WIX Archives
Re: Whirlwinds..getting exciting!!!!
Posted by MM on Wed Oct 10, 2001 11:37:37 AM
In reply top Re: Whirlwinds posted by Phil Earthey on Wed Oct 10, 2001 07:59:26 AM
Hmmm that certainly is a thought.
L6844 1st proto, to No4 School of Technical Training 25.4.42, where it became 3063M.
Where was No4 SOTT based?
L6845 2nd proto ,Returned to Westland 16.10.40 due to persistant unserviceability. Returned to 263 Sqn 30.8.41 and written off in flying accident 11.6.41.
263 Sqn were based at Filton in June 41.
Notice anything strange about those dates?
They are the dates as written in my Victor Bingham Whirlwind book, but one of them is wrong, and I think it is the latter..it has got to be 11.6.42 instead.
And 263 were based at Angle with a detachment at Portreath in June 42.
P7048. ex 137 Sqn. The famous G-AGOI used as a company hack and "dismantled" then Reduced To Produce in 1947.
Where was it RTP in 47.....Yeovil???
Might this be the "buried at Yeovil" example ???
P6966 1st production. Crashed near Stirling 7.8.40 after pilot baled out......well it would wouldn't it!!!???
I believe this is the Whirlwind that was "recovered" back in the 70's by a Scottish group, and both engines were found if I remember rightly....this one might at least yeald a data plate for an "Identity" rebuild.
Anyone know any more on this one?
The one below is most probably the best bet after looking through the individual fates.
P7064.
To 51 MU 2.7.41.
To 137 Sqn 18.11.41.
Fly-in repair to works 21.6.42.
Returned to 137 Sqn 24.6.42.
Damaged by flak and ditched between Le Touquet and Boulogne 31.10.42.
"Pilot van Schaik spent five hours in a dinghy after a successful ditching ,and picked up by 277 Sqn ASR Walrus which to van Schaik's horror landed and taxied through a German minefield to pick him up.....the author(Victor Bingham)was priviledged to witness this heroic rescue as well as the safe landing of a very grateful van Schaik at Hawkinge".
Now I can't work out if Victor was a pilot with 137 Sqn and was flying round while all this was going on...which seems a bit unlikely as it took five hours?!
....or....
....he was watching it all from Hawkinge which is two miles north of Folkestone....
....but can you look across the channel from there????
....or....
....he was a pilot with another Sqn maybe???
Where is Victor F. Bingham?
I cannot see the name of Flight Lieutenant van Schaik after the ditching, so his eventual fate is not known to me, but it would be nice to know he was still with us.
Cheers me Dears
Mick