**** DONE 1/48 DAP Beaufighter 21 A8-159 E-SK "Ginger Meggs" Heavy Hitters GB (1 Viewer)

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" Eight hundred rounds and he still bl**dy missed the butts!"
"Bl**dy noisy, but a great way to go clay pigeon shooting!"
"Well, that dingo won't be scrounging around the cookhouse again!"
 
Thanks Vic, CR, Dan, Harrison, Alex and Terry with some great captions! I'm into the sanding and filling stage, which will take a couple of days to get sorted out, without too much to see for it.

Here's a couple of photos showing how tough the beaufighter was. A8-129 SK-X stalled at low altitude on approach to land at Labuan. The pilot received cuts and a broken rib, the Nav received multiple abrasions, but they got out okay. This all happened the day after peace was declared. 16/8/1945. Lucky.

Source of photos is Aviation Heritage Museum of WA, Parnell, Australian War Memorial.

Cheers

Peter
 

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Hi Guys

Today I spend an afternoon with Stan, the pilot of A8-159, and his wife Nancy, of whom the aircraft was named after. Stan still remembers quite a bit and is still in good Health. In addition, he was happy to share a few photos he had, and I will post these over the next few days. To start with, he had a good photo of the tail art of A8-159. He told me that the cartoon of Ginger Meggs was inspired by Nancy's younger brother Bill, a red head that Stan had taken to calling "Ginger Meggs" while dating Nancy. He related a few stories of how Ginger (Bill) would interfere in their dates, trying to protect his older sister!

Ginger Meggs cartoons were and still are a popular comic strip cartoon that originated in Australia before the war and is still being produced. Stan said that his aircraft was the first to get tail art and this was due to seeing US aircraft with this sort of adornment. He recollects that once others in the squadron saw "Ginger Meggs", the rest followed with their own. The tail art was painted by one of the ground crew, but unfortunately, he cannot remember his name. He asked for the painter to paint Ginger Meggs on the tail, and a little afterwards the painter suggested that it should also have a rocket underneath, so that was done. It was also suggested that the rocket should be shown with a little smoke for effect, and you can see this emanating from the front, so this was done. It kind of looks like a hand, and the decal has this coloured green, but maybe this was not the case. Probably white and gray. The style was all down to the painter, and Stan doesn't know why the smoke is coming from the front and not the back!

Stan also said that A8-159 was the best aircraft in the squadron, and was renowned for being the fastest of the bunch.

Unfortunately Stan no longer has his log book which was lost moving house over 50 years ago, so it is not possible to confirm some of the information with dates and times.

Stan flew one operational mission on the 14th August 1945 against targets in Borneo. They flew low - under 50 feet - just above the water on their trip into the target. So low that one aircraft bent the tips of it's propellers hitting the water (but kept going). Stan made his attack, but was hit in the wing by flack, creating a large hole. He nursed the aircraft all the way back to Labuan, shadowed all the while by a rescue Catalina. Flight duration was a "nerve-racking" 5 hours and 15 minutes.

From the operational record, A8-159 did not appear to be flown many times after that, presumably due to the repairs needed. Stan and David flew a leaflet dropping mission in another aircraft on the 3rd September 1945 in A8-102. Stan does not know exactly what happened to A8-159. It was repaired and reportedly was used to escort Mustang fighters to Japan as part of the occupational forces. Stan and David were ordered to return to Australia on October 17th along with two other Beaufighters as escort to 15 Spitfires. For the return they were assigned A8-123 SK-S "Paddy", which on completion of the flight was to be flown to RAAF Station Wagga and handed over to an aircraft depot located there. This flight was eventful from start to finish, as A8-123 was, as Stan puts it - "A b@st@rd of a plane". The undercarriage gave problems on one leg of the trip, and the flaps refused to deploy correctly on landing at Wagga, causing an overshoot and forcing Stan to ground loop the aircraft to avoid terrain and the boundary fence.

Stan was discharged from the Air Force in December 1945 and after a clerical role, became a quantity surveyor in an architect's office. He retired in 1980. Stan and David remained good friends and kept in contact up to David's passing.

Cheers

Peter
 

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Great info Peter, and a fantastic experience to talkto Stan, I bet! The 'Ginger Meggs' cartoon character is a bit like 'Oor Wullie' (Scots for 'Our Willie'), a ginger haired Scots character form 'The Broons' cartoon strip, which was also used as nose art etc on aircraft, noteably a Lancaster, and is still around in the newspapers today.
 
Thanks Andy, Terry, Alex, Dan and Wayne. Stan is a true gent. He had lots of good stories. At the time of converting to Beaufighters, he had close to 1000hrs up. He was attached to No.7 Communications Squadron before joining the No 23 Beaufighter Pilot Training Course at No5 OTU. Most of the pilots in this course went on to join 93 Squadron. It was with 93 Squadron that he met David Fyshe, who was 19 at the time and straight from "Navigators School". Stan said he recognised David's talents, when on their first flight together - a navigation exercise flying a zig-zag pattern out to sea and return - David put them spot on with their finish point, the Evans Head lighthouse. That was that.

Amongst Stans photo's were copies of two that I posted earlier, but they were obviously taken from the original negatives and much better quality. Since they are better quality, I'll do a "repost". Hope you don't mind. In the first I can actually read the markings on the rockets in the HD scan I did - this is going to come in as a handy reference while I learn some more about 3in rockets and markings. I presume they were imported from Britain, so they would be marked the same as something used by a Typhoon for example?

In the second photo, you can see a line of paint stripped from a panel seam below the autopilot bulge, and a rather "glossy" appearance to the wheel bay doors, which would indicate to me that there was a bit of oil leaking from the front cooler gills under the nacelles. I'll see if I can replicate this.

Which reminds me, I should get back to generating some progress! Catch up with you soon.

Cheers

Peter
 

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Nice shots Peter. yes, the RP's would have been imported i would think. the overall colour would normally be Dark green, with the warhead perhaps having a touch of an olive shade to it. Far as I know, the ones shown, which are HE, had red bands around the warhead. If you can read the lettering, I wouldn't mind knowing what it states - I think it's something like 60 lb HE RDX, then probably serial or batch numbers.
 
Well not that Terry. Here's a blow up of the photo, along with a copy of an ordinance diagram, found in a book I have on Mustangs. Looks similar. You can see MR A at the top, and the operating temperatures -5 to 135 in the red circle. Serial number below the red circle.
 

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