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World War Two / Re: Mystery picture found near site of Canadian plane crash in Wales...who is he?
« on: Wednesday 23 November 05 15:56 GMT (UK) »
Bill, you're not the only one to come to this conclusion with the lineup. In fact I had an email from Damien about 10 days ago with exactly the same lineup!
I do think that Allison is fourth from the left, there is a smillarity to his University photo. Also a newspaper cutting supplied by the University states that Allison was an "instructor in air bombing and aircraft recognition" He was the oldest at 28 and maybe was training at the time of the crash.
I did have some information kindly posted by Harry who supplied the following:
I do think that Allison is fourth from the left, there is a smillarity to his University photo. Also a newspaper cutting supplied by the University states that Allison was an "instructor in air bombing and aircraft recognition" He was the oldest at 28 and maybe was training at the time of the crash.
I did have some information kindly posted by Harry who supplied the following:
Quote
A note about the aircraft used by the training and conversion units.Quite often these aircraft would have seen front line service but because of their age and operational background they would be aircraft that had been overhauled or repaired from previous operational incidents.Their engines may have been repaired and overhauled a number of times.Consequently their performance may have been less than those aircraft in squadron service.However in this particular case the Wellington had been withdrawn from Bomber Command front line service for about a year and had been relegated to training although the RAF were still receiving them as per aircraft company individual contract.It is only by researching an individual aircraft by its RAF unique serial number would the history of an aircraft be revealed.
In this particular case,No 22 OTU lost three aircraft all with engine problems.Being a two engined aircraft,losing one on the Wellington imposed an extra burden on the pilot even if he was experienced.Being an OTU pilot,control of the aircraft would have represented a high work load for him and his navigator especially flying at night over mountainous country.
Overall,a tragic loss of nine RCAF airmen in training accidents which were prominent throughout the flying training courses in the Second World War.