Strathallan:

Why, why, why did we let this one go?

Best wishes
Steve P

SW336 Conv ASR/GR.III, 37 sqn Apr 59, 38 MU Mar 52, SS(BA) Jul 56

If you can get through the jargon or all that!

Found the Air Britain lanc file. It differs from the above in that SW336 was allocated to 38 Squadron rather than 38 MU after 37 squadron. As both 37 and 38 Squadrons were based at Luqa, this would make sense. Air Britain normally record cat.E crashes so presumably SW336 was repaired (or equally possible, shoved to the back of the hanger pending replacement by a Shack). As Peter says, the damage doesn’t look too bad.

Best wishes
Steve P

Strathallan lanc undercarriage:

Best wishes
Steve P

Maybe when naming the successor to the Fulmar, the Air Ministry could not think of a seabird starting with the letter F? Firefly sounded nice so they went with that. Firebrand and Firecrest sounded nice matches so they ran with them too. Wyvern fitted the Westland house style, coming after the Welkin.

Javelin, Sabre, Scimitar also seem good matches. Its interesting that Scimitar (and Javelin?) follows from a US named aircraft, the Sabre. Were there any other examples of this?

Also, the theme of things that wizz through the air didn’t drop out of use with the end of the war: Whirlwind -> Hurricane -> Tornado -> Meteor -> Lightning etc.

Vampire, Venom and Vixen were all similar designs so got similar names, Same as with Buckingham and Buckmaster.

Best wishes
Steve P

Seriously? honouring Sir Stifford – well, well, I’d never have guessed at that.

Given his unfortunate wartime nick-name, Sir Stafford was probably not the best person to have been honoured in this way. I will not speculate as to what the bomb load would have been. 😮

Best wishes
Steve P

The book has an interesting bit on the AM dialog when naming the Lincoln – among the names considered were ‘Stafford’ (in honour of Sir Stafford Cripps) and Sandringham – and a caveat that, when the next new aircraft requires a name, they “ought not to forget that England is not the only Country in these Islands”

Thanks Dave, thats very interesting. I’ll have to chase up a copy of the book.

Best wishes
Steve P

Just a thought, How close was the ferry route to the combat areas? Would there have been any chance of seeing an axis Ju-52 at any point along the route?

Best wishes
Steve P

Just to throw a red herring in.

It strikes me that the Avro York should really have been the Yorkshire…

No, York is a great name. It fits the towns criteria but also reminds the British public during the dark days of war of England’s long political (House of York versus House of Lancaster) and cultural (students of Shakespeare would have been very familiar with both Lancaster and York) history.

The fact that York is also a major religious centre brings relision into it. We, the British are the upholders of Christian values. Interestingly, Lincoln is also a major religous centre.

Sorry about that cluttered sentence chaps, but I’m in the middle of cooking my tea. 🙂

Now where is my tin hat 🙂

Best wishes
Steve P