brewerjerry…is ther any paperwork …..
…..that rr tested peregrines at a higher power rating?
Hi,
Think i have some stuff will try to find it the weekend.
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerry…….I did a few years ago come across some references about a preserved rear fuselage in a European museum, Germany I think…..
Hi
If Germany then possibly somewhere near Rechlin ?
Probably the remains of Brown’s a/c, (P7095) that was sent there.
Cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryHi Jerry
According to RRHT Rolls-Royce built a total of 302 Peregrines: 16 development engines (11 with right-hand and five with left-hand rotation) and 286 production units, the last of which was delivered on 29 January 1942.
Niall
Hi Naill,
interesting, now that ain’t what rolls told me..
four Mk2 , 2(A126933),4,6 & 8.
17 development engines built to DTD order on Contract No.B693175/37
although they also stated 11 & 15 built to Contract No.B40048/39
last engine built dec 1941.
interesting bit is no 10 is quoted in documentation but there was no record of it having been built.
maybe the 302, includes No 10 ?
may be it all the confusion that makes it all interest me…
Any ideas when/if L6844 when to both RH engines ?
The need for engine change is first mentioned in April ’40 correspondence.
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryAccording to the Accident Record Card Peregrine 149979 was the port engine of Whirlwind P6966, the remains of which are currently with Airframe Assemblies.
Niall
Hi
Yeah, but I think the engine was/is on loan somewhere else.
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerry301! 🙂
Hi,
To be exact 297 MkI and four MkII peregrines.:D
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryJoe,
I am a nephew of the late W/Cmdr Thomas P Pugh, DFC who served with 263 Squadron between June 1940 and February 1942 and as S/Ldr was Commanding Officer from August 1941.
Prompted by having recently made a good copy of the audio from a BBC recording from January 1942 on 78rpm 12” vinyl of Uncle Tom giving an account of a sortie to a German airfield in coastal France, for my father for Christmas, I have been doing some research on Uncle Tom.
Going through 263 Squadron records it appears that Uncle Tom flew Whirlwind P6994, among many others and in particular was the pilot who baled out of P6984 on 29 January 1941 due to double engine failure. For a short period when he was Squadron CO, P7116 was his “personal mount”. Whilst I haven’t made a full tally I note that others included P6977, 6990, 6995, 6996, 7004 and 7007.
My father has a few pictures of his brother but I would be really interested to know if you have any other images that might include Uncle Tom or the aircraft that he flew during his time with 263 Squadron and if you might be able to make any available. Uncle Tom is seated second row, fourth from the left (black sheepskin flying jacket) in the Squadron photo attached to one of your posts (I have a version of this photo).
Uncle Tom was later W/Cmdr with 182 Squadron operating Typhoons and was KIA on 2 August 1943 divebombing a destroyer in Dunkirk harbour. My father S/Ldr Robert M Pugh AFC RAF (Ret’d) flew Wellingtons with Coastal Command in particular with 38 Squadron in Libya in 1943. His other brother P/O John C Pugh was killed in a Spitfire crash in 1940.
It would certainly be great to be able to gather some images to accompany the copy I have made of the recording.
Thanks in anticipation.
Anthony
Hi Anthony
I have a copy of the crash report for P6984, PM me with your e mail, and I will send it if you want ?
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryThanks Jerry, are you still the other side of the pond? Did you ever find out if anyone in the Pensicola/Eglin area had any other memories of the Whirlwind there? I know you have already posted a number of observations on this,don’t suppose anyone in the powerboat fraternity ever had any information on what happened to the twin Pergrines…
Hi
yeah still in canada,looks like it’s permanent now.
I have a few leads I am trying but no success yet, i am still amazed that I can’t find any photos.
I can’t remember if it was NARA or college park, that had a file/s on testing british aircraft, college park gave me the reference in a response to a letter requesting info on P6994, hoping next year to somehow get a trip to the archives ….
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryNo intention to hijack this thread, but is there a source of accurate Whirlwind drawings/blueprints?
Thanks
Hi,
PM me your e mail address and requirements, and I will see what I have.
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryI went to Kew and found the index card for the shipment of the Whirlwind, on it did say’Waterland’ but I could find no reference to any ship in the Merchant Navy with that name, perhaps an American ship. a Merchant Navy researcher suggested that ‘WaterLand ‘ was just the method of dispatch. i.e Water and Land….so perhaps this is a red herring~?
