WW2 flight log

[Roger Dodger]

Evening all,

I don't venture into here much (at all!) however...

I have some pictures of my Grandfathers flight log from when he was flying Lancasters.


Would anyone be interested if I put them up?


Thanks,

[RicksAlfas]

Yes please! Theres a lot of interest in militaria on here.
I put this thread up a few days ago:
http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a...

[big bloke]

i'm very interested, post them up

[Roger Dodger]

Some poor photos for now.


Anyone who can breakdown what the info means would be appreciated!

[richw_82]

Roger Dodger said:

Some poor photos for now.


Anyone who can breakdown what the info means would be appreciated!

Date is the date of the flight. Hour is time of take off. Aircraft type and No are the individal aircraft serial numbers, a quick look through the Manchester/Lancaster serials to match these will give you aircraft histories. Pilot gives you the name of the guy at the controls for each flight. I can't make out the heading of the next column, but as your Grandfather has entered "F/Eng" I'm guessing that was his position on each flight.

In the remarks he has written the type of flight, or in red, operations. LLB is low level bombing, just as HLB is high level bombing. Air firing and evasive action are gunnery exercises, done in co-operation with a fighter, in order to hone the reflexes of the crew and the drills that would keep them alive - things like the often mentioned "Corkscrew" used as a defensive action from attacking fighters.

1660 HCU were at RAF Swinderby.

Get yourself across to

http://lancaster-archive.com/forum/

They'll be able to tell you loads more.

Kind regards,

Rich

[Roger Dodger]

richw_82 said:

In the remarks he has written the type of flight, or in red, operations.

WOW, that's greatly appreciated!

I may be coming across as a bit thick, what's the difference between 'type of flight' and 'operations'?


Cheers

[richw_82]

Operations means missions; whereas type of flight covers everything. It could be a cross country training, low level bombing, fighter affiliation, even an air test.

That's why different coloured inks are used to mark out training activities from combat.

[Roger Dodger]

Cheers,

I'll have a look at the link you posted.

[Simpo Two]

The one ending 'Missing' is a bit ominous and the writing seems different. Was your grandfather killed on ops?

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

richw_82 said:

I can't make out the heading of the next column, but as your Grandfather has entered "F/Eng" I'm guessing that was his position on each flight.

It's 'DUTY'.


It's quite clearly a Crew Logbook. The front cover will say: Flying Logbook for Navigators, Air Bombers, Air Gunners, Flight Engineers.

It differs significantly from a Pilot's Logbook. Crew logs tend to record the Crew Position (eg Flight Eng) under DUTY and the type of flight under REMARKS.

richw_82 said:

In the remarks he has written the type of flight, or in red, operations. LLB is low level bombing, just as HLB is high level bombing. Air firing and evasive action are gunnery exercises, done in co-operation with a fighter, in order to hone the reflexes of the crew and the drills that would keep them alive - things like the often mentioned "Corkscrew" used as a defensive action from attacking fighters.

Air firing would not be done 'in co-operation with a fighter' but with a Tug a/c towing a drogue (ie an airborne target a wee bit like a kite or a windsock).

I'm intrigued that he has filled in Training Sorties in blue/black and Operational Sorties in red. That may have been Sqn thing but was/is certainly not an RAF Directive. Indeed the directive was/is that monthly summaries are done in red (as can be seen in the photo where you see the block: SUMMARY, UNIT, DATE, SIGNATURE). Furthermore, Ops would be underlined in red with 'one off' Ops written in green.

A very interesting set of photo's, many thanks for posting them.

Edited by Ginetta G15 Girl on Saturday 12th November 23:20

[Roger Dodger]

He has a big pile of docs, both RAF and private pilot documents.

He is still alive, details of what happened are summarised below:

Shot down
Bailed out
Landed in farmers field
Shot by farmer
Ended up in camp
Jabbed with a bayonet a few times (a story involving Red Cross aid parcels)
Marched around a bit towards the end of the war
Did a runner
Made his way back to friendly forces (does not say how)

[Simpo Two]

Good stuff. Try to winkle out as much as you possibly can from him and write it down - use a recorder if it's easier - because when he goes all those memories/events will be lost forever.

[richw_82]

Ginetta G15 Girl said:

Air firing would not be done 'in co-operation with a fighter' but with a Tug a/c towing a drogue (ie an airborne target a wee bit like a kite or a windsock).

True, he probably would have listed it as fighter affiliation or something similar had it been an exercise with a fighter.

What can I say; its been a long day, I'm tired, and another one of Avro's finest has been giving me a headache.

May I be excused?

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

richw_82 said:

May I be excused?

Absolutely.

O/T how is the Shacklebomber coming along? one of these days I must get across to Coventry for a wee 'look see'.

[richw_82]

She's not doing too badly. We're still waiting for the prop to get built, it turns out there's not many people skilled in putting together sets of De Havilland's contra rotating beasts.

The lastest issue is a problem with the slow running cut off on No 3 engine, in that it doesn't want to! We'll fix it though.

Let me know when you want to come look, I'll make sure theres someone about.

Kind regards,

Rich

[Crafty_]

Thanks for posting these, really interesting.

If he is willing I think you should get him to talk about his service on tape/video. Very soon his experiences will slip out of living memory and I think they should be recorded to future generations.

With regards to the log entries, what does "N.F.T" stand for ? he appears to of put a negative value in the flight hours?

[Simpo Two]

Something (night?) flying test and only minutes?

[Roger Dodger]

Morning all,

In relation to writing it all down, he has been approached by the BBC to put some of it together for a programme. Mainly for the reason that he is one of a couple of members of BC left in the region. However, this was put on hiatus due to ill health.

In relation to NFT - don't have a clue!

[Ginetta G15 Girl]

NFT - Night Flying Test.

You notice that they range from 30 to 54 minutes (written by convention as .30 or .45 etc).