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Photo's from my Father's album


PhilB

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I was doing one of those jobs today that I had been meaning to do for a long time and that is to scan in a lot of old photographs.

Some of you may be aware of my father's service in the Royal Air Force from posts on my Malta 109 build.

He served for 40 years from 1924 when he joined as a 15 year old engineering apprentice. He was one of the first "Trenchard Brats" which was a scheme started by lord Trenchard, the father of the RAF.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Apprentice

My father retired in 1964 as a Flight Lieutenant - Engineer.

His service saw many changes from the early biplanes, through the second World war and through the jet age.

Some of the photo's may be interesting to some of you so I thought I would share them. Many of the early one's are the postcards you could buy as no one had a camera in those days!

Others are obviously personal ones and I would ask you to respect copywright laws. Should any of you want high res copies of any I would be happy to send them if you drop me your e-mail and let me know which one's you want.

 

The apprentice college was based at RAF Halton where trainees were taught engineering from the very basics so they could effectively build an aircraft from scratch.

Here are some of the aircraft they trained on:

 

HaltonAerodrome1925.jpg

 

A Bristol from 1925

 

Bristol1925.jpg

 

DH9A 1925

 

DH9A1925.jpg

 

Snipe

 

Snipe1925.jpg

 

Avro Andover, now wouldn't that be impressive in 1/32!!!!

 

AvroAndover1925.jpg

 

And a "Bugle" whatever that is! EDIT: I've now identified this as a Boulton Paul Bugle, as in they of the Defiant in WW2. Very few made.

 

Bugle1925.jpg

 

There are many aircraft I will be posting that I have no idea what they are so please jump in with info.

 

more soon,

 

Phil

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I'm trying to post in relative time sequence but you will have to forgive me if some are out of place.

Once qualified my father was posted to operational squadrons.

here are some of the lovely 1930's stuff they had, real aeroplanes!!!!

 

These Bulldogs?? EDIT: Identified as Siskins by Doug(DougN) Thanks Doug!

This was taken at RAF North Weald in 1931:

 

NorthWeald1931.jpg

 

Uncertain of this one taken in 1930: EDIT This is a Bulldog, thanks again Doug!

 

Unknown1930.jpg

 

An "Atlas" from 1932:

 

Atlas1932.jpg

 

Again, I'm unsure of these taken at Netheravon in 1935: EDIT These are Nimrods, Thanks Doug!

 

Netheravon1935.jpg

 

Here's a flying boat from Plymouth in 1934: EDIT: This is a Blacburn RB 3A Perth. Thanks to Rick(vvwse4)

 

Plymouth1934.jpg

 

This last one was taken in the Middle East possibly Cairo.

It is entitled "C Flight, 802 FF Sqdn 1933" Dad was on attachment with the Fleet Air Arm at the time and they had a habit of basing stuff on shore before deploying to the carriers.

EDIT These are more Nimrods, Thanks again Doug!

 

CFlight802FFSqdn1933.jpg

 

More soon.

 

Phil

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A few things now for all you Fleet Air Arm blokes and somethings for you ship fans!

In the 1930's the Royal Navy often went on cruises. Basically it was a time when we used to sail round the world showing everybody that our ships were bigger and better than theirs!

These were the early years of the NAS and it was common for RAF personnel to be seconded. He did a couple of cruises around the Med on board HMS Glorious.

 

Here she is in Malta in 1934:

 

HMSGlorious1934Malta.jpg

 

And in Gibraltar in 1931:

 

Gibraltar1931.jpg

 

She had heavy escorts on the cruises, HMS Revenge and Royal Sovereign, good old battlewagons!:

 

RevengeandRoyalSovereign1934.jpg

 

And the pride of the navy HMS Queen Elizabeth which apparently was one of the oldest Battleships having been launched in 1914 I believe:

 

HMSQueenElizabeth.jpg

 

Bringing a float plane on board of 823 Squadron in Drapano Bay. You will have to help with the A/C Type!

 

823SqdnDrapanoBay1934.jpg

 

This is a Blackburn Baffin. Photo says this was the first time one had come aboard and flown off the carrier:

 

Baffin.jpg

 

More Soon,

 

Phil

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Sometimes things didn't go to plan!

 

Crash1.jpg

 

Sometimes you got your feet wet!

