Last of all, I visited Canada in October and when in Alberta I was given a great present – a big thank you to Mr Byron Reynolds who very kindly let me have this NOS beam approach aerial – aka ‘the towel rail’ in RAF parlance.
IMG_9641 by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
Here it is in situ on Leonard Cheshire’s Whitley P5005 ‘N’ for nuts. He won his first DSO after bringing this crippled Whitley back to base.
towel rail by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
On the night of 12/13th November 1940, Pilot Officer GL Cheshire was captain of Whitley V P5005 “N – Nuts” detailed to attack an oil refinery at Wesseling, not far from Cologne. It appears that he arrived in the target area within a few minutes of the ETA but owing to intercom trouble was unable to discover his exact position until some twenty minutes later, by which time the target was blanketed by cloud.
He decided to attack the railway marshalling yards at Cologne instead and while he was approaching this target his aircraft was suddenly shaken by a succession of violent explosions. The cockpit filled with black fumes and Cheshire lost control of the aircraft, which dived about 2,000 feet, with its fuselage on fire. Cheshire regained control, the fire was extinguished and the Whitley, with a gaping hole in its fuselage, was brought safely back to base after, being in the air for 8 1/2 hours.
“The anti-aircraft gunfire, which had been very severe and accurate for the last hour, slowed down, and it seemed as though we could not miss our new target. The bomb doors were open, the wireless operator was standing by to drop the great flare and the bomb-aimer had started giving the usual alterations of course. Then anti-aircraft fire opened up intensely again, and one shell burst very close. It was what is technically known as a near miss, but it was near enough for fragments to hit us. There was a blinding explosion from the front, the perspex of the front turret was blown away, and there was another terrific explosion in the fuselage. The shell had touched off the flare. The explosions had hurled the control column out of my hands, and the cabin filled with dense black smoke. I remember asking the bomb-aimer if he had dropped his bombs, but the only answer I got was, “I’ve been hit.” Very soon the smoke cleared a little, and to my amazement I saw that, not only were the engines still there, but that they were both running.
Then the bomb-aimer came up through the well, his face streaming with what looked like blood. He was holding his head, and could not stand upright. I could not possibly help him, since it was all I could do to regain control of the aircraft. Suddenly he shouted ” fire ” and staggered towards the tail. A little later I looked round and saw the wireless operator coming through the door with flames licking his flying suit. He was on fire himself. The bomb-aimer dashed up to him and beat the flames out with his hands. Then he disappeared down the fuselage again. He seemed to have recovered completely, and it turned out that what I had taken to be blood was only oil. Then the cabin cleared of smoke, and things seemed to be fairly all right, except that the aircraft was flying in an erratic sort of way. Back in the body of the machine the crew were working frantically to get rid of the incendiaries and anything that might explode. We carried on and dropped our bombs. We hadn’t made the journey for fun, and the job had to be done as best we could do it”.
I had a few labels made up for the FN16 turret. The Fraser Nash data plate is a faithful copy of an original. More research is needed before I stamp it however…
IMG_8414[1] by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
Untitled by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
Mod plates for Fraser Nash turrets are hard to find so I made up a batch – these are aluminium – the correct finish is anodised black and then etched. Again, this will be stamped later.
New made anodised mod labels for Fraser Nash turrets by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
More centre section progress with these pullies, brackets and mounting plate – this is quite a complex assembly and was badly damaged when received. The brackets and small pullies are mostly original. My friend Rienhold Fischler made the larger pullies from scratch.
Untitled by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
One of the axle forgings prior to media blasting and the first batch of cleaned and re-plated undercarriage steel parts
Untitled by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
Untitled by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
Although I said I wouldn’t post any updates, now I am having a quiet and peaceful day I had a look back through some photos from 2018 and found a few things that might be of interest. The undercarriage legs from Whitley N1498 went to my friend Michael Doveton. Michael is a talented craftsman and was able to get the first oleo apart. The Whitley crashed largely intact and it is thought its undercarriage was extended as it was on approach at the time to RAF Kinloss. When we got the oleo apart the compression spring had failed which suggests a very sudden and forceful contact with the ground. The condition inside the oleo was generally very good and the original paint and plating was preserved.
Untitled by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
Untitled by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
Untitled by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
Untitled by Elliott Smock, on Flickr
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