Lauriebe, do you have any more info on the Brigand sites that have been located/visited? Have these had parts recovered or do substantial remains still exist at these sites.? Sorry to put you on the spot like this but you are somewhat closer to them than i am here in frosty old Duxford.

Rob, sorry, but I don’t have any real details on Brigand crash sites here. The only info that I have comes from books such as those published by Colin Cummings and Jim Halley. The locations in those are not really enough to pin down exact crash sites. The only one that I know for sure to have been located and visited is RH755.

Wish I could be of more help.

Laurie.

Nice photo John.. thanks for posting. Do you have any details about when and where.?

The A-B serial register shows WB236 as one of two replacement aircraft delivered in Feb 1951 and as serving only with 84 Sqn until SOC on 20 Mar 53. The location is likely to be Seletar I think, although not sure of that.

Nakajima B5N?

I see this thread has been resurrected. Always good to see the JP featured.

Sycamore, there were 4 boxes of 4 aircraft in the JP formation.

From the photo at Post 20, I think Foxy was in the No. 4 slot of the final box.

Attached below is my photo of ‘Green 2’. The original colour shot has degraded a lot so I converted it to B&W.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]251391[/ATTACH]

Dave, can I ask where the arrival date, 18 Nov 50, of the first six Vampires delivered to Seletar came from?

All reports that I have seen, Flight magazine, local (Singapore) press and the 60 Sqn ORB (F540), give the arrival date of these aircraft as 2 Dec 50.

Farmgate, I researched the delivery of Vampire FB 5 and 9 aircraft to the Far East a few years ago. The routing would not have included Indo-China.

A good article on the delivery flights can be found on the link below:

http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1950/1950%20-%202162.html?search=Vampires%20to%20the%20Far%20East

The first FB5s arrived at Seletar during the afternoon of 2 December 1950. No.60 Sqn received its first four aircraft on 4 December 1950 and displayed them at an Air Day at Kallang Airport during the afternoon of 9 December 1950.

FYI, Vampire FB5, VG703, was demonstrated at Saigon circa October 1948 as part of a tour of the Middle and Far East. Could the aircraft in your photo be that one?

http://www.ebay.fr/itm/Documents-avion-FB-Mk-5-Vampire-n-VG-703-en-Indochine-/251813706186

I think that the confusion between Devon and Cornwall with 335 Squadron ATC is that it used to be in Ernesettle, but is now based in halls close to the Tamar Bridge in Saltash. Perhaps the writers looked up their current location as opposed to the Seafire’s original home in Devon. Where 335 are now based, there is no room for anything, let alone an aeroplane!

Cheers,

Martin

Martin, the references to VP441 being seen in Saltash were made long before 335 Sqn moved to that location.

As I mentioned earlier, I was not able to find out how/why the Saltash report came about in the first place. The aircraft was never there.