Some old Mossie ( & a Lanc ) pics.....

Spent a contented morning browsing the stalls at the Whitwick Aeromart today. I had time on my hands and it wasn't too crowded so I was able to delve through some boxes of old RAF photos.

These aren't especially rare but they're nice to have outside of a book - I haven't yet had a chance to identify any of them...









This one of a Lancaster has 'Little Staughton' pencilled on the back, so it has be of 582 Pathfinder Squadron during 1944/45...




I paid very little for these and they are fun to look at......

 

Congrats. Martin, nice photos.
Thanks for sharing, I like the mossie in flight best, but really nice to see the personel with the flight all together in the group pics. It just shows how many people were involved in keeping these aircraft going.

kind regards John

 

again luv the current war photos Martin, thanks for sharing them with us

 

Just one thing I've noticed is that the solid nose of the Mossie in the second photo identifies it as an 'Oboe'-equipped Pathfinder.....

 

Thanx again for some great pics, Martin!

 

I've identified photo #1 - the big group photo is of the whole of 109 Squadron and was taken at Little Staughton in May 1945. The two aircraft are Oboe-equipped MkIX Mosquitoes. The photo was arranged by Squadron Leader A T Buckland....( all this info thanks to the book 'Beam Bombers - The Secret War Of 109 Squadron' by Michael Cumming )

 

very nice photos martin, thanks for sharing

 

I believe the first and second photo are of 109 Squadron PFF who did Oboe marking.
The second one is definately of 109's C Flight, taken between August 14-17 1944 and shows both the ground and air crews for that flight. The aircraft is Mosquito XVI ML991. I have the names of all the aircrew. There were 22 aircrew that made up C Flight at that time and they account for nearly 40 decorations. Among the notables is S/L Desmond Kay DFC & Bar, seated in the centre with the moustache. Kay was a Defiant pilot in the Battle of Dunkirk & the Battle of Britain, joining Bomber Command after being screened from fighters. He was C Flight Commander until he was killed in Oct 44 on his 89th Pathfinder operation. To the right of Kay the short gentleman is S/L ER Benson DSO DFC & Bar who flew 145 ops with Bomber Command. On the other side of Kay is S/L JC "Monty" Thelwell, DSO DFC & Bar who flew well over 100 ops and beside him is S/L Harry Scott, DSO DFC & Bar who flew 131 ops. Seated on the far right is S/L Jock Turnbull, DSO DFC & Bar who flew 138 ops. Seated on the far left is F/L Eric Arnott DFC & Bar - 111 ops, beside him is F/L Dick McClelland DFC & Bar - 102 ops. The only person who flew at the time with this Flight who didn't get a gong was killed soon after returning to the Squadron following a long recuperation for serious injuries sustained in a crash landing.
I can give you full details on the aircrew if you wish. My father was a Navigator with C Flight when this was taken but on leave at the time.
Regards
Dave Wallace

 

That is a superb 'reply' to my original posting Mr Wallace - thank you and a very warm welcome to you !

 

Very bizarrely, I notice that the Lanc photo has vanished from my original posting ...so this should tie-up a loose end on this thread...

 

Thanks Martin
Attached is a scan of the back of my copy of that picture. The ranks are listed as they stood when the photo was taken but some of the decorations noted were not awarded until the end of the war so my father added the names long after it was taken. It also could not have been taken in June 1944 as some of these men were not posted to 109 Until mid August and men that would have been in this flight in June are not referenced. F/O Keith Hynes (RAAF) was killed with Kay on Oct.18/44. F/L William M. Hodgson was also awarded the AFM and killed Dec.27/44. Hodgson was from Uruguay.
Regards
Dave Wallace

 

Thanks again, Dave - it's very interesting indeed to have this information concerning a Squadron as historic as 109. Trawling the 'net, I've found that Mosquito ML991 was quite a veteran ; starting with 105 Squadron before transferring to 109.

It soldiered on until August 3rd, 1945 when it stalled on landing at Little Staughton after a practice flight. The undercarriage collapsed.....the pilot is listed as the 'boss', W/Cdr Law.......

 

not to "hog" this thread but anyone have pics of the FB's of 605th squadron aka 1943. Interesting last week I finally was given confirmation through the 605th sqdn. representative that my cousin did shoot down an FB on August 2, 1943 and after a half dozen emails explaining the situation. as he told me that the 605th was strafing anything they could find along northern German and the area around Sylt where the Mossie came down into the ocean. the brave crew is listed in the Runnymeade memorial as simply vanished and not returning from the sortie so from the strong appearance there is some closure for the 605th now. My cousin in 4./NJG 3 was flying the slow and outdated Do 217N-1.

 

At that time 605 Squadron were flying a mixture of NF.IIs and FB.VIs out of RAF Castle Camps in Suffolk....just a month later the Squadron command was taken over by the legendary 'Sammy' Hoare DSO DFC.....

 

Hi Erich

The location of Sylt does tie in.

The 2 main targets 605 were tasked with that week in Aug 1943 were the
airfields of Parchim & Jagel which are both very close to Sylt.

Incidentally after the war 605 were posted to Sylt - they had a fairly
frost reception as you can well understand!

There is a good chance they are related.

605 were intruding a great deal in those days.

Sorry to hear your cousin was killed - some very good men were lost on both

Hi Erich

Many thanks for your email.

I'm afraid I don't have a great deal of information, this is what I have:

"but the next night the Squadron lost F/O Albert P. Aylott and P/O James
Samuel Evans when they failed to return from a night intruder mission.
Unfortunately neither men were found and their names are remembered on the
Runnymede Memorial, panels 123 and 124."

Sorry I couldn't be of more use, but the 2 incidents could well be related.

Does the log book give a location?

Kind regards,

Ian


sides - we lost 184 in total.

Kind regards, Ian

read from the bottom up...... yes I did not get these in order, was told it was a crew flying a FB VI. think at the end of the war the unit was flying Mossie NF XVII's or 30's ? Martin do you have the book on the 605th sqdn. ?

 

AFAIK there isn't one.......I was going by information from Bowyer's 'Mosquito Squadrons Of The RAF'.....

 

Martin

please check this brief site out, upper right box about the book

605 Squadron

dirt cheap too !

E ~

 

D'oh !

You're quite right and I know that I have a copy somewhere - but right now I cannot lay my hands on it.....

 

Hi Martin, I am with the RAF Pathfinder Force Museum based at RAF Wyton and can probably identify your photos for you. Unfortunately I can't get to see them on this forum - only photobucket logos. Can you send me the images by email and I will tell you what and where they are. My email is: ansell.tony@gmail.com Best Regards, Tony.