NiallCThere were two large scale Blenheim attacks on Rotterdam docks – 16th July and 28th August 1941. This sequence of photos is believed to be from the second attack in which 17 Blenheims of 21, 88 and 226 Squadrons took part – seven failed to return.
HTH
Niall
NiallCHi Stu
Peter’s logbook confirms that he delivered the Whirlwind to Eglin Field.(He flew in to Norfolk on the 10th as a passenger on a NATS DC3 so I assume that’s where he took from with the Whirlwind two days later)
Jan 12: WW 6994: Test flight and on to Cherry Pt. Cherry Pt-Charleston
Jan 13: WW 6994: Charleston-Savannah
Jan 15: WW 6994: Savannah-Talahassee-Eglin Field.
Note that this is some time before the March date you give for the Fighter Conference.
As far as finding any US report that may or may not have been produced, I think that at least part of the difficulty has been that the aircraft appears not to have been given a T- or FE- number. As usual with the military, things without number tend to be things without records.
HTH
Niall
NiallCHi Chris
I should also have added that he flew operationally with 43 Sqn. on at least 4 occasions in October and November 1940 (although I don’t know when he joined that unit) and therefore qualifies for the Battle of Britain clasp. On the MoD Battle of Britain roll of honour his name is wrongly given as Sgt. S. Stenhouse. He should be in the book “Men of the Battle of Britain”, but I’ve loaned my copy to someone so can’t check right now.
Niall
NiallCHi Chris
I should also have added that he flew operationally with 43 Sqn. on at least 4 occasions in October and November 1940 (although I don’t know when he joined that unit) and therefore qualifies for the Battle of Britain clasp. On the MoD Battle of Britain roll of honour his name is wrongly given as Sgt. S. Stenhouse. He should be in the book “Men of the Battle of Britain”, but I’ve loaned my copy to someone so can’t check right now.
Niall
NiallCHi Chris
Don Minterne’s history of 73 Sqn. records Sgt. Stenhouse as arriving on the squadron 05/11/40, just before it moved to the Middle East. 73 Sqn ferried its Hurricanes via the Takoradi route and Stenhouse appears (with others) to have arrived in Heliopolis on December 7th. On January 25th, 1941 his Hurricane was hit by ground fire and he baled out between the British and Italian lines near Tobruk. 2 days later he was reported as being in a Tobruk hospital with a broken leg. Stenhouse doesn’t appear again in the book so presumably he joined another unit after recovering?
London Gazette also offers the following:
To be PO on probation Warrant Officer 803328 James Stenhouse (53020) – eff. 27/06/43
PO on Probation confirmed in appointment and to be FO: J Stenhouse (53020) – eff. 27/12/43
Somebody with a better touch with the Gazette’s cranky search engine might be able to get more out of it.
HTH
Niall
NiallCHi Chris
Don Minterne’s history of 73 Sqn. records Sgt. Stenhouse as arriving on the squadron 05/11/40, just before it moved to the Middle East. 73 Sqn ferried its Hurricanes via the Takoradi route and Stenhouse appears (with others) to have arrived in Heliopolis on December 7th. On January 25th, 1941 his Hurricane was hit by ground fire and he baled out between the British and Italian lines near Tobruk. 2 days later he was reported as being in a Tobruk hospital with a broken leg. Stenhouse doesn’t appear again in the book so presumably he joined another unit after recovering?
London Gazette also offers the following:
To be PO on probation Warrant Officer 803328 James Stenhouse (53020) – eff. 27/06/43
PO on Probation confirmed in appointment and to be FO: J Stenhouse (53020) – eff. 27/12/43
Somebody with a better touch with the Gazette’s cranky search engine might be able to get more out of it.
HTH
Niall
NiallC1/8th Bit
50 Group ORB is at the PRO at Air 25/669. This covers the period April 1939 through May 1947. There are also Appendices at Air 25/670, but these seem (from the catalogue) to be for 1941 onwards.
Niall
NiallCPeregrine Production
Hi,
To be exact 297 MkI and four MkII peregrines.:D
cheers
Jerry
Hi Jerry
According to RRHT Rolls-Royce built a total of 302 Peregrines: 16 development engines (11 with right-hand and five with left-hand rotation) and 286 production units, the last of which was delivered on 29 January 1942.
Niall
NiallCJust sticking my oar in here… on the subject of things Peregrine.
This belongs to a pal of mine, not sure where it came from, rather nice I think!!
Chumpy.
According to the Accident Record Card Peregrine 149979 was the port engine of Whirlwind P6966, the remains of which are currently with Airframe Assemblies.
