Hi Whitley_Project, sorry; I didn’t see your comment yesterday! You’ve probably seen that yes, he did indeed fly some Whitley’s.

Thanks for the suggestion Tony. I actually got dropbox working yesterday, so they’re now on there. I hope he would be proud. I think it’s such a fascinating book that other’s will like to have the opportunity to look!

If anyone wants a copy, feel free to pm/email and I’ll gladly send the dropbox link over.

Evening all,

I have now scanned all of my Grandfathers logbooks to PDF and have complied them all (500+ pages) into one PDF.

I am willing to send a copy to anyone who wishes to receive a copy (free).

His flying started in the war on Halifax’s and flew transport aircraft from then onwards until retirement on VC10’s in the early 70′.

If you want to receive a copy, please either PM me your address or email me at [email]vc10jlw@gmail.com[/email]

I am not charging for them, or postage, but have included details of a charity you may wish to donate to on the disc – but there’s no obligation to donate!

Andy

Hi Chadders,

Thanks for the contact – I’ll drop him an email and hope for the best!

Rest assured, if I get a copy, you’ll be the first to know!

It is a bit spooky how many dates end up like that!

I popped down to the local library today to see if they had a copy of Melbourne ten (no joy!) and had a flick through Bomber command losses of 1944 whilst there. I was shocked to see that of the 79 aircraft listed in the book as being lost that night, only seven or eight of the crews all survived as POW. All of the others had at least one fatality, if not no survivors.

Does make it hit home how lucky I am to be here!

Thank-you all for your replies.

Sorry for my delay in replying – I wanted to have a good look through my Grandpa’s log books again to try and hunt out some more info before replying and think it’s quite appropriate to reply tonight – 71 years since we has shot down this evening!

I’ve always had a suspicion it was a B MkII series 1A, and found a note in his logbooks saying it had Merlin XXII’s. It looks like from all the posts above, that it is safe to assume it had the later rectangular fins.

Is there a link anyone has regarding applying for the Form 78 at all? Are the held at Cosford?

‘BTW. Is your grandad Sgt. B/D.R.G. Walker, MU gunner?’ My Grandpa was P/O (at the time) Jack Lesley Walker (known as Johnnie – after the Whiskey!) and was the pilot

I’ve scanned in up to and including the night in question from the logbooks – 19-20 February 1944 – see pics below:

As far as I’m aware, he met up with the gentleman who shot him down a number of years later – I’ll try and dig that photo out sometime!

What engines were the Gallay drum type radiator fitted to CeBro?

I did do some research at the National archives and wrote down all the 10 Squadron sorties that LW324 was involved in, but I cannot find that paperwork anywhere!

Thats interesting bearoutwest! Think I might need to try and find a copy of Bomber Squadrons of the RAF too!

BTW – I sniffed out a copy of Melbourne Ten today. An absolute BARGAIN at £25 🙂

I am currently trying to decide which machine to have the model painted as, so am looking through his logbooks to help decide.

At the top of the page where Varsity’s first feature, it says ‘No 349 Refresher Course Thorney Island 2ANS’ – why would he need a refresher course?

It had only been about 2 months since he last flew previous to this course and similar sized gaps in his flying appear to be regular throughout the logbooks!

Also, further to a previous post – WL326 ‘Z’ appears several times in the books – in fact it was the first Varsity he flew solo having been the second Varsity he flew! Although if it was WL626 (which I hope it was!), I need to go to East Midlands Aeropark!!

Thanks for all the help guys – it is greatly appreciated!

Ron, I think I’ll have to take responsibility for the mistake – I copied all the registrations of the aircraft out of the logbooks and onto excel to avoid opening them too often – must have got lost in translation!

pagen – I was actually thinking of getting one of the ebay mahogany jobs – I got an Argosy from there before and was very impressed with the quality – besides I haven’t found a Varsity model that isn’t a vac kit as I can’t stand the vac kits!

I just need to dig through the pprune thread to find some more pictures for the ebayer to get the paint scheme correct!