 

Crash2.jpg

 

Nothing a bit of Duck Tape won't fix!

 

Crash3.jpg

 

Sometimes you got a picture of the locals going past: EDIT This is a Dornier J Wal built under licence by the Italians identified by Steve(Wumm)

 

ItalianFlyingBoat.jpg

 

Then it can all go wrong again!

 

Crash4.jpg

 

Send for the Navy!!!!

 

Crash5.jpg

 

Hmm! gonna need more than Duck Tape on this one!

 

Crash6.jpg

 

This is the same aircraft after being repaired on board!

 

Crash7.jpg

 

More soon,

 

Phil

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There is now a bit of a gap in the timeline of the album. My father was on way to North Africa when the destroyer he was on got torpedoed.

He ended up on Malta without any kit. His camera and most of his later photos went down with the ship.

On Malta he managed to "obtain" some pictures and eventually a camera but things being difficult there was a shortage of time and developing materials but he did manage to save a few.

 

Here's a Spit "going upstairs"

 

Maltaspit.jpg

 

" and he went this way and I went that way"....

 

MaltaPilots.jpg

 

This was a really grand old house,

 

MaltaHouse1.jpg

 

Then the Luftwaffe paid a visit,

 

MaltaHouse2.jpg

 

Think this maybe a Spit over Rabat, if you see this Brian (Cauchi) please help me out!

 

Spit2.jpg

 

This is a view over Ta Quali I believe. In the background you can see the famous Mosta Dome where a bomb went through the roof and bounced down the aisle and failed to go off.

The church was packed at the time. Bit of a miracle really.

Some interesting aircraft if you look closely.

Is that a Hurricane NF?

You can also see one of the old steamrollers used to repair the bomb craters.

Good game of spot the aircraft types on this one!

 

TaKaliMalta.jpg

 

Hurricane at rest:

 

Hurricane.jpg

 

We've got visitors!!!

 

Bombs.jpg

 

And again!!!!

 

Bombs2.jpg

 

What really amazes me is that throughout the bombimg and the shortages, they still managed to act like gentlemen,

even though this politely worded invitation is actually a posh piss-up!!!!

 

invitation.jpg

 

Hope you enjoyed some or all of these.

 

That is all!

 

Phil

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Great photos!! Thanks so much for posting! :innocent:

 

In post #2, your unidentified aircraft are I believe:

 

J8060 - Siskins

Next one down seen from the front - Bulldog

your Atlas

Nimrods

your flyingboat

Nimrods again

 

Cheers,

 

Doug

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Thank you so much for posting these.

 

I enjoyed seeing them and the commentary.

 

I need to study it more but is that oul down the underside of the spit?

 

I need gallon of glop to do the weathering on my 1/24 spitfire if so..

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Great photos!! Thanks so much for posting! :innocent:

 

In post #2, your unidentified aircraft are I believe:

 

J8060 - Siskins

Next one down seen from the front - Bulldog

your Atlas

Nimrods

your flyingboat

Nimrods again

 

Cheers,

 

Doug

Thanks Doug, those do ring a bell now!

 

Phil

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Fantastic stuff there! But doesn't the Royal Navy still do cruises? At least with small boys (ships). I know I have had RN Lynx helicopters land on ships I have been on while I was on cruise the past few years!

Rob

I'm sure they do Rob, but I think there's cruises and there's cruises!

 

Thank you so much for posting these.

 

I enjoyed seeing them and the commentary.

 

I need to study it more but is that oul down the underside of the spit?

 

I need gallon of glop to do the weathering on my 1/24 spitfire if so..

 

Here's a close up. Its about as good as I can get as the real pic is about 2" square:

 

post-13803-1281799715.jpg

 

Looks like a Vc trop to me and I stand to be corrected! You can see the Volkes filter is still reasonably clean but I think its oil.

In those times I think they concentrated on keeping them in the air rather than how they looked.

There are some good pictures in the book "Spitfires over Malta" by Brian Cull. Shows really heavy oils stains.

 

Phil

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Phil,

 

Really beatiful and useful archive material here - I find the Malta shots particularly fascinating (I plan to holiday there next year). I would really love to see more of your father's photographs...I am sure that he would be very proud of you showing them in this manner. :BANGHEAD2:

 

Thank you

 

Derek

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