Thread: Avro Lancaster

Originally Posted by Andy in West Oz

David Bennett is getting back to me about John Bailey, Kyt. I;ve asked him to ask John what units he served with - Hurris, Wimpys and Libs.

That'll be cool - gave me headache just trying to figure out where to start. But I was referring to David's aircraft when we had that thread on the other forum

Yep, I'm with you Kyt, I just swapped subjects mid-stride! The stuff you found on David's aircraft was most impressive and I'm still in awe at what's at your fingertips.

Must try to remember what I said, and find the links to the info I found so I can past it here.

Originally Posted by Andy in West Oz

I'm still in awe at what's at your fingertips.

Damn those webcams - ahh, never mind I see that you're a fully paid up subscriber

Originally Posted by Kyt

Damn those webcams - ahh, never mind I see that you're a fully paid up subscriber

Fair bit of viewing lately too since you're not sleeping much!

on the clever use of emos

Right, this is a reminder to myself to get a couple of scans done in the morning from "Filming the Dambusters". The book has some lovely shots.

Originally Posted by Kyt

on the clever use of emos

Took me a while!

Originally Posted by Kyt

:Right, this is a reminder to myself to get a couple of scans done in the morning from "Filming the Dambusters". The book has some lovely shots.

Yes, do it when you're awake!

Back to Lancs...kermit Weeks has one in storage at his Fantasy of Flight complex in Florida. It'll see the light of day one day and may be the only other candidate for flight.
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/lancr...anc-kb976.html

http://www.lancastermuseum.ca/

Originally Posted by Andy in West Oz

Posted this before over on the dark side.

To recap what Andy and I discussed before about David Bennett and the photograph that Andy posted - I discovered the same picture on another website:



And the accompanying text states:

Below is a crew photograph (from a photocopy) from August 1943 of Plt. Off. Payne and his crew, in front of W5001 WS-Z. From left to right the crew are Sgt. P A S Twinn (Air Gunner - rear), Sgt. C A Gilbert (Flight Engineer), F/O E N Armstrong (Navigator), Plt. Off C Payne (Pilot), Sgt. F Robinson (W/Op.) Sgt. S C Young (Air Bomber) and F/Sgt. N O Bennett (RAAF Air Gunner - Mid Upper). The crew was transferred to help form 514 Squadron, flying Lancaster II's on 20 September 1943. They ended their tour with 514 in May 1944. Payne, Gilbert, Robinson and Twinn then did a second tour with 149 Squadron from February 1945 to the end of the war. Picture courtesy of Mr Twinn.

http://www.hobley97.freeserve.co.uk/raf.htm

However, W5001 never flew with 9 Squadron and was in fact lost with 207 Squadron in May 1943 - it seems to have been a typo and the correct code should be W5011.

David and the rest of the crew subsequently transferred to 514 Squadron (from 9 Squadron) which has a great website:

http://www.514squadron.org/home/home.htm

Mt Twinn, the rear gunner, has done a few posts with the BBC re his memoirs. I really must get in touch with him to view his logbook as it is more detailed than David's. David lists target and the occasional "casual" comment like "came home on three engines" and that's pretty much it. Mr Twinn's logbook will provide some good cross referencing as well.