Defiant pictures

[johnny]

I am looking for decent pictures of a Boulton Paul Defiant MK1.Am busy doing research on 264 Sqn and cannot find any decent pics of it.

 

[MichaelHenley]

How's this?

 

[johnny]

Bloody marvelous!!!

 

[evangilder]

Here is one that I have. I found this on the web somewhere. I have a few more as well.

 

[evangilder]

Here is one in color

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

that's a pretty good pic..............

 

[johnny]

These r great and they all have my PS (612 sqn ) letters as well.

 

[evangilder]

Glad I could help. I have a few more, but that is the best of the lot.

 

[johnny]

Maybe you could tell me what the Madras Presidency is for in the squadron.I see the RAf refer to it as 264 Madras Presidency Squadron , but nobody at our War Museum or at Raf website can tell me .

 

[evangilder]

Funny you should ask! Basically it boils down to "gifts" or donations made to the RAF by various colonies. They were looking to supplement the money from taxes to help buildmore aircraft. The more money you donated, the bigger the named item. For example, for a 5,000 pound donation (Sorry, I have an american keyboard, no pound sign!) you could "sponsor" a fighter, for 20,000, a bomber. As the gifts became larger, squadrons and groups were named in honor of the donor.

India was a big supporter of the RAF and provided a lot of funds. The Madras Presidency gave enough to actually have THREE squadrons named as "gift squadrons", squadrons 79, 234 and 264.

An interesting writeup on Indian gift squadrons can be found here:
http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/History/1940s/Presentation.html

 

[johnny]

Well I never knew that.Thanx for clearing that mystery up for me.

 

[evangilder]

No problem. I have the benefit of volunteering at a WWII aviation museum, so I have a wealth of resource material available. You wouldn't happen to know if there are any Defiants that still fly, do you?

 

[johnny]

As far as I know there are none.I believe the colour photo you sent is the only example left.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

there are none flying in the UK atleast..........

 

[johnny]

I found some more good pics of Defiants.Pity they r black white r good though.

 

[MichaelHenley]

Not bad those last two photos are, hmm? (Yoda just hijacked the keyboard off me)

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

bottom one's good.................

 

[cheddar cheese]

i prefer the top one 8)

Oh no, the bottom one is COPYRIGHT! this we cannot have if Erich were to see that you'd be in big trouble johnny 8)

 

[GermansRGeniuses]

Erich left a while back, something about recklessness.

Shame, while he was annoying occasionally, he had GREAT information and links...

 

[lesofprimus]

I agree...