Fiesler Storch(?) north bound west of Northwich Cheshire about 1530 22 April

More detail on Starfish sites

Laurie Brettingham’s book “Royal Air Force Beam Benders No 80 (Signals) Wing 1940-1945” Midland Publishing 1999 Chapters 11 and 12 has some wonderful detail on this almost unknown subject. 80 Wing controlled the decoy effort. The book chapters are a good summary and most helpfully well referenced with further reading.

WZ862

Sky Tiger – The Story of Sailor Malan, written by Norman L R Franks, recently republished by Crecy (which I should have checked originally) introduces the Magister as the escaping aircraft. It also indicates that Sailor Malan was upset 74 Squadron were not allowed to rescue their own CO S/L White, who had received a bullet in the radiator while attacking a Henschel 126.

Malan’s upset was with Station Commander at Hornchurch who had ordered the method of escape, rather than 54 Squadron. On balance I think I would rather go with Al Deere’s 1959 personal recollection that it was a Master rather than the 1980 account.

Miles Master 54 Squadron

Hi,

Have a look at Nine Lives Al Deere Chapter 4, Rescue at Calais Marck. “Prof” Leathart, Flight Commander flew the Master, escorted by Al Deere and Johnny Allen. They rescued the CO of 74 Squadron who had force landed with engine trouble at Calais Marck. May 23 1940

While I cannot help you directly, you may find the Hawker Audax a useful source of research as they may have been fitted in this way also. I think (memory is not good)that there is one Hawker Audax airframe in the UK for rebuild, they may have information.

Thoughts on Spitfires in Crates

It is down to the previous work of Mark 12; the scattering of photographs on the web and those culled from Imperial War Museum photo archives that there is a good start on this topic.

Transport crates were first of all designed to protect as well as transport their valuable cargo. The transport element required export crated aircraft to be lifted and lowered on to lorries by crane at the specialist aircraft packing units. The crates then went by road to ports, having to survive the stress of those journeys. The crates were then lifted either by port cranes or ship’s derricks and travelled as deck cargo or in the hold. The lifting of such loads at ports would expose the crates to wind loads and swaying forces, collisions with other objects while being moved and to survive stresses in three dimensions. If on deck they would be subject to the effects of weather and corrosive sea water. A crated aircraft in a ship sailing to India in convoy would typically take 3-4 weeks of sometimes violent pitch, roll and yaw.

The crates would need to be robust and in many ways were the predecessors of the modern freight container. They were lifting equipment in their own right, capable of supporting themselves and their contents. That would give them, in their design, the need for considerable inherent strength. You can see in the first photograph posted by Mark 12 at #4 above of the Mark V111 being unloaded at Casablanca in 1943 that, as Mark 12 says, the wing crate has lifting eyes and shackles fitted about one quarter of the way in from each end and signs of reinforcement travelling downwards from each of these lifting points that should extend underneath the crate. The wooden reinforcement and packing of the wings shows that the wings at least were given double protection in some directions. (Accidentally,but probably not an Air Ministry original specification, the vertical alignment of the wings in crates might also permit ground pressures to be resisted better if buried in Burma.) However, the burial of the aircraft may have been done in a haphazard fashion given the circumstances and the crates may not be buried in the correct alignment. If they were pushed, possibly down hill, by machine, into an old watercourse they will not have been treated as kindly as normal. The two photographs at #4 also may reveal differences in crating design; numbers of crates used per aircraft or loading configuration/content. The tail has been removed from the V111; the Vc has the tail attached. There is a video collage of crated aircraft photo stills at

http://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/spitfires-being-crated-pictures-video.html.

Bruce Robertson’s book Spitfire p95 (Harleyford 1961) shows a 136 squadron aircraft in a crate similar to #4 photo 1 being moved along a Cocos Island road in 1945. I think the squadron was already operational before its move to the Cocos, and the crates might be re-used from their original export function from Britain The crate is chocked at an angle suggesting they had no crane to off load it from its trailer, but were maybe using an early fork truck. Otherwise it’s not clear why it was eccentrically placed on a trailer. Nevertheless it shows the physical abuse these crates had to withstand to ensure safe arrival of the contents.

For the intrepid researcher in funds or close to London (or a TV researcher who wants to help us all) I believe there is in the Imperial War Museum some film of a 136 Squadron aircraft being uncrated on the Cocos Islands in 1945

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1060028994

Below is the IWM catalogue description.

“Reel 4: Men at work building a road in the jungle. Two lorries approach. A jeep drives along the road. Various shots of bulldozers felling trees, clearing undergrowth, and leveling ground. A lorry (probably a Leyland Retriever) tows a trailer loaded with a large crate. A crane lowers a crate onto a trailer. The trailer is marked ‘136 Sqdn’. Various shots of the lorry and trailer on the road. The lorry parks up and the crate is hoisted off. A caterpillar tractor named ‘Beryl’ towing a scraper. Two tractors pass each other; one of them tows a trailer in which a hydraulic ram pushes loose earth onto the ground. Two men operate a large chainsaw which they use to chop up a palm tree trunk. More footage of the chainsaw. A church service conducted in the open air. Palm trunks serve as pews and the chaplain, despite the remote location, appears to be wearing full vestments. Men on their knees in prayer. The chaplain kneels in front of the cross on an altar made of small rocks. A crate marked ‘136 Sqdn’ being opened. The fuselage of a Spitfire Mk VIII, covered in a tarpaulin, is unloaded. The Spitfire’s tail assembly (minus the rudder) is carried away. Men pitching a tent. A man hammering in tent pegs with a mallet. A Spitfire fuselage, missing its wings and engine cowling is held up by a crane. Airmen position a rest under the nose of the aircraft and a second rest under the tail. (Aircraft is Spitfire Mk VIII MT567). The wings are fitted to a second Spitfire (MT962). A Spitfire fuselage is towed out of a crate by a jeep. A four-bladed propeller is fitted. Close-up of the propeller.”

I have no financial or any other interests in the extraneous sources I have used.

I wonder if anyone out there has drawings or descriptions of the specifications for export packing of Spitfires who can add more?

According to Martin Middlebrook’s Introduction to “The Everlasting Arms -The War Memoirs of Air Commodore John Searby DSO DFC” Searby was the first master bomber when he directed the bombing at Peenemunde on 17 August 1943. Chapter eight of the book describes the preparation for the raid and the deputy master bombers W/C Johnny Fauquier and W/C John White. A “dry run” for Peenemunde was the 12 July 1943 raid to Turin where Searby was given the role of “master of ceremonies” so named by his AOC AVM Don Bennett. This raid is described too in the book which was published by William Kimber in 1988. ISBN 07183 0680 5.