My aviation friend who is also a train enthusiast asked me to post this comment:
“The Dornier was spotted circling at Wrexham as the train went through with Black 5 44932 in charge. Added excitement to the afternoon!”

My friend who is Secretary of the 610 Sqn Association says he is glad to research and provide any information he holds on Flt Lt Davidson (including a photograph). The enquirer should provide an appropriate email address through the 610 Squadron website. The email address will remain hidden from public access.

It’s actually at Hawarden (No 7 OTU), about three miles from Sealand. That’s the Vickers factory in the background now used by Airbus.

This is a brilliant thread combining a rapid and very satisfactory identification, descent into banter, rising again with more serious revelations, prompt action to preserve the relic, followed by more banter, some of it of high quality. Not forgetting the involvement of a cute little dog (no, not you Andy.)

My joke sank without trace because I forgot that few on here are old enough to remember who Jane Russell was and what she looked like in her voluptuous heyday! And that Howard Hughes designed a special bra for her …

You make me feel old Dave! Yes, it was tragic that quite a few relics like this one weren’t saved. The main problems were lack of cash, suitable transport and somewhere to store them. The preservation movement had yet to get started …

I took that Lib nose photo in Aug 1960 and later compiled the chapter in the Epics book at the request of Bruce Robertson. I had some correspondence with Jim Oughton but we could never pin down the serial. It had a unique circular aperture in the lower right of the nose glazing and you can just see the edge of it by the tree trunk. This may have been for an early experimental Leigh Light installation but again, no confirmation. The B-17 nose section at Warrington was partly buried in scrap but bomb mission symbols were painted on it so it must have been a combat veteran. It was next to the Marauder fuselage section which fortunately has survived. Not so the B-17; it went to Duxford and after a few years was scrapped. Not a thoughtful decision by IWM. Caddy Dave’s recollection of Dunkeswell may be confusion with a USN PB4Y Lib which had suffered a landing accident near the end of the war and was still there in the late 1940s.
Dave Smith

Interesting that F/O Dean was known as ‘Dixie’, as were most Deans in those days. My Dad went to school in Birkenhead with the original Dixie Dean who ran a pub in Chester – the Dublin Packet – after he retired. He was the David Beckham of his era, but could you imagine Beckham having to resort to running a pub. Sorry to digress – I couldn’t resist it!