AndyL

In simple terms: N3328 was DZ-Z with shark mouth. N3387 was DZ-E and no shark mouth.

N3328 DZ-Z was flown by 'Joe' Bodien and several other pilots too. Several other 151 Squadron Defiants had nose art; one carried a large skull on the starboard side. One was 'Dopey' and like one from 255 Squadron there was a Defiant with a flying pig and another with a flying toilet, the latter because 25 Squadron who shared Wittering called them 'Flying Brick Sh*thouses'. Bodien's last kill with 151 on Defiants was in DZ-E N3387. The others were on 4/5 Feb and 9/10 April, serials were N3387 and N3328 respectively. Another successful 151 Squadron pilot that attained kills on N3328 was Pilot Officer Guy Edmiston - I have a copy of his log book and Joe Bodien's letters. HTH Andy

At last! This has been lying nearly finished for seven years, and I wanted it done and out the way so I can get on with my Defiants. I've recently moved the bench into my office and it gives a much better set up for model making. So it's the Airfix 1/48 Mustang finished using a set of decals from Aeromaster, the Blue Diamond Mustangs Pt 4, 49-774. It's a proper 4 footer but I'm happy with it to a certain extent. And now a couple of photos... that'll do!

Sydney Carlin was an extraordinary man, holding the DFC, and the MC and DCM. He was one of two ex RFC members that flew as air gunners on Defiants with 264 Squadron (the other was Mervyn Maggs). Sydney was also one of 151 Squadron's Gunnery Leaders. However the circumstances of his death have been varied - some have him running to his Defiant to get to the turret and being killed, one has him getting on a bike to get to the Defiant, and another has him actually being killed in his turret. Not to take anything away from the man but the circumstances were different. This is from a letter written after the event by Henry 'Joe' Bodien: “The night before last they bombed the drome a bit and last night I was just going out to take off with Gunner Flying Officer Carlin – he was a last war pilot and a brave old chap with an artificial leg. There were vapour trails all over the sky so we knew we would have a fight. Unfortunately, as we were walking up the hill a Hun dive bombed us and as he started screaming down. I went flat with my parachute over my head. The first bomb went 20 yards behind us, the next 5 yards in front, the one blew Carlin’s arm and side off and smashed the back of his head. He was slow in getting down – and all the sh*t and derision went over my head and just covered me with earth. The next bomb went right beside the kite we were going to take and put it on fire together with another kite a bit away. The other three went harmlessly across the drome. They were only small bombs thank Christ or maybe I wouldn’t be writing this to you now” As to a Defiant, he mainly flew with Squadron Leader Adams in Defiant N3482 coded DZ-A. Hope this helps.

Ref the post to Churchill AVRE's - here's one in Normandy without track guards.

I like it. It looks rather good in that scheme to be honest. And as it's a Defiant, it's a plus for me

This may be of interest - I have a copy of the log book to Francis Soper DFM who was with No 1 Squadron during the Battle of France, and from June 1940 was an instructor at 6 OTU. Here are some of the Hurricanes he flew: L1897, N2346, P3671, N2469, N2467, N2354, L2091, P3035, L1555, P3528, P2560, P2357, L7020, L1741, L2064, N2365, 327, 319, 310, N2468, L1713, and P5189.

That's one very nice Defiant.

Totally agree with the fin flash being inaccurate, but when you see images of 307 Squadron Defiants, there is much variation that certainly did not follow the 'rules' when it came to applying standard squadron codes.

Nice little image of a 66 Squadron Spitfire getting rearmed at Gravesend. Note the cordite staining.

Here's one of the profiles by Darren Prior that will go in the book. Naturally, I'm keeping the unknown ones under wraps

It is likely that it simply reached the end of it's service life. At times Defiants weren't that reliable and if it was deemed as being uneconomical to maintain then it was written off. Quite a few went this way.

I can confirm this Defiant was built to the original specification and was one of many that were used by Operational Training Units for the air gunnery syllabus.

I think Pen and Sword have really upped their game when it comes to book covers, the draft version of the entire jacket looks even better.

The publishers are Pen and Sword/Frontline. Hopefully out this time next year.

Oh yes, I'm in touch with several families of 515 Squadron aircrew who have provided me with photos and log books. And here's the map showing the Freya radar stations and their frequencies for interest.

It's a colourised wartime image of a 256 Squadron Defiant. The topmost image is a 141 Squadron Defiant at Gravesend and they crew in front of it were actually killed in it when they crashed near the aerodrome. At the end of October, I'm meeting up with the families of both men and we're making a trip to their crash site. So, plenty going on!

Shameless self promotion time - here's the draft cover to my book on the Defiant which should be out sometime next year. It includes an illustrated roll of honour to those lost on the type, and colour profiles by Darren Prior who does the profiles for Wing Leader, and the photo count will be about 500. I'm more than happy to answer any questions if anyone has any.

Did somebody say beer?

Utterly superb. What else can I say?

Utterly wonderful work. It's been an absolute pleasure to watch this build progress.

Court of Inquiry

Form 756

It's Form 551, and called 'Officer or Airman - Report on Accidental or Self Inflicted Injuries or Immediate Death Therefrom'. There were also similar forms called 765 A, B and C. It was called a 'Report on Flying Accident or Forced Landing Not Attributable to Enemy Action'.

The pilot - Pilot Officer Garnet McIntosh from Brandon, Manitoba. Interestingly, the radar operator, Flight Sergeant Albert Griffin was apparently billeted at New Avondale Cottage, Stipes Hill. Maybe a little jaunt that went tragically wrong.