ChiefofFairiesJust a thought: Didn’t the Royal Rhodesian Air Force prefix their serials with RR or was that RRAF, as in RRAF715 not RR715. It was a long time ago, back in the days of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.
Allan
ChiefofFairiesDrem
Contact me on
allan(at)ferretlodge.co.uk
Allan
ChiefofFairiesA quick nudge of my database reveals the following:
TW871 Lancaster B.1(FE)
TW647-TW911 Ordered from Armstrong Whitworth, Baginton as 75 Lancaster B.I Delivery between 21/6/45 and 24/3/46 from Baginton, Bitteswell & South Marston.
Armstrong-Whitworth Aircraft – until 03/08/1945
Armstrong-Whitworth Aircraft – South Marston from 03/08/1945 until 29/10/1945 possibly for conversion to FE standard.
32 Maintenance Unit – St Athan from 29/10/1945 until 07/03/1946
38 Maintenance Unit – Llandow from 07/03/1946 until 13/05/1946
3 GMSU – Wyton from 13/05/1946 until 02/06/1946. (Location given, unit assumed)
49 Squadron – Mepal from 02/06/1946 until 29/07/1946
49 Squadron – Upwood from 29/07/1946 until 26/10/1946
Code EA-K
214 Squadron – Upwood from 26/10/1946 until 21/03/1947
Code QN-W
Cat AC on 21/03/1947
Avro CWP from 27/03/1947 until 29/05/1947 Repairs on site, Upwood.
214 Squadron – Upwood from 04/06/1947 until 08/04/1948
3 GMSU Mildenhall from (earliest known) 28/10/1947 until (last known) 28/10/1947
3 GMSU Mildenhall from (earliest known) 19/11/1947 until (last known) 19/11/1947
Cat AC on 08/04/1948
58 MU WP from 05/04/1948 until 14/05/1948 for repairs
214 Squadron – Upwood from 19/05/1948 until 01/02/1950
3 GMSU Mildenhall from (earliest known) 24/05/1948 until (last known) 24/05/1948
Loan to 44 Sqdn for Exercise Dagger from (earliest known) 03/09/1948 until (last known) 04/09/1948
Code -W during Exercise Dagger
5 Maintenance Unit – Kemble from 01/02/1950 until 26/11/1951
Declared as non-effective stock on 16/10/1950
To Proof & Experimental Establishment – Shoeburyness on 26/11/1951 where presumed destroyed in weapons trials.
Notes
1. FE = Far East standard
2. Cat AC = Damaged, repairable on site but beyond unit resources to repair
3. CWP = Civilian Working Party
4. 3 GMSU = 3 Group Major Servicing Unit (at Wyton, later Mildenhall). During the immediate post-war period, a shortage of skilled tradesmen due to release from the Service led to most servicing and minor repairs being carried out by the GMSU. Therefore, it can be assumed that the visits to 3 GMSU shown above are only a fraction of the total number that actually took place.
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesPilotless Lancaster Investigation
Johnnie
P.M. for you.
Allan
ChiefofFairiesPilotless Lancaster Investigation
Thanks, C.D, in my haste to get the response away, I omitted the vital bit! What an eejit. Yes, it was NX636.
The FE stands for Far East, indicating that the Lancaster had received modifications to enable it to operate in the Far East. It did so with 9 Sqdn at Salbani, India.
Sorry about that, Johnnie.
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesPilotless Lancaster Investigation
Johnnie
The only Lancaster with ‘636’ in its serial and used by RAE is an Austin Motors-built B.7 (FE). It was issued to RAE on 7/10/48, remaining until 27/7/53.
Can’t help with details of the trial, unless it was early tests for the pilotless drone programme which was initially to use Lancasters, then changed to Lincolns and finally abandoned altogether.
I would dearly like details of any Lancaster/Lincoln flights in that logbook, if that’s at all possible.
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesLincoln Freighters
Chaps
For details of serial numbers etc, see my #18 on this thread (way back in the Dark Ages).
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesLancaster ND623 AS-F 166 Sqdn
Graham
ND623 left Avro on completion on 15/2/44, and was flown to 32 Maintenance Unit at St Athan. The usual reason for a Lancaster to go to 32 MU before entering service was for the installation of special radio/radar equipment. Perhaps ND623 had something secret fitted, hence the requirement for guarding it (/G). It left St Athan for Kirmington and 166 Sqdn on 23/2/44 where it became AS-F. On 1/3/44 it received Category B damage, which meant dismantling and delivery by road to a factory repair facility. On the same date, the Operations Record Book for RAF Woodbridge, the emergency landing ground, records that AS-F, captained by F/S Booth made a belly landing there at 1228 hrs after hitting a snow bank on take off from base for an air test.
Repairs at an Avro factory took until 12/8/44, and on 31/8/44 ND623 was allotted to Flight Refuelling Ltd for in-flight refuelling development work. It was written off on 11/10/45 while attempting to land at Staverton after a refuelling exercise. It still had 500 gallons of fuel aboard in internal tanks when it touched too fast with no wind on a short runway. It overshot into a deep brook.
