The caption says it’s an air-dropped supply cannister, complete with stencilled instructions stating the cannister itself is not to be burnt.

Might try the bomber forums (fora?) over at

http://www.armyairforces.com/

Many thanks for that….
not very aerodynamic is it!!!!!

No worries.

The very mention of “German air-dropped supplies” gives me the shivers. Was something of a storm in a teacup over on one of the other boards recently when someone posted a link to photos taken around Stalingrad after Sixth Army’s surrender … frozen bodies as far as the eye could see, some of the poor ******s were still recognisable.

“Hey diddle-dee-dee,
a civilian’s life for me!”

er, apparently.

😀

The Ampol racer is gorgeous, and I’ve seen colour shots of 1/72 efforts on the web, so it’s a good candidate.

You might also try to track down some shots of the “Sharkmouth” Bendix racer – motif on the nose and both wing drop tanks. There’s a pic in the recent “Mosquito” special edition from our friends at Key.

^ Seconded

The German / French originals are not in the Australian file, which has been digitised and is available online. The link I’m looking at is:

http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/ITEMS_LISTING.ASP?S=4&C=180&F=1&O=4&target=

That may not get you there though; post here if not. Basic approach is to start at

http://www.naa.gov.au

Click on search records as a guest, input Musgrave into the keywords box which appears, select date range (I went with 1940-1950), click the “Digitised Images First” button which appears on the results page, should be second file. When the file is open, be sure to click the “Enlarge” button, or the text will be too small.

Correspondence is the standard sad stuff: regret to inform you, sign for personal effects, picture of cross on grave.

I’ve not found any information that you don’t already have.

There’s a note here:

http://www.wlb-stuttgart.de/seekrieg/43-05.htm

that a Hampden of 145 Squadron sank minesweeper M345 off Gravelines on the 18th, but no more information re: the convoy attacked.

Those are some damn fine photos Scott, thanks for putting them up.