I can only find one mid-air collision in that area, it is listed as 1 1/2 miles North of Haverhill which looking at the map is the wrong direction but then the distances and directions in some of the US reports can be very wrong.

The aircraft involved were B-17G 42-102442 & B-17G 44-6147 both of the 545th BS / 384th BG which collided on the 7th July 1944, there were fatalities as the cause code is KMAC for both aircraft.

I found a bail out 2 miles SW of Haverhill, a P-51D of the 4th FG on the 11th August 1944, but that was none fatal.

P-51B 43-6772 of the 434th FS / 479th FG also crashed in the area, but is given as 1 miles South of Hundon on the 13th December 1944.

As you are looking for a mid-air collision I would be leaning towards it being the two B-17s, you could get the accident report(s) from a couple of people in the US (either via http://www.aviationarchaeology.com or http://www.accident-report.com) or from the USAF Historical Research Agency.

The ORB for 114 AMES is in AIR 29/171 at Kew, it covers up to October 1946 and in the description of the files records them being in Germany from June 1945.

The flags look like an RAF ensign and a Union flag. What you could do is either visit the National Archives, or as it is a long way from Peebles, get someone to go on your behalf and look at the ORB for the unit in question (if you know that) and look for visits by VIPs. Normal day to day would probably left out by scribblies seemed to llike writing about visits by royalty and anyone with stars/thick bands.

It is similar to, but not the same as, a pump which was used on some models of Merlin. On a diagram in Flight it is marked as a fuel pump and on a different diagram is marked as an oil pump but it is the same pump which is being pointed to in both.

With dive bombing the answer is yes, if the aircraft has dive brakes deployed it could soon be overtaken by the bomb(s) it has just released, if it doesn’t get hit by it/them and reduced to falling confetti. Level bombing, I don’t see how that could happen. Initially the bomb has no vertical speed, only forward speed (which is the same as the aircraft), as soon as it is clear of the bomb bay (and really a little before then) and into some meaningful airflow the forward speed begins to decay while gravity is pulling it remorselessly to the deck. If the forward speed of the aircraft was below the terminal velocity of the bomb then the bomb will not slow down, but will accelerate due to gravity until it reaches that terminal velocity, but when it does it will have virtually no forward speed and a very high vertical speed (if left to fall for long enough it should fall perpendicular to the gravitational field of the earth).

The only way I can see a bomb dropped in level flight overtaking the release aircraft is if the release aircraft slows down quite quickly. I know that the heavy bombers of WW2 tended to gain a bit of altitude when they lost a few tons in weight in one go. The change in pitch could cause a drop in airspeed which I guess could allow the bombs to briefly nudge ahead. Also if the aircraft’s attitude changes the perspective of the camera will have changed which could also give an odd impression.

According to the people working on the Wellington, about four years, when it was first moved there I was told it would be a seven year project so I am presuming they are still more or less on schedule.

The dock yard is Norfolk, two of the buildings are still there on google earth, and the tank farm while gone is still visible by the marks left on the ground where the tanks were.

Don’t those people lining up to go inside the Atlas realise it’s a one-way trip ? And what’s that cruise missile/stand-off bomb thingy in the foreground called ? looks like it’s ramjet powered.

The stand off missile in the foreground is an AGM-28 Hound Dog, took a bit of time with google but got there in the end.

I don’t have many ORB entries concerning RAF Dakota operations, the ones I have from No.24 Sqn (which may or may not be representative given the nature of the squadron) most entries have four crew with a couple being three. So a four man crew would be Pilot, 2nd Pilot, Navigator, Wireless Operator and the three man crews I would take to be P / P2 / WO.