New bod intro!

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Hello all,
A quick few words of introduction. My name is Max, I'm named after my father's best friend who was killed on 3 March 1945 whilst flying Lancaster ME453 attacking the Dortmund-Ems canal, he was with 467 squadron RAAF based at Waddington Lincolnshire. Since 2005 I've been researching the circumstances of that night from many viewpoints - the crews of 467 and 463 squadrons sharing the airfield, 5 Group (involved directly in the attack), 100 Group providing the ECM screens and also of the Nachtjagd forces opposing the bomber stream. My research is summarised in my current website (www.ordinarycrew.co.uk) though I'm designing a new one right now to better represent the material that I have collected. I also build model aircraft; presently I'm restricting myself to those flown by any of the crew members during their training, again including the Luftwaffe side. Currently on the workbench is a De Havilland DH 89A Dominie used during radio operator training at Yatesbury though next in line is a Bf110E flown by Heinz Schnaufer in his early Nachtjagd days.
 
Thank you for your welcome chaps, I almost feel at home already! I've added a three "snips" from the new design site below:







and a couple of my models of a Bf110G-4 flown by Heinz Schnaufer on the fateful night (before the radar aerials were added!):





Regards
Max
 
For your interest here is a pic I took at the Australian War Memorial of Schaufer's tail fin.

Thanks Wildcat. My research bought me to your fair country 2 years ago when I had the pleasure of meeting an elderly lady who is the only surviving family member who knew the pilot of "my Lanc" when he was a lad. Though staying in Brisbane, I drove down to Canberra with a fellow 467 squadron researcher whose uncle, the squadron CO, was shot down and killed on the same night, also by Schnaufer 5 minutes after ME453.

In Canberra I attended a Bomber Command commemoration ceremony: an evening in the AWM in the shadow of Lancaster G-George with many veterans, followed the morning after by a service and lunch. Now, that tailfin at the AWM - AND the one in the Imperial War Museum in London did come from a Bf110G-4 flown by Schnaufer but it was not from his favourite aircraft G9+EF inwhich he scored 30+ victories. It is from one that he flew in the last month of the war and at a period when he scored no victories - so in a sense it's a "replica". One tailfin from his cherished "EF" was found post-war being used as a shed roof (!), and was subsequently sold to an unknown private collector for a very large amount of money.
Regards
Max
 

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