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Alan Clark

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  • in reply to: Luftwaffe Night Fighters – Raid Escorts? #1144432
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    Here is the entry from the ORB:

    May 7th / 8th 1941, “Defiant I N1803
    F/O V.B.S. Verity, Pilot, and Sgt F.W. Wake, A.G.
    Patrol Cotton South at 15,000ft
    Up 01.20
    Down 02.35

    F/O V.B.S. Verity took off from Cranage with Sgt Wake as his gunner. Their attention was attracted to the western end of the patrol line and here they saw three enemy aircraft. With two of these combats ensued and resulted in a Ju88 being shot down in flames and a Ju88 night fighter probably destroyed.
    While at 17,000 feet F/O Verity sighted the Ju88 about 1,000 feet below him. In spite of evasive action on the part of the enemy, F/O Verity succeeded in manoeuvring his Defiant to port of and below the Ju88 at 75 – 100 yards range. Sgt Wake registered a four second burst into the port engine.
    Finding that he was overshooting, F/O Verity throttled back and manoeuvred his Defiant into the same relative position as before. Sgt Wake, with the enemy aircraft filling the sight got in a further four second burst into the port engine. He saw some of the DW ammunition enter the cockpit. At this moment the Air Gunner sae the first flames and burning oil issue from the port engine, and he then saw the E/A do a very steep banking turn to starboard, followed by a steep dive, apparently on its back. The Ju88 was last seen at 9,000 feet. The pilot was not in such a good position as the gunner and lost sight of the enemy machine for a time. When next sighted it was travelling westwards and diving. F/O Verity gave chase and flames pouring from the port engine.
    At this moment F/O Verity sighted a second Ju88, apparently investigating the falling enemy aircraft in front, and it was between himself and the burning Ju88.
    Second Combat: F/O Verity now decided to attack this second Ju88, which turned out to be a Ju88 Night Fighter. Expecting some sort of evasive action on the part of the E/A, the Defiant crew was surprised to find the E/A which they thought at the time to be a bomber, commence to develop a head on attack. Evading this with a quick manoeuvre – a steep banking turn and side-slip across and below its nose, and keeping out of the way of the nose guns, F/O Verity got inside the turn of the Ju88 and slightly below it, and while xxxlling round, manoeuvred his A/C to give his gunner a good shot at the port engine at 100 yards range. Sgt Wake registered a three second burst into it.
    Evasive tactics on the part of the German pilot, and, being able to momentarily get out of sight of the Defiant pilot, the E/A got round on to the tail of the Defiant. A shout from his gunner and F/O Verity had climbed and banked, and as the E/A passed below the tail of the Defiant, Sgt Wake registered hits with a one second burst. The Ju88 was now in front and above and the return fire from the enemy passed 12-15 feet above our fighter. Green tracer was observed, and also cannon fire. Our AG took advantage of the exposed cockpit and, with a three second burst full into the upper half of the cockpit at point blank range, silenced all return fire from that quarter.
    As soon as F/O Verity saw that there was no return fire from the Ju88, he closed in immediately to give his gunner the chance of firing a four second burst into the fuselage and port engine from a range of about 75 yards. Nearly all the fire was seen to find its mark. The E/A was chased down for about 3000 feet through the clouds and was finally lost to view. When last seen it was diving steeply.
    This combat lasted for about 10 minutes. Both the pilot and his gunner believe that the E/A was a Ju88 Night Fighter, as there was cannon fire from the nose, and rather a lot of it. They think that there was more than one cannon (fixed) in the nose.
    During the combats 1034 rounds of ammunition were fired.”

    in reply to: Fairey Aviation Archive – What became of it? #1140561
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    Sounds like many company archives then.

    in reply to: January Flypast? #1128111
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    What, 1 month and a few days early. The day after tomorrow is February.

    in reply to: USAAF Aircraft crash reports UK #1110461
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    AFHRA will send out a few pages of a report free of charge but if you are after all of the available pages (for some of the longer reports) then you’ll have to pay, the two sources are Craig Fuller and Mike Stowe (http://www.accident-report.com).

    in reply to: what happened next? #1102166
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    I’ve searched through ‘Fleet Air Arm Fixed Wing Aircraft since 1946’ and have only noted two aircraft listed as carrying 266 / J, the were WN392 and WN401. 392 seems to had an uneventful career and was eventually disposed of. 401 went over the side of HMS Bulwark on the 16th Feberuary 1956 off Northern Ireland.

