It doesn’t look like it has a separate windscreen for the rear cockpit. Did the Iraqis modify their twoseaters to “T20-ish” configuration?

Christer

The one in the photo certainly looks T20-ish, with the perpex ‘tunnel’ linking the two cockpits, but those designated T61 for export to Iraq did appear to have individual cockpits,and without the periscope forward of the rear canopy. IMHO, always considered the two individual canopies more of an untidy afterthought than the better-streamlined linking tunnel.

Duly noted bms44.

I took the ID from the Flickr page. Looked like a Fury and never bothered to check if it was Sea or not.

No worries Mondariz…but yes, I also used to shout at the box when the commentary states it’s a ‘Stringbag’ as an ‘Applecore’ (etc.etc.,) chugs into view in a grainy extract from a black and white film!…….Sad or what? 😉

By the way, could have picked up an F.10 Sea Fury, entire and complete, for £15.00 (yes, 15 quid not £15K or £150K!). It went for scrap in 1963, after a Naval Open Day. It could have been mine, if A) as a youngster, I knew how to go about it, and B) there were no objections from mother…where you going to keep it? in the back garden?
In view of what goes on nowadays in various gardens in the UK vis-a-vis cockpits, entire airframes etc. that outlandish idea didn’t seem so daft, did it?

Would agree with John on the aircraft type- a Rangoon, of 203 Squadron, the only flying boat unit stationed in Iraq in 1931- on. Note the single fin shadow on the tarmac and the port-side circular hatch (gun mounting emplacement?) in the fuselage just behind the wing. The Singapores would have been post 1935, so conceivably the shrubs and trees either side of the slipway would have grown in the intervening period. Well done Mondariz, on the detective work on the memorial. Fascinating stuff, the way the answers materialise so quickly never ceases to amaze!;)

Mon Dieu Rodney! and deja vous! Surely the F3 couldn’t have been that heavy minus the powerplants ? still I suppose it wasn’t weight , more C of G related problems…looks like a very basic mistake by the crane driver in the last shots : what’s he driving now, I wonder? 😮

Second hand references certainly, so always open to some doubt, but probably better if more info could be found on location of the airfield, which might pin down the squadron (assuming of course the aircraft hadn’t been away from it’s home base at the time of the photo, and on a visit to another airfield!)

Go on Matt, some more detective work required,talk nicely to your better half and get her on the case! :diablo:

Mosquito Identification

To throw in another possibility : could be an F.B. VI of 418 Squadron.The white spinner tip and the ‘M’ could well match HR241 ,coded TH-M .The squadron was based on the south coast of England (Ford) from spring 1943 in the night fighting role and if you had further clues to the location that might pin it down : the squadron had several kills,(note the swastika), some crews made double scores on the same night’s operations.
This aircraft would have been A.I. radar equipped at a later period, in 1944 for bomber support duties, so there may not have been any nose antenna on this aircraft at the time of photo. (And Matt, don’t be embarassed in the least that your wife’s grandfather was ground crew : the lads at the sharp end couldn’t have functioned without their skills and dedication…as true now as it ever was!) Well done to him ,we say! 😉

You’re right of course, Speedy, they are Venoms. Must trawl through my references for your Vampire now. Doh! Brian.:o

Move up a bit

Nothing wrong with a little bit of editing and artistic licence : we’re damn lucky to have that wealth of techinical expertise to do such things . A minor couple of points, if I may…the aircraft on our left could have a tad more space on his starboard wing, so he’s not desperately trying to get out of shot, and on the trailing aircraft , if you were to drop his starboard wing a little so that his attitude was more in keeping with the aircraft leading, it might be a little more pleasing aesthetically. But each to his own…one man’s meat etc… good shots though , neverthless 😎 Regards, Brian S.