Hi all,

I am hoping that somebody has some photographs of the Blenheim / Spitfire display today.
I went to the show with the widow of Arthur Charles Metcalfe. Arthur flew Blenheims with 604 Squadron during the Battle of Britain but never spoke about his time with the RAF.
I stumbled across his widow whilst researching BoB airmen and suggested she write to the MOD and request his medals.
They arrived in the post on Friday and the very kind people at ARCO and the IWM agreed to fly them in the Blenheim during its display.
Sadly, my poor mobile phone camera failed to capture a single decent shot of the display.
Attached is one whilst it was still on the ground.

Many thanks once again to the wonderful generosity of Smudge Smith and John Romain of ArCo, Lucy Donoughue, Stephen Reglar, Esther Blaines and all of her team at the IWM. These people restored ones faith in the aviation industry and I cannot thank them enough.
regards
Gerry[ATTACH=CONFIG]237617[/ATTACH]

Hi Snapper,
That’s a cracking picture, especially with the other spitfire coming in to land above it.
Cheers
for posting it.
Gerry

Hi,
You could start by looking here- http://www.bbm.org.uk/EvansD.htm

His service records can be obtained by writing to the RAF at the following address:-

RAF Disclosures
Room 6, Trenchard Hall
RAFC Cranwell
Sleaford
Lincs NG34 8HB

Good luck with your research.

I would certainly like to know more about his sister in laws experiences at that time.

Gerry

Hi Glenn,
Pleased to assist.
He may well have flown all of those different types of aircraft.
Pilots usually listed aircraft they had flown and aerodromes they had visited in a section at the back of their logbooks.
I suspect this list was drawn directly from that although I cannot say with any certainty without seeing the log.
You can visit the RAF museum and visit their department of research, you will need to call them and book up in advance though.
Gerry

Hi Glenn,

I have been researching BoB airmen for a while now and he was one of my subjects.
I have the following details from the ORB relating to Spitfires that he flew with 72 Squadron.
July 1940 – He flew Spitfire L1078 several times and no other aircraft. He wrote this aircraft off on August 8th.
X4109 – 18/8
X4034 – 22/8
K9940 – 24/8
R6928 – 31/8
X4105 – 1/9 am
X4005 – 1/9 pm
X4105 – 2/9 am
R6971 – 2/9 pm
K9460 – 2/9 pm
N3068 – 9/9 and 11/9
R9460 – 14/9 and 15/9
L1083 – 23/9 and 27/9 I have a copy of his combat report for the 27th September. He was ‘Blue 3’.
X4486 – 28/9
R6721 – 1/10 and 2/10 and 4/10
X4544 – 5/10. On this date he was involved in a collision with P/O Sutton who was killed.
X4486 – 7/10 and 8/10
X4483 – 23/10
X4595 – 27/10 and 29/10. I have a copy of his combat report for the 27th October. He was ‘Yellow 2’.

Finally,
I have attached the only photograph I could find of him. It isn’t very good but it is all I have.

Regards
Gerry

Asansol is a City in West Bengal.

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All,
I have emailed James Lacey’s daughter to alert her to the fact that these are up for sale.
Hopefully she will get the mail before the auction ends.
Gerry

Great footage Jayce,

That looks like sergeant Roy Ford getting out of his Spitfire at 009:30.
Thanks for posting it.
Gerry