Blimey,is this one of the longest civilian warbird flights made,especially by single engined aircraft?.
Good luck,bet they will look good over the sunny lands & blue skies,not like last Sunday at Duxford LOL.

No I asked that a few weeks ago, and it transpires that our Colonial friends often fly much further between airshows.

Hi Glenn

What is the flying time to Jersey, I will try to get to the airport tomorrow afternoon to photograph their arrival.

I think the answers to the majority of the questions are, “When it’s Finished” 😉

Certainly HAC’s YAK1

I’ve crossed referenced BCWD to BCL 1944, just looking at raids against Flying Bomb sites or storage facilities, or any mention of V2 raids. These took place between 16 June and 28 August 1944. The V1 launch sites in the Pas de Calais area were overrun and captured by Allied forces a few days later. Apart from the chap already mentioned I could only find one other Murray (Murrie), an E G Murray killed on 25 August 1944.

Until anyone else proves differently or further information is forthcoming, my money is on Sgt J Murray of 3rd August 1944, being our chap.

There are several more still flying, so the loss of one won’t matter that much will it ? And in any case it’s only an aero bus with four hair driers strapped to the wings, so hardly counts as hysteric 🙂

Hmm, the 625 Sqdn loss on 3rd August doesn’t seem to tie in too well with the other tid bits supplied by Andrew O.

Another thought…..since Murrie/Murray jumped he should be a member of the Caterpiller Club. Do they keep records of all who were awarded the pin badge and circumstances of when their life was saved by a parachute?

They do to the greater extent, the difference from the details that Andrew O posted here and emailed to me at work is that, Murrie is thought to be the only survivor from the crew, who were supposed to be all Canadian. However these details may not have stood the test of time, and may have been mixed up by 2nd, 3rd even 4th hand accounts.

Several months ago I was approached by a friend of mine who asked if I could look into a relative of his who was a Spitfire pilot, lost in action over Holland. When I delved into the details, it transpired that this relative was not on Spitfires, in fact he was a mid upper gunner on Lancasters, the family had embellished his service record which had written in family folk law over the years. It was sad to tell them he wasn’t what they thought he was, but for the purpose of the family tree it was proper to get the facts right.

I’m not saying that this is what has happened here, but it is possible that facts have got mixed up over the past 60 years, and so far J Murray and 3rd August 1944 V1 raids is the closest we can find to the person Andrew O is looking for, and it has given him a lead to follow with this Murrays POW number. It’s worth persuing to the end even if in the end it proves negative.

The Bomber command attacks of August 3 1944 were all aimed at V1 storage sites at Bois de Cassan, Forêt de Nieppe and Trossy-St-Maxim, in total 1,114 aircraft took part, 601 Lancasters, 492 Halifaxes 21 Mosquitoes, 6 Lancasters were lost, 5 from the Trossy raid and 1 from the Bois de Cassan raid.

Perhaps extending the Chorley trawl to March and April 1944 might just bear fruit, although EN830 has already put in a great amount of searching on this

I trawled from January through to beginning of October, there is another F/O J Murray, who survived the shooting down of his Halifax during a Gardening sortie to Holland in early 1944.

I did not come across anyone by the name Murrie listed as POW, INJ or EVD.

I’ve had another trawl through Chorley’s BCL 1944 from January to October 1944, concentrating mainly on the period between May and September 1944, when the majority of the French operations took place, the only entry that I can find that comes close to Andrew-O’s original details is the one listed above, “Sgt J Murray” 3 August 1944.