Niall
NiallCOr a Whirlwind. The entire Peregrine engine was handed. Until recently I understood that was in all cases but according to an article in FlyPast or Aeroplane (I think) in the last couple of years, it was abandoned before the production run was completed.
Only the 1st prototype Whirlwind had handed engines. The 2nd prototype and all production examples had a pair of right-hand rotation engines.
The use of handed engines was abandoned when comparative flight tests with the 1st and 2nd prototypes revealed no appreciable differences in handling or stability.
Niall
NiallCHi Jerry
As Adrian has pointed out, Lydford Parish/RDC covered a large area in those days, including Princetown, so Lydford on the Death Certificates is consistent with a crash site at Fox Tor Mire.
Re the Catalinas: I was always under the impression that these were simply the first Catalinas for the RAF being delivered via the Southern Bridge route from Darrell’s Island. The timing’s right – I think the first two were actually delivered in January ’41. A slow and vulnerable aircraft at the best of times and there was always the risk of running into Luftwaffe recco or anti-shipping aircraft at large in St George’s Channel and Irish Sea. At the time 10 Group policy was that single engined fighters should not operate more than 5-10 miles offshore, so 263’s Whirlwinds were an obvious choice if the intention was to meet the Catalinas well out to sea.
I’ve nothing on the identity of the cockpit section at Manadon, but I believe it was pretty intact which seems inconsistent with a pair of aircraft that flew into the ground at speed. The only other possibilities are I suppose: one of the two Whirlwinds that were allocated to 4 and 6 SoTT as maintenance airframes or one of the 3 that were at Westland CRO undergoing repair when Cat B repairs were suspended after the obsolescence notice for the aircraft was issued on 1 Jan 44.
All the best
Niall
NiallCSmith & Vine
Hi
Interesting the registration, does this give the date ?
bovey tracy and lynford are both well away from where I understood they crashed.
cheers
jerry
Hi Jerry
Both death certificates say “Dead body found Ninth March 1941 Dartmoor Lydford R.D.” i.e. 10 weeks after the crash.
As Paul notes, the only source for the proposed Bovey Tracy location was Herbert Kitchener, the 3rd pilot, but since all the pilots were uncertain of their whereabouts, Kitchener could only have been able to give a very rough estimate of the crash location.
I believe that the wrecks and the bodies were recovered by a crew from 67MU’s Tavistock outpost.
I also note finding a site (the URL for which I can’t now find) that suggested Fox Tor Mire near Princeton as the site, but I’ve no idea on what grounds.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Niall
NiallC[QUOTEAlso has anyone heard of a Whirly pilot by the name of Glynn ( Dick ) Foden ? If so is he still about ?[/QUOTE]
Hi
Glynn Foden was posted in to 263 Squadron on 25 Jan 41. From the squadron ORB he does not appear to have flown the Whirlwind operationally. It’s possible that he never flew it at all – for whatever reason many pilots were posted in from Hurricane OTUs, had no twin-engined experience and were converted to twins using the squadron’s Oxford. Thus a long delay between arrival on the squadron and first Whirlwind solo – let alone ops.
263 ORB (and Filton ORB) confirm that Sgt Pilot Foden was remustered to ACH. G.D in classification of AC2 effective 29/05/41. Interesting.
HTH
NiallC
NiallCAnd another thing . . .
A possible addition to the Battle installation. According to the Air Min contract registers Rolls was given Contract 698328/37 for “Flight tests of Kestrel XVI and Peregrine engines in Hart K3036”. Contract value was £5,800. The date of the contract is uncertain: two dates are given – 20/10/37 and 05/11/37, but I don’t know if these are tender out and tender in or ITP issue and contract out. Unfortunately the contracts department, while splashing the ministry’s cash on a grand scale, apparently couldn’t afford a typewriter so resorted to maximally unintelligible copperplate writing. Both dates given though are before the Peregrine had completed its 100-hour type test so, presumably, no flight-cleared engine available at time of contract.
I’ve no idea whether this installation and testing actually happened, but I will check with RRHT.
NiallC
NiallCHi Stuart
The Peregrine made its first flights in Roll’s He 70, but I have found an Air Ministry document listing all the aircraft that were on the AMDP fleet (with a view to returning some of them to active service) that lists Battle K9477 as being at Rolls-Royce for “fitting of Peregrine engine” in May 1940. Seems odd bearing in mind that the Air Min had by that time suspended development of the Peregrine for a full 100 Octane rating.
HTH
Niall
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