Recent content by Geoffrey Sinclair

8th AF Heavy Bomber losses on combat sorties by cause by month, percentage lost to fighter, flak, 5,690 losses total, known to be missing some B-24 write offs at least and includes some Mediterranean operations losses, the USAAF Statistical Digest has 5,548 losses, the 8th Air Force Report has...

British production, 47 Merlin 60 in 1941, 28 Merlin 60, 673 Merlin 61, 95 Merlin 62, 40 Merlin 63, 3 Merlin 73, total 839 in 1942, 4,209 Merlin 61 to 73 in 1943. P-38 1 XP-38A, 95 P-38E, 130 P-322, 527 P-38F, 509 P-38G, 3 P-38J, total 1,265, along with 98 F-4, 20 F-4A, 96 F-5A, in 1942.

The P-38 was almost everything the USAAF units fighting the Japanese wanted, it had a real speed and altitude advantage over its opponents for much of the war, twin engine safety, the ability to carry a large amount of external fuel giving it a large combat radius, it could enter combat with...

Nice find If it is about the Mosquito, Series A705, readable on line, control symbol 9/52/78 PART 2, DTS [Directorate Technical Services] - Mosquito aircraft De Havilland [Australia] instruction leaflets control symbol 9/52/35, DTS [Directorate Technical Services] - Mosquito - dual control...

Just like the combat types the trainers were modified/upgraded during the production runs. The following is from the Ministry of Aircraft Production Price Books which cover aircraft bought by Britain and Empire countries. Apart from the omission of contract B.66827/40 from Airspeed...

Published figures for night fighter losses, claims and allied losses have been around for decades, for example Adders The German Night Fighter Force. Sorties are another matter. E.R. Hooton in Eagle in Flames has night fighter sorties for the year of 1944 taken from Luftwaffe activity Volume I...

Kesselring summarises the situation quite well, but overstates things at times Expecting a jump to designs weighing something like twice as much empty as the loaded weights of the latest types, like the Do17 and He111, would require much to go right. Remembering in the late 1930's the Wellington...

To end 1943 the 8th AF reports 29,523 bomber sorties, removing spares and abandoned operations cuts that to 27,984 sorties, of which 23,077 were credit and 19,049 effective, with 892 B-17 and 109 B-24 missing in action, 137 B-17 and 22 B-24 written off. The table uses the Richard Davis...

The key is the 1943 P-47D had 305 gallons of internal fuel, deduct combat and reserves amounts as given in previous messages then decide at what height and speed the P-47 will return and in what size formations, that determines the distance it can safely escort. Also the escort radius figures...

There were only 44 AT-10 built by end May 1942. 41-1711 to 1732 and 1734 to 1755, most initially delivered to Higley. Their cards do not mention Kelly. The first AT-10 recorded as initially delivered to Kelly was 41-9248 in August 1942. The block 42-1711 to 1860 were mostly delivered to...

Safety Equipment Workers School? 27 Squadron was turned into a flying training school October 1939 to October 1940, became operational again in February 1941, squadron records are missing June 1940 to January 1941, in any case they usually omit enlisted personnel movements. Squadron moved to...

At the start of 1935 the RAAF had 2 Army Co-Operation squadrons, 1 Fleet Co-Operation flight (for the aircraft carried by RAN cruisers), 1 flying training school (with fighter flight), a seaplane training unit and 1 aircraft depot, total 6 units in 3 locations, personnel strength of 817 on 1...

Contract A-344, first Ventura, for 300 ordered 6 June 1940, first production September 1941, first arrivals in Britain April 1942. If it was the RAAF, its last Hudson orders were in mid 1941, they were being delivered as the Pacific war broke out. The orders for 7+11 Catalina were completed in...

If you are defending against bomber attack you are normally trying to keep fighter versus fighter engagements to a minimum, some are definitely necessary to worry the escorts but they up your casualties and it is unacceptable bomber losses that will end the campaign, a bomber is a much bigger...

29 September 1939, 11 Hampden in 2 formations, the second of 5 intercepted, all shot down. 3 December 1939, 24 Wellingtons attacked warships, intercepted, no losses 14 December 1939, 12 Wellingtons, found convoy, spend 30 minutes trying to set up bombing runs in poor weather, 5 lost to flak and...