    The entry says “nosewheel misaligned, failed to keep straight on deck during TO, plunged over port side, 200ft from start of t/o Bulwark”, the pilot Sub-Lieutenant P.W. Allkins was ok, his is the only name suggesting he was alone.

    in reply to: Lancashire Crash Sites #1098737
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    There are still a number of sites in Lancashire with visibile wreckage, ranging from a few fragments to much more substantial parts. Probably the largest remaining site in the county is the P-38 on Baxton Fell.

    There’s not much around Rossendale that has wreckage on the surface, probably the nearest is Hurricane PG472 on the southern end of Winter Hill.

    You could well have been taken to some of the sites in the Peak District as even 30 years ago they had far more than the Lancashire sites.

    in reply to: Lancashire Crash Sites #1098740
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    What, you mean us?

    in reply to: Some aircraft wrecks around Moray, Scotland #1096898
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    I’ve had a look at the entries I have copied from the 20 OTU ORB, they didn’t record too many crashes on the beach, most seemed to be in the sea just off the beach.

    The only one which specifically mentioned a crash on the beach, rather than bodies recovered from the beach in the following days, was HD985 on the 19th Jan 43, but there were some periods when the ORB didn’t mention crashes.

    in reply to: Some aircraft wrecks around Moray, Scotland #1096905
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    If there was a forced landing, and I do stress the if, I think it would more than likely be from the period when 120 Squadron were operating Lancasters out of Kinloss in the early 50s prior to getting Shackletons. It is more likely that regular operations in the region would have brought one or two incidents instead of the one-off anti shipping strikes mounted with Lancasters in the wartime period.

    In my opinion though that firewall looks too tidy to have come from any kind of crash / forced landing, though quite why someone would acquire them from surplus and then dump them on a hilltop, but may be someone thought they might be useful.

    Were there ever ranges in that general area? Another possibility is relic from a target range out in the hills which didn’t end up like a dairy product from the alpine region.

    in reply to: RAF Dakota Crash 5/9/45 #1092095
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    78 Squadron aircraft carried the squadron code EY, if you haven’t already tried I would suggest the squadron ORB at the National Archives. They often recorded aircraft by letter rather than serial number.

    in reply to: V1 Landing Sites England, looking for resource… #771534
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    There are a lot of files at the National Archives, there should somewhere in there be summaries of missiles coming to earth.

    in reply to: E Elsie Dambuster Lanc recovery fund #778712
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    Some may find this odd from someone who visits crash sites and takes part in recoveries.

    I’d rather it remains where it is.

    There are still Lancasters flying, and museum examples, add to that the number of large sections which have already been recovered from crash sites and are on display and I have to say why bother add to that collection? There is nothing new to learn from it.

    The aircraft in Sweden is only of interest because of the squadron the a/c was assigned, had it been 83 Sqn for example would we even be hearing about it? There was a site in the UK which was just as good, and it was the subject of a large recovery, and for what? Closed away in an air station heritage centre which is only by appointment and the odd airshow day, at least on a Scottish mountain you didn’t need an appointment, just commitment.

    richw_82 referred to a couple of the reconstructed wrecks at East Kirkby, but they were buried remains which no one could see without first digging them up and massively disturbing the remains in the process before rebuilding them. That’s the kind of recovery I see the sense in, we at least get to see what is left even though ultimately we don’t get to learn anything from the recovery itself.

    in reply to: Hawker Sea Hawk on HMS Ocean? #790876
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    Yes, it’s a Sea Hawk, judging by the code on the tail from a Lossiemouth based Squadron.

    in reply to: Oldest RAF Veterans? #767935
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    In theory it should be quite easy to go to pensions and see who is still receiving a pension.

    in reply to: Metal detector find nr Morecambe Bay #768131
    Alan Clark
    Participant

    I may be completely wrong but could it be a railway related item from a structure or signal post? Modern structure number plates are square and about 6-7 inches with identifying letters and either a unique number or mileage reference depending on what it is on. I don’t know what old plates looked like though.

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 15 (of 741 total)