Mark,

I wouldn’t have thoguht that WWII personnel records would ever include photographs. Photos would be held seperately.

If you want to find any official photos of your grandfather it is best to look at his personnel records and see if there are any course numbers. It will definately have the date and place where he trained in various courses. Supply all that info to the RAF Museum, along with his service number, date of birth etc. and also dates he served on various squadrons and OTU’s. If the RAFM cannot supply course-related photos they should be able to tell you where they are held within the MOD. They must be held somewhere I think because look how many books have this type of photo where the author has sourced group photos.

I guess it will be more difficult to find out when Sgt H. Davies was on any courses, unless you source his records. But he may be in Sqn photos and you have a fair idea of when he was with your grandfather. If this was their first tour they may have trained at the same OTU as a crew too.

Here in NZ the system is much better. If the person is alive, no-one can source their personnel record except themselves. If they are dead, anyone can, so long as you produce evidence that they are indeed dead – such as a photocopy of a death notice from a newspaper, or if you have it, a death cert. No next of kin permission is needed. You can get up to two free per year, and after that they cost $25.00. So great for family research if you have one or two people to look up. Not so great if you want to look up 200 people like me.

Originally posted by Observer
Dave
What I was trying to say is that the town/place details of the next of kin, that the CWGC show in both their Index of Cemeteries and Graves Volumes and also their online Debt of Honour Register, may have been their last contact address when they did their survey after the War to check relatives details and not necessarily the address of his parents when he died.

Yes, I see what you mean now. Tricky.

Does the RAF have a Central Photographic Establishment that holds all the official photos? If you cannot trace a photo through other means, the RAF may still hold official course group photos from the courses he’d done in the RAF. They always took photos. There were probably ones from when he enlisted, when he trained as a gunner and maybe even on the squadron/s.

Perhaps you’ll be lucky that his official photos were kept. I’m told that in the RNZAF CPE the majority of such photos from here were kept, though not all.

Have you also tried to contact other squadron members? Does 77 Sqn have an association? Maybe photos would arise that way. And biographical details.

I know these seem like obvious questions and you’ve probably already taken these routes, but perhaps if I persist in churning over the options I might think of something that can assist.

Yes, it’s a V1. I see they now have it hanging above one of the stair wells! Imagine some old Londoner walking up the stairs, looking up, and seeing that right above them, could do a mischief.

There is also one at MoTaT. One of the two is real, and one is an American military-made copy made as a trial thing after they captured the real thing. I don’t remember which is which but I think MoTaT’s one is the copy.

Interesting. The MOD must have had a next of kin address when he died though. It is up to the individual airman/soldier/sailor to update thr next of kin address, especially in wartime. He would surely have known if his folks had shifted to another town (often happened due to war work, bombing, etc) because he’d probably have written to them and telephoned them maybe, and gone there when on leave. He should have updated the next of kin on his own files, it is a military requirement. The MOD must have also sent a telegram somewhere when he was killed. They’d probably have it on record?

Here in NZ the gazetting in newspapers of those who were missing/killed/wounded would list the name and town of next of kin. I’m sure it was the same in the UK. Find a daily paper that ran these gazzetes and they may reveal where his folks were.

Also, I’d give Geoff Davies a call anyway, he may be a cousin or something.

Are you guys planning to create a memorial or something? Best of luck anyway.

Both the Zero and the Spitfire Mk XVI were removed from the museum a few years back, taken to Armore and completely restored. Both are now back there in new schemes and looking superb.

The Spit wears it’s only operational wartime scheme, camouflage rather than the post-war silver it wore for many decades.

And the Zero wears its genuine wartime paint scheme rather than the made up sqiggly camo it once wore. It is now overall dark green, just like the replica was. I did take a photo of each, I will post them once I have developed the film.

The manner in which all the wartime stuff is displayed there has also improved significantly. No longer looks like a Victorian era museum, now much better thought out with nice displays, audio-visual displays, dummies in uniforms, good lighting, etc. Overall, it was a great experience. My mate and I vowed to fly in and out in five minutes. We spent about 3/4 of an hour wandering round the military section, and still didn’t see half of what we wanted to. We’ll have to go back.

It is sad the museum didn’t decide to hand the Zero back to the RNZAF when they opened their museum, but it is great to see they have always taken great care of it, and now more than ever.

I’d love to see photos or film of it flying in 1958, at the Ohakea RNZAF 21st Anniversary Aishow. Cameras were there, I’ve got some beautiful footage of the Vampire display team there in colour, so maybe someone filmed it.

Yes, Holmes is a big enthusiast as far as vintage planes goes. I think he owns a couple of things now, and he does indeed still have the red Stearman because he had a high profile incident only a few weeks back where he got lost on a cross-country and had to land in a farmer’s field, and crashed it into a fence. I don’t mind the fact that he likes planes, it’s good to see there are a few aviation things on his show. It’s just he’s such an annoying little git, and he’s usually the only media ‘star’ that a lot of foreign visitors meet. Not a great representative in my opinion.

Yes it was a replica T6-based Zero. It appeared in Tora Tora Tora too. I had a quick look at the real Zero in Auckland last week. Looks lovely in the new scheme they restored it in. Actually looks just like Sir Tim’s old replica now.

Yes, you’re right, it was the replica SE5 that had the ding. I would have liked to have seen the BD5 especially because it is so cute, and the type had a starring role in one of James Bond’s greatest escapes!

Cheers
Dave

Glad I made you giggle. 🙂

Yes, the great thing about the Herc and Orion displays, it’s not just the sight and sound of thouse big Alisons, you can actually FEEL them, shaking the ground, and shaking you to the bone, if you’re close enough.

I had that same experience at a Wigram airshow. As my job involved parachutes, I was ordered to go out on the powerpull with a mate and pick up the parachutes just dropped by an Andover in its display routine. The plane had climbed off and we were given the all clear by the tower to get out there and clear the dtrip before the next planes took off. However the pilot wasn’t finished it seems. He came down low, hard and fast, right above us, dead centre. My God that was an awesome experience. He was literally less that 20 feet above us I reckon. Talk about good vibrations. When we got back to the flightline there were a few people there worried that they’d mucked up by sending us out. However, we were very happy with this unique experience! Beaming all day I was.

I have not had the opportunity to see either of the new Boeings yet. But I know the 727’s were simply awesome, and I dare say the 757’s probably take it to another level.

I once saw an Air New Zealand 747-400 rung out at the Auckland International Airshow, now that was impressive to say the least. I wonder what first-time passengers awaiting to get onto a real flight thought when they looked out of the terminal windows and saw a 747 doing ‘aerobatics’! They probably packed themselves if they didn’t know there was an airshow on!