Many thanks to you all for this excellent response.

Is it likely that at any time either during or after the war an aircraft may well have been scuttled for any particular reason. ie heavily damaged in raids or perhaps after the war too complex/expensive to repair?

I recall my father telling me that older aircraft, other than Mk.5s with the P&W engines, were scuttled almost as a matter of course in West Africa.

He was posted home from Bathurst on 6 June 1945 and came home without the Mk 3 Sunderland (W6076, 95/D) that had served him well for over a year. I think I recall him telling me that it was scuttled before he left – his last flight in it was on 19 May was “A/S Patrol ‘Optimist 1’ “, a 9 hour flight. In the next entry in his logbook 6 days later, W6076 is written on, then crossed out and replaced by ML847.

And if anyone has a photo of W6076, I’d love to see it! I have photos of ’75 and ’77, but ’76 seems to have been camera shy.