Rocketeer, we are getting organized to dismantle Lancaster KB 882 and we need to build 4 Merlin engine stands, we would really appreciate a copy of any drawings you might have on the subject.

Deryck

Ronl

I seem to be unable to send a response to your most recent PM. I did not have a problem with your earlier ones.

“I have one more quick question. I was watching a video on NA 337, and saw a clip of someone opening up the covers on the drop hole opening which would have been where the mid under gunner would have accessed the PG turret. Are those covers heavy? I have read an account from a MU gunner where he stated that he climbed down into the turret and then closed the covers over himself. That wouldn’t have been too much fun. I’m just curious how heavy they are, as the gunner would have to open them from the turret to get out, and they look fairly heavy in the video clip.”

The doors were made from 3/4″ thick plywood with the checkered tiles on top. The floor opening was about 4 ft square and each door was about 48″ by 24″. They were not heavy but awkward. The space between the floor surface and the bottom of the fuselage is not sufficient to crawl into and close the 3/4″ thick doors. The reference to closing the doors probably referred to closing the turret doors.

The Halifax was unable to climb to the same attack altitude as the Lancaster and the Halifax crews would not have been looking forward to adding the weight of an extra turret, the ammunition and an additional crew member.

Cees, I seem to recollect that the undercarriage leg was taken from RAF Museum Cardington Storage and YAM made fiberglass moulds from it. The moulds were sent to Trenton for us to use to make the ‘covers’ for NA 337’s structural legs. I believe Karl now has them.

I seem to recollect that the RAF Cardington and Henlow storage facilities were being cleared out and when we enquired as to what had happened to the original undercarriage leg, Ian Robinson said that it was still lying on the floor at YAM.

Was it in fact ever returned to the RAF Museum?