You may like to know, if you don’t already, that the history of 166 Sqdn is covered in ‘On Wings of War’ by Jim Wright ISBN 0 9528476 0 4.
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesDambuster Serial Numbers
JDK
You’re right, of course, codes were re-allocated, but I’m assuming that Simon is only interested in the Chastise Lancasters ie the Dams Raid aircraft.
Simon
ED825 was AJ-T and was flown to the Sorpe Dam by Flt Lt McCarthy (of which more anon).
ED877 was a perpetuated typo! It was a 156 Sqdn aircraft, never modified for Chastise, never with 617 Sqdn and was lost on 5 May 43, over a week before the Dams Raid.
ED887 was AJ-A, Sqdn Ldr Young’s Lancaster, lost on the return flight from the Mohne and Eder Dams.
ED923 was never modified for Chastise, never served with 617 Sqdn and is shown as on operations with 97 Sqdn in that unit’s Operations Record Book.
It seems that the sequence of events was thus:
ED825 arrived at Scampton and was immediately prepared as the reserve aircraft, (although whether there was time to apply the allocated letters AJ-T is another matter). McCarthy boarded his favourite ED915 AJ-Q Queenie only to have it go unserviceable. He then transferred to ED825 AJ-T with all the well-reported difficulties, and flew the operation. Now we get to the conjecture. The 617 Sqdn ORB was presumably then written up from the Order of Battle and showed McCarthy’s original aircraft, but somebody, in their infinite wisdom ‘corrected’ this by scoring out the original serial number and pencilling in ED923. It’s likely that this was done with ED933 in mind, a Chastise Lancaster on charge to 617 Sqdn as AJ-X, but sitting in a hangar undergoing Cat AC repairs after damage on a practice drop at Reculver. So even if he/she had got it right, they would still have got it wrong, as it should’ve been corrected to ED825!
There, Simon, aren’t you glad you asked? Simple, really, ain’t it!
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesIvan
I have a copy of ‘Silksheen, The History of East Kirkby Airfield’ by Geoff D Copeman, sounds like the book you refer to.
Other details are:
ISBN: 0 904597 68 7
Published by Midland Counties Publications in 1989
Midland Counties is now part of the Ian Allan empire, of course.
Hope the above is of use.
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesFor Pete Truman
I think that you’re probably right, that’s how it was presented to the press and Joe Public, although how much was actually fact and how much was hype, I know not.
For Tim, Binbrook 01
Well, at least I got the number right! Thanks for the additional info, I’m afraid the memory ain’t what it used to be.
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesPete
From the windows of the Design Office attached to one of the hangars at Wyton (when it was a real airfield) we had a pretty good view of the final approach to Alconbury and it wasn’t unusual to see an Aggressor F-5 ‘jump’ a Phantom that believed it was home and dry! The squadron number 527 comes to mind, but not sure.
The Wyton Aviation Society – probably extinct for a quarter of a century – arranged a visit to the Aggressor Flight Line. I remember noticing that they all carried Soviet bloc look-alike markings, and being told that the aircraft were originally intended for the South Vietnamese Air Force, but rolled off the production line after the collapse of South Vietnam. If I remember correctly our tour guide, an F-5 pilot – not the least bit aggressive – told us that the F-5’s fairly basic equipment was not at all suited to UK weather conditions, which is probably why they moved on, to Spain and sunshine, I believe.
Sorry, that’s all a bit off-topic. Yes, the gate guard at Alconbury is a king-size plastic model on a stick, and where they’ve stuck the stick looks just a touch painful!
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesIs it really XL321?
I remember working on XF321 back in the dark ages on Wattisham Station Flight, as the resident squadrons replaced Hunters with Lightnings. We understood that it was one of the T.7 conversions from F.4.
Same bird?
Allan
ChiefofFairiesBluenote
Eight Lincolns of 97 Sqdn were detached from Hemswell to Tengah between 28 Apr 48 and 8 Jun 48 on Operation ‘Red Lion II’. Unfortunately, as yet I haven’t been able to identify the purpose of ‘Red Lion II’, unless it was merely to prove that such a detachment was feasible.
Although the link provided by Lauriebe quotes the dates of March to June 1950 for a further detachment to Tengah by 97 Squadron, I can find nothing to confirm that. The detached squadron between those dates was 57 Sqdn from Waddington, replaced during June 1950 by 100 Sqdn also from Waddington.
A final splitting-of-hairs point, and in no way disagreeing with Lauriebe: I believe that while Operation ‘Firedog’ covered operations by various units against communist insurgents in Malaya, the actual detachment of Lincoln units to Tengah was under Operation ‘Musgrave’. But I’m quite prepared to be proved wrong on that ….. .
Regards
Allan
ChiefofFairiesPeter
FM300 was indeed scrapped, as were the incomplete airframes that followed it on the production line. But it did fly, I am told. The official record card is not very helpful, it has a ‘Taken on Strength’ date and just one line entered under ‘Transfers’ and that, on my copy, is totally unreadable! And to make matters worse, it identifies FM300 as a ‘Tudor II Multi Engine Transport’. Photos clearly show that it was a Lincoln. Hence my plea for anybody or anything that might tell me more about it!
Regards
Allan
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