Warbird Information Exchange

Lovely item, new to me:

https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history ... wacos.html

Wow!
That is really cool.
Thanks for posting.

The LRDG was quite the operation... improvised to start with and a very effective organization, despite limited resources and inhospitable (to say the least) terrain.
I'll recommend the book "Long Range Desert Group" by William Kennedy Smith, who was their operations officer.
Plenty of stories, and some photos, about their two Wacos and the navigation challenges that they surmounted.
Brave men

Mark, might the author's last name be Shaw instead of Smith? I'm having a problem finding that title with author Smith. Thanks.

Randy

Double post. Sorry.

Fascinating tale and very typical of the 'make it up as you go along' nature of that unit. A minor point though, the Continental engines they acquired would have been for M3 Stuart light tanks as they used the W670, Sherman's using R-985.

The image of a Certificate of Airworthiness for YKC? shows a Jacobs engine. Just FYI.

Randy

Yes, the author's name is William Kennedy Shaw.
A case of brain fade- and my copy is out on loan.

Either way, the only radial engines used in tanks that the British Army used were the W670 and the R-985.

No Guibersons?

Mark - thanks for the confirmation on the author's name. I found one in like new condition on abebooks.com, just slow shipping.

Randy

50 M3 light tanks with radial diesels were received but as they were not relevant to the point in question, I ignored them!

If you've interest in further reading on the subject of the LRDG ... as there is considerable interest in the LRDG here in NZ, seeing it was initially solely manned by volunteers from the New Zealand Division, it is natural to find that Brendan O'Carroll has authored some five books on aspects of the unit's history.

Of particular interest and historic value, in my view, is "Bearded Brigands" which is Brendan's edit, and augmentation, of the personal diary of Trooper Frank Jopling. Once the LRDG became publicly known the British Government authorised the diary being published in Everybody magazine and it was also broadcast on radio back home in NZ for wartime moral boosting purposes.