Iain Wyllie Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 778 Sqdn. at Arbroath had both Swordfish and Chesapeakes in June '41. 786 Sqdn. at Crail in '41 also had both types in June '41. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Test Graham Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Yes, but they didn't have a Hornet Moth. 771 was at Hatston with a Hornet Moth and that's where the US types were based during Pedestal and Bowery. I suspect we could read the serials from one of the Skuas on the original print and confirm that way. As both types were around, it still doesn't settle whether that's a Skua or Chesapeake in the background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhaselden Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Oh, to be able to read the serial numbers on those Skuas! The front one appears to have a unit crest on the forward fuselage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Wyllie Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Yes, but they didn't have a Hornet Moth. 771 was at Hatston with a Hornet Moth and that's where the US types were based during Pedestal and Bowery. I suspect we could read the serials from one of the Skuas on the original print and confirm that way.As both types were around, it still doesn't settle whether that's a Skua or Chesapeake in the background. OK, 781 Sqdn. had Swordfish, Chesapeake and Hornet Moth contemporaneously at Lee-on-Solent. Regardless, I am still sure that the aircraft in question was a Chesapeake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted December 8, 2011 Author Share Posted December 8, 2011 The Hornet Moth could be visiting (With the photographer?) I think it's a Cheasapeake as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Test Graham Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 Ah, so they did. But I think the photo of the Swordfish taxying is at Hatston, although I'm not that familiar with Lee-on-Solent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GrzeM Posted December 8, 2011 Share Posted December 8, 2011 It's true that the dihedral break points to the Chesapeake. BTW - why "meteo" Swordfish has full set of bombracks under the wings? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted December 9, 2011 Share Posted December 9, 2011 Having just sat down and realized that "Vindicator in Action" was next to me (just got it the other day) I recant my earlier idea, and agree with the apparent majority. I know, you're all terribly relieved! bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaudioN Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 Looking at the Skuas, this is not a front-line unit - at least one of them has target-tug stripes. With Skuas and Swordfish (and Chesapeakes), this is 771 Sq before its move to Twatt in July 1942. They still had a handful of Henleys - now find a photo of one of them! Graham, did you ask for a Henley? You can see the tail of one on the left edge of this picture: Hatston, March 1942, 819 Squadron Well, I'm cheating a little... I'd say it's definitely a Henley, but I'm relying on another picture, which appears in "The Fleet Air Arm in Focus, Part One", by Cdr. D.A. Hobbs. It appears to be part of the same sequence and must have been taken some minutes earlier, as it shows Swordfish before they start up their engines. It allows to see the entire aircraft in the distance, a Henley parked close to a couple of Skuas. The full line-up of Swordfish, also seen in this picture, includes V4631:A parked before 'B'. I played a little bit with the search facility of the IWM web site and discovered that there are many more pictures still not visible. However, their captions are, and give the date of this photo sequence as March 1942. V4631 was an 819 Squadron machine (see Sturtivant), and "Squadrons of the Fleet Air Arm" says that unit was based at Hatston from 22 February to 25 March. Again, according to captions of other pictures in a (different) sequence it belongs to, the met Swordfish was photographed in May 1942. The US Navy aircraft were photographed in April 1942 and some of the captions state there were 9 F4F fighters, 9 TBD torpedo bombers and 29 SB2U scout bombers. I think, these were the aircraft of VF-71 (part of it?), VS-71, VS-72 and VT-7, plus the utility J2F, left ashore at Hatston while USS Wasp ferried Spitfires to Malta. Claudio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Wyllie Posted December 10, 2011 Share Posted December 10, 2011 The photo showing all of the Henley also appears in the very good little Squadron book "Fleet Air Arm" at the bottom of p. 42, in front of a Skua. The caption, however, refers to it wrongly as a Proctor. Incidentally, the photos in the Squadron book are very well reproduced when compared to the same photos in the very expensive Schiffer book by the same author, Ron Mackay. Comparing the two books shows that the majority of the photos in the Schiffer book are printed far to dark and lose a lot of detail as a result. This is something that appears to be a common failing in Schiffer books, a large number of photos in "Luftwaffe Camouflage, Markings and Units" being so dark that they appear almost as silhouettes and are totally useless as reference. Nicely produced and bound but let down badly by the printing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Fleming Posted December 10, 2011 Author Share Posted December 10, 2011 The Henley is also visible in Gregor Lamb's book Sky over Scapa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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