Hmm, it seems I have opened the standard Key Forum joke book.

So there’s no truth in the B-24’s then?

Since listening to this excellent series I have been giving No. 617 Squadron a fair bit of thought and I have numerous questions for the experts.

1) The squadron started off with two Flights, ‘A’ and ‘B’ Flights, and they had 21 aircraft and crews. Later it was reorganised into three Flights, ‘A’,’B’ and ‘C’ Flights. I am wondering did they build up over 26 aircraft at this point, and therefore have to add a second set of code letters for ‘C’ Flight? (For example No. 75 (NZ) Squadron had so many aircraft in their Stirling and Lancaster era that they had codes AA- for ‘A’ and ‘B’ Flights, and code JN- for ‘C’ Flight)

2) When the three Flights were formed the series says the Flight Commanders were Joe McCarthy, Dave Shannon and Les Munro. But who led which Flight?

3) The Tamiya 1/48 ‘Dambusters’ Lancaster comes with the option of the Dams Raid configuration or a later Grand Slam bomb configuration. The colour scheme for the later version has a sky coloured undersides rather than black. I always thought that odd when I saw pictures of it till listening to the series and i realised they did a lot of daylight raids with the bigger bombs. Were all their Lancasters painted in daylight colours or was there a daylight Flight and a nighttime Flight as well as their training Flight?

4) As well as their Lancasters of various variants, their Mosquitoes and their Mustang/s, did No. 617 Squadron have any other types assigned to it in WWII? Such as an Anson or Oxford for instrument training, communications or general hack?

5) Does anyone have info on the New Zealander who served on the Dams raid called Len Chambers? He was a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner and served on the crew of Micky Martin’s aircraft. Which position was he? Was he the Wireless Op or was he in one of the turrets? Also I read that he left the squadron to undergo pilot training. Did he qualify for his wings? And did he fly operationally as a pilot? If so, where? In Europe? Or did he return to NZ? Was he on bombers, fighters, flying boats, transport?

5) In the series I noted Micky Martin calling the aircraft Q-Queenie, the actor pronounced it as Quee-Queenie. Was this just and acting fluff? He did it several times. Or was this actual RAF procedure so Q was not confused with U on the radio? Just like 9 is pronounced niner so not confused with 1.

6) I have inerviewed a chap who was an Armourer on No. 617 Squadron. he joined the unit just after the Dams raid and so worked on the Grand Slams and several other bomb types. He told me about a chapter in the squadron’s history that was not recorded in the series sadly. He said Barnes Wallis came up with a scheme to get commandoes into beaches very quickly. He designed a large air-droppable boat that was slung under a Lancaster, and the men would climb from the Lanc into the boat and strap in. The Lanc would drop the boat and parachutes would slow its descent till it touched down on the water just offshore. He reckoned Wallis said 30 or more men would be dropped in one go. He said that he and another Armourer were seconded by Wallis and he worked directly with him, in a secret location on a remote part of the British coast. A couple of Lancs were utilised to test the boat drops. He reckoned that Walis was very prepared to be the Guines pig himself in a drop but I don’t think that happened. Has anyone read or heard of these tests done by 617 Sqn? Is it a well known chapter of the squadron’s history? Is it written about in books?

I think I may have other queries about the squadron too but I’ll leave them for now.

Something about the series I noted was in the dams raid in the film Gibson is seen as being very brave and going in alongside others doing their bomb run to divert/split the flak. In the radio series I got a different impression, his crew seems to be just stooging around with the rear gunner watching the other’s attacks and describing the scenes. Which is true? Has the radio series taken a bit of licence from the truth to help the listener hear what’s happening, yet inadvertantly dropped the very brave VC-winning act from the story? Or was the VC won for something else?

263 Squadron are probably best known, aircraft wise, for the Westland Whirlwind, of which sadly no surviving complete airframe exists.

Paul

Yes it was a Whirlwind, I meant it had a presentation name, the one that Si Howard “Sam” Ellis of Cambridge, NZ, donated to the RAF. It carried the name “Comrades in Arms.” It was serial P7102.

I totally agree with you Paul that the series is very hard to put down, and addictive. I felt gutted after episode 26 ended, wishing there was more. I hope whoever posted this to archive.org can come up with the Great Escape and Reach For The Sky serials from the same makers.

I also agree it was great to hear more about Micky Martin, and also Cheshire, Tait and Farquier, and I really found it interesting the amount of input tat Cochrane had too. He was a grand officer.

I was in the RNZAF Museum archives at Wigram, Christchurch, NZ, in 2009 researching for data for my book project on the General reconnaissance squadrons of the RNZAF. One morning as I arrived Michelle the archivist said “I have found this old scrapbook, there seems to be a little bit in there about the Territorial squadrons which might interest you.” It did as they were our first GR Squadrons. She added, “I don’t know where the scrapbook came from, it’s not yet in the database and I have no idea who’s it is.” I began to have a look through and after a while i realsied there were some significant documents in it as well as many cuttings. One was a letter from the Air Secretary Tom Barrow which stated, along the lines of. “This is to confirm that His Majsty has confirred on you the role of Chief of Air Staff of the Royal new Zealand Air Force.” This made me take a large amount of note. Another page had a Union Airways airline ticket made out to Mr. R. Cochrane. Sure enough I soon realised and confirmed from other letters and cuttings, this was the personal scrapbook of Air Chief Marshal Sir Ralph Cochrane! As he was our first ever Chief of Air Staff and is credited with being the ‘architect of the air force’, building it up from nothing to something worthwhile in two short years before war came, I was mightily pleased to be looking at this legend’s own personal keepsake. It had cuttings about his family too, who had a castle and large estate in Scotland, and the fact that his Dad died and he was made the laird. I never knew he was even Scottish till then. An amazing experience.

Back to Dambusters, are there any photos of the No. 617 Squadron Mosquitoes or their Mustang?