Hi
previously in the thread
a ship of the royal dutch lloydd, which why you may have trouble searching for her…
P6994 left liverpool on the Koninklijke Hollandsche Lloyd WATERLAND 6,847 built 1922, which sailed in Convoy ON101 which departed 05 Jun 1942 from Liverpool, arriving at Boston on 18 Jun 1942.
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryHave we found the name of the Camp Commander that had the Peregrines taken out for his speedboat yet? Would the aircraft have been struck off charge, if so what documentation would have had to be filled in if any? Who would have taken them out, the camps technicians?
Stuart
Hi Stuart,
As I understand it the engines ‘sort of fell out’ of the whirlwind into the speedboat boat, when the whirlwind was about to be sent off to the scrapyard.
Obviously a case of dodgy engine mounts………;)
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryHi Jerry
Its a long time since we talked on this one, I always wondered what had happened to the powerboat Peregrine engines, I remember contacting the USN at Pensicola and Eglin, where it had been standing on a mat outside a hanger in 1943. But the present curators of the museums there seem to have no information at all regarding the fate of this aircraft.It had been awaiting a tailwheel from Westland (had there been any evidence, that this had been dispatched?) surely there must be some vets’ out there that have some recollection of its fate, I have letters from a few R.A.F personell posted over in Florida on detachment with the U.S.N who had seen it there as late as early 1944. Any more news?
Hi
Yeah quite a while, unfortunately like you I have found witnesses, ( got enough info for a ‘interesting paint scheme for a model’), but wierdly no photos seem to exist.
Hoping maybe for a hol that way next year, and trying to find a way to view the files at the archives.
I even tried ‘Norfolk’ but zilch from them as well, but I haven’t persued the ‘grumman line of research’ yet.
Who knows maybe lucky in 2010.
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryAh….Canada. Isn’t that the little country above Uncle Sam’s place? :D;)
Hi
yeah it’s that second largest country in the world, :rolleyes:( russia No1), populated by polar bears and it snows all the time.:D
Now if I could only stop falling over all those old aircraft wrecks.. :diablo:I could get to Tim Hortons for a coffee..
cheers
jerry
P.S.
why do I always get to hear of the scrapyard full of a/c parts a few weeks after they are cleared… 😡 A pattern forming here me thinks…:(
brewerjerryHi Jerry
Both death certificates say “Dead body found Ninth March 1941 Dartmoor Lydford R.D.” i.e. 10 weeks after the crash.
As Paul notes, the only source for the proposed Bovey Tracy location was Herbert Kitchener, the 3rd pilot, but since all the pilots were uncertain of their whereabouts, Kitchener could only have been able to give a very rough estimate of the crash location.
I believe that the wrecks and the bodies were recovered by a crew from 67MU’s Tavistock outpost.
I also note finding a site (the URL for which I can’t now find) that suggested Fox Tor Mire near Princeton as the site, but I’ve no idea on what grounds.
Hope this helps
Cheers
Niall
Hi
Mar ’41 ties in right, haven’t got my notes handy but think a horse patrol ? found them.
Fox tor mires is what I have, originally a eyewitness a sheperd recalled two aircraft colliding ( this is from memory ) and the RAF that arrived said they were secret aircraft.
Fox tor mires have to be one of the worst accessible parts on the moor.
Kitchener was the one who mentioned bovey tracey, but when I spoke with him he said it was a very rough location, he recalled his whirlwind days clearly and very well, unfortunately no photos or logbook from his whirlwind time.
Any ideas about the operation,
i.e. what was special about having to escort the catalina/s coming in from bermuda ?
Slightly O/T but it was suggested at one time by someone that the cockpit section at RNEC manadon came from one of the two whirlwinds.
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryDid you find out or enquire which Base/Commander it might have been and follow up the trail from there… There’s probably an album with a picture of the boat with its proud owner showing off it’s Rolls-Royce Engines…:)
Hi
still ‘on the work bench’ but no sucess yet, I still can’t even find a photo of P6994, so far no records this side of the pond, but plenty of eyewitnesses …
cheers
Jerry
brewerjerryNever heard about one surviving into the seventies… any details/photos? Seems a travesty to have survived that long only to be burnt!
Richard
Hi
No photos found so far, but you never know..
apparently story is RNEC thought the RAF thought it was a helo, hence the old quote ‘we already have one’, so it got burnt.
cheers
Jerry
Sign In
