On This Date.

[Robin]

The 18th of October is rather a momentous date in my life.  On this day in 1960 I reported to RAF Cardington to begin my 2 Year National Service Conscription in the Royal Air Force.  As there was no getting out of it, I made the best of the 2 years.  I was one of the last few to be called up, as conscription officially ended on 31 December 1960.  The majority of those conscripted were going into the Army, but as I had served in the Royal Observer Corps for 5 years I was made an exception.  After I had completed my 'square bashing', and trade training, I was not posted to some far off exotic place, but to RAF Hendon in North London.

Again on this date, but quite a few years later, in 2003, I was at JFK Airport in New York getting ready to board    

[Robin]

8 minutes ago, Robin said:

The 18th of October is rather a momentous date in my life.  On this day in 1960 I reported to RAF Cardington to begin my 2 Year National Service Conscription in the Royal Air Force.  As there was no getting out of it, I decided to make the best of the 2 years.  I was one of the last few to be called up, as conscription officially ended on 31 December 1960.  The majority of those being conscripted were going into the Army, but as I had already served in the Royal Observer Corps for 5 years I was given an exception.  Unfortunately, after I had completed my 'square bashing', and trade training, I was not posted to some far off exotic place, but to RAF Hendon in North London.  

Again on this date, but quite a few years later, in 2003, I was at JFK Airport in New York getting ready to board Concorde for one of its last flights across The Pond.  This all came about after I had been watching a programme on TV with my daughter about the withdrawal of the aircraft from service and I remarked that I had always wanted to fly on Concorde but would not now get the chance.  However, the next morning I had a phone call from my daughter to say that she had managed to book me one of the last seats on the aircraft for a flight from New York to London, all I had to do was pay for it.  And so, a few days later, after a couple of days sightseeing after a rather rough flight a few days earlier, on a BA 747 out to New York I arrived at the airport nice and early for a  Champagne Breakfast in the Concorde Lounge and then joined the other passengers onboard G-BOAC, Flight BA002 for the flight of a lifetime when we reached a height of 60.000ft at and a speed of 1.425mph in 3hr 16mins. 

 

[Robin]

19 minutes ago, Robin said:

 

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday All, it was on this day 80 years ago (19th November 1941) that the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney encountered the German raider Kormoran off Carnarvon, Western Australia. In the battle that followed Sydney was extensively damaged, and ultimately sank with no survivors. But she got in some telling blows that resulted in Kormoran sinking too. AFAIK it was Australia's worst naval disaster with the loss of life.
     Regards, Jeff.

[RAF4EVER]

26 minutes ago, ArnoldAmbrose said:

Gidday All, it was on this day 80 years ago (19th November 1941) that the Australian light cruiser HMAS Sydney encountered the German raider Kormoran off Carnarvon, Western Australia. In the battle that followed Sydney was extensively damaged, and ultimately sank with no survivors. But she got in some telling blows that resulted in Kormoran sinking too. AFAIK it was Australia's worst naval disaster with the loss of life.
     Regards, Jeff.

HMAS Sydney: DNA reveals identity of Australia's famous 'unknown sailor'

 

Australia says it has identified the body of the only sailor recovered from a ship sunk during World War Two.

Thomas Welsby Clark, 20, joined the HMAS Sydney just four months before it was ambushed by a German raider in the Indian Ocean in 1941.

All 645 men on board the ship died - one of Australia's best-known wartime disasters.

Three months after the sinking, a body washed up in a life raft on Australia's Christmas Island.

Dressed in navy overalls that had been bleached white from the sun, he became known as the "unknown sailor".

He was buried first on the island, a territory 1,500km (930 miles) off Western Australia. Decades later, he was reburied on the mainland with military rites.

No other bodies were ever recovered, even after the ship's wreckage was discovered in 2008.

On Friday, after years of DNA testing, Australia revealed the unknown sailor as Mr Clark.

 

Historians said the able seaman had come from a wealthy grazing family and trained as an accountant. Both of his brothers had also served in the war.

Remembering Australia's 'Pearl Harbor'

World War One's forgotten Anzacs

Tests from his teeth matched the genetic material of his surviving descendants. His family was informed of the news last week, officials said.

"It's a testament to modern science and technology that we have been able to identify Tom, after all these decades," Veteran Affairs Minister Andrew McGee said.

"Even after 80 years, we are still working so hard to identify and honour our servicemen and women."

The Australian War Memorial in Canberra said it would dedicate its daily Last Post ceremony to Mr Clark on Friday. Some of his relatives would lay a wreath at a shrine, it said.

His grave in Geraldton, Western Australia, will also get a new headstone. Currently the inscription reads: "A Serviceman of the 1939-1945 War HMAS Sydney."

 

[ArnoldAmbrose]

Gidday @RAF4EVER thanks for that. I'd heard that the sailor had been identified but I didn't know who. He must have suffered a lonely passing.

Below is a model of a sistership I made quite a few years ago, HMAS Perth. It is one of my earlier conversions and was made from an Airfix 1/600 HMS Ajax kit. HMAS Perth was sunk just after midnight on 1st March 1942, a little over three months after the sinking of HMAS Sydney. The photo's a little blurred, I was still learning how to use the camera.

 

Regards, Jeff.

[Paul H]

On this day, in 1914...

 

Three pilots in the RNAS, Squadron Commander Edward Briggs, Flight Commander John Babington and Flight Lieutenant Sydney Sippe flew modified Avro 504s from Belfort in France, to bomb the Zeppelin sheds at Friedrichshafen.  Only two returned, as Briggs was shot down , however he later escaped captivity in 1917 by jumping from a train along with a captured army officer when they were being transfered between prisoner of war camps and making his way to the Dutch border.

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205215721

 

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205318574

 

(incidentally, the tail number listings are mixed up - E. F. Briggs was flying 874, not 873)