Examples of the toughness of the RAF during WW2

[Mark Allen M]

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[muddyboots]

man those are dynamic pictures! They are some of the best I've seen!.

[Mark Allen M]

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Last edited by Mark Allen M on Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Dan K]

And an RAF Liberator with one engine smoking

Looks like the prop and a good chunk of the powerplant no longer with the airframe.

[Dave Smith]

Great photos, quite a few new to me. Thanks for posting. The airfield with all the parked aircraft is the Transatlantic Ferry Terminal at Prestwick in SW Scotland. The Lancasters are Candian-built ones. Tail-on in the distance to the right is a silver USAAF C-54.

[Fouga23]

Mosquito attack on Gestapo HQ in Denmark

Sure that's not the attack on Amiens prison?

[Jim W]

I think the picture labelled 'very brave looking Lanc crew' is actually a Halifax B mk2 HR837 'NP-F' of 158 squadron

found this elsewhere
http://www.flickr.com/photos/39411748@N06/6362707457/

Looks very similar!

Last edited by Jim W on Sun Apr 29, 2012 6:30 am, edited 1 time in total.

[JDK]

Some very interesting images. Where are you getting them from? Seems to be some confusion over the subjects...

Mosquito attack on Gestapo HQ in Denmark

Actually the Amiens prison raid.

Very brave looking Lanc crew

Both Handley Page Halifaxes, not Lancasters. (Wing planform and fin and rudder shapes are distinct.)

The example with a hole was 'friendly fire' - it would have been a bomb from a higher flying RAF bomber falling through the lower flying aircraft, thankfully not far enough to have fused and gone off. Note the plaster on the mid upper gunner's eyebrow where the collapsing turret /bomb hit him on the way through.

On other occasions the rear gunner in his turret was knocked off the aircraft which returned without him.

I suspect (but I'm less certain) that the Hallibag with the missing stbd tail may well have lost it from a stick of bombs as well.

I'm assuming the two pictures are of different Halifaxes as I doubt the one with half the tail missing made it back.

And another photo of what seems Duxford loaded with aircraft everywhere

Certainly not Duxford (not hardstanding of that kind there, and it was mainly a fighter base - by this period - 44-45, a USAAF fighter base) and Prestwick seems likely as Dave Smith's said. Canadian built Lancaster's mid-upper turrets were further forward than the British built examples, and lower, simpler cupola type - from memory Martin turrets.

The aircraft is a Martin Baltimore, all too rarely seen, and used mainly in N Africa and the Med.

Thanks for sharing!

Regards,

[PinecastleAAF]

One thing that always impressed me was the number of men it took to crew a Lanc as opposed to a B-17 or B-24.

[JDK]

Interesting point. Lancasters and Halifaxes were single pilot aircraft (for eight hour raids) but the Short Stirling had two pilots. But then there was the Flight Engineer role in Lancs and Halis.

I think the picture labelled 'very brave looking Lanc crew' is actually a Halifax B mk2 HR837 'NP-F' of 158 squadron.

Good find, Jim. "None of the crew were injured..." presumably the gunner cut himself shaving very inaccurately...

[Steve Nelson]

I had never heard about the fate of the "Rex." In an eerie bit of foreshadowing, the ship was en route to New York in 1938 when she was met a few hundred miles off the US coast by a flight of Y1B-17s as a demonstration of the USAAC's new bombers' ability to intercept potential invaders (the Navy was less than pleased about the Army trespassing on their turf.)

SN

[Mark Allen M]

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[Mark Allen M]

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[Dave Smith]

James, that is most definitely Prestwick!

[Dan K]

I guess this means their defeated? Photo not labeled so not sure what's really going on but I can probably guess.

Same bird?