Thank you for pointing me towards the RAF Commands thread which hadn’t been flagged in the Google searches I had carried out at Kew with the other serials.
Please understand that many of us that view and use the forum are infrequent viewers so 24 hours isn’t an unreasonable delay.
Ahh perfect, thank you very much gentlemen.
It was a loss from a Bullseye exercise from 26 OTU on 8th October 1942. The ORB records the serial as R1839. R1389 IS a Wellington IC, the movement card of which shows it attached to 16 OCU and its arrival on 19th September is noted in their ORB and also its loss on 8-9th October.
I can only assume that either it was a borrowed aircraft for some reason (not too far from Wing to Upper Heyford after all) or it was transferred and not recorded as the 16 OTU ORB does make a point of their conversion to Mk IIIs at the time and their eagerness to dispose of their remaining Mk ICs.
More like the radio operator’s chair. The navigator on the Halifax had a fold-down seat if I recall correctly.
Assuming that this isn’t just a copying error and the pages are indeed missing from the paper copy then it’s likely they are gone.
There are/were pages missing from the microfilm copies but in my experience these were usually present in the paper copy held downstairs.
It ranks alongside the ‘restoration’ of the fresco of Christ in Zaragoza…
On top of every other considerable and over-riding issue the paintwork isn’t worthy of an ill-informed child. That it was done by an institution selling itself as a museum in the 21st century just defies belief.
If it is the same aeroplane then that is a historic artifact and poignant memorial permanently ruined and questions need to be answered.
Somewhat ironic that the original pictures were dismissed as ‘a model’ when this seems to have now been painted to depict a particularly poor one too.
I firmly believe that if someone can find some interest in a subject then it has demonstrable value, no matter how bizarre, off beat or baffling I may find that interest.
The text says that it replaced the upper turret but surely that installation is in the radio room?
(at least it appears to be with my eyesight and a mobile screen)
It sounds perfectly plausible.
There was also the Potty Time episode with The Red Baron.
There is a F/Sgt HWB Greetham 620817 commended for valuable service in the air 8th June 1944 in The London Gazette.
Not unknown for given names to bear no relation to that which someone is known by, but probably the wrong man.
Was it anyone on here that bought the picture last week?
I think it might be time to start being careful before overly extensive quoting breaches copyright.
It would be nice to have a Wellington permanently on display, complete, north of Watford.
There was another sequence of Hurricanes in flight which was clearly reversed.
The footage was very ‘illustrative’ rather than specific and a lot used in that episode is the same as that in the identically titled episode of The World at War (albeit that there is a degree of inevitability in that).
Lancaster experts feel free to correct me but it doesn’t look the right shape for a Lancaster which is less pointed at the tail and integral with a bigger baseplate.
The ‘diced pigeon strainer’ should have mounting points inside the vertical face (I think) if it is Lancaster.
Must be Spitfire then…….