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Long shot
- Thread starter rich
- Start date
Andrew
Well-Known Member
Nice shot Rich. I can't specifically answer your question but it immediately brought this to mind;
http://cas.awm.gov.au/art/ART26275
http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/raaf/coastal.html
There appears to be a mixture of midnight blue and RAF blue uniforms in your pic. Maybe 461Sq publicity shot at Pembroke Dock?
It may be a start.
http://cas.awm.gov.au/art/ART26275
http://www.ww2australia.gov.au/raaf/coastal.html
There appears to be a mixture of midnight blue and RAF blue uniforms in your pic. Maybe 461Sq publicity shot at Pembroke Dock?
It may be a start.
jack aranda
Member
Shouldn't be too hard to track: it's a sunny day in England. How many of those have there been in the past sixty years? 
ghq1
Member
Getty Images has a clearer version:
Corbis has the reverse:
with this notation:
Short Sunderland Crew
The flight crew of a Short Sunderland Mk.I walks up a boat ramp after landing their aircraft (in the background).
IMAGE:
© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
DATE PHOTOGRAPHED
ca. 1942
LOCATION
England, UK
Same plane/sqdn? "RB" No. 10 Sqdn
Same launch?
Corbis has the reverse:
with this notation:
Short Sunderland Crew
The flight crew of a Short Sunderland Mk.I walks up a boat ramp after landing their aircraft (in the background).
IMAGE:
© Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
DATE PHOTOGRAPHED
ca. 1942
LOCATION
England, UK
Same plane/sqdn? "RB" No. 10 Sqdn
Same launch?
Andrew - thanks for the links, they led to some interesting stuff. I know virtually nothing about coastal command, time to change that I think. Don't even know of any memoirs.
Jack - somewhere I have a photo of a sunny day in England. When it gets light enough (sometime in April) I'll find it and post it for you.
ghq1 - I'm amazed by your detective work, thank you very much. I see from Corbis that I can buy a digital file of this photo, 26 inches across - but I need to register before they tell me how much. This info is very much appreciated, thanks again.
Deeb - where were you man .......................
Jack - somewhere I have a photo of a sunny day in England. When it gets light enough (sometime in April) I'll find it and post it for you.
ghq1 - I'm amazed by your detective work, thank you very much. I see from Corbis that I can buy a digital file of this photo, 26 inches across - but I need to register before they tell me how much. This info is very much appreciated, thanks again.
Deeb - where were you man .......................
MikeyB-17
Well-Known Member
I'm pretty sure it's RAF Mountbatten, Plymouth. I thought I recognised the gasometers in the background-they're still there. RB was 10 Squadron RAAF's squadron code, they flew Sunderlands out of there from 1 April 1940 to 5 November 1945, the only RAAF squadron to see continuous active service for the full duration of the War. I believe that ramp they're walking up is still there too.
Andrew
Well-Known Member
Excellent detective work, and great local knowledge. Mikey, there's a mission for you to visit that ramp.
Some other 10Sqn pics. A few years ago I was invited to a lunch with a fromer 461Sqn Sunderland Skipper who's crew sank a U Boat. Last I heard he was sadly not in a good way. Love the Sunderland.
461Sqn pilot at Pembroke. This bloke's from my City and wearing the CC Irvin.
I just bought a copy of this CD. If it has your pic Rich i'll send it to you.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT
Some other 10Sqn pics. A few years ago I was invited to a lunch with a fromer 461Sqn Sunderland Skipper who's crew sank a U Boat. Last I heard he was sadly not in a good way. Love the Sunderland.
461Sqn pilot at Pembroke. This bloke's from my City and wearing the CC Irvin.
I just bought a copy of this CD. If it has your pic Rich i'll send it to you.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... K:MEWNX:IT
MikeyB-17
Well-Known Member
Andrew said:
I'll see what I can do-Plymouth's about an hour away from me, and we go there quite often-the gasometers in the pic are at Cattedown, right next to a cinema complex we often take my daughter to. There's bound to be a Xmas shopping expedition in the offing soon-I'll see if I can make a bit of a detour.
If I'd moved the camera a few degrees to the left in this pic, taken from Plymouth Hoe, you'd be able to see Mountbatten.
Thanks Andrew. Looking at the samples I think that disc is well worth owning, I'll see if I can get a copy.
Fantastic aircraft the Sunderland - there's some nice flying sequences in this propaganda piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFH2OZD-TcU
Fantastic aircraft the Sunderland - there's some nice flying sequences in this propaganda piece.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFH2OZD-TcU
MikeyB-17
Well-Known Member
Well boys, as predicted we made a shopping trip to Plymouth today (in fact the shopping was eventually abandoned in favour of a trip to the cinema previously mentioned), so I took the ooportunity to visit Mountbatten. It was a blustery but sunny day (the yellow welly brigade were out in force!) and I'm glad I made the effort, as I really enjoyed myself. Mountbatten is a bit off the beaten track, entailing a fair detour around Plymouth to reach, but it was worth the trip.
When I first arrived, I had serious doubts that the picture was taken there-I had a copy with me, and despite looking from various angles I couldn't see anything that matched the photograph-until I realised that the copy I had showed the squadron code on the Sunderland back to front-the neg was reversed! Then it all became clear, and further investigation of the aerial shots has confirmed that I was in the right place. There's been quite a lot of change and land reclamation since the War, and a lot of what's in the pic has gone, including the big gasometer in the background. I was wrong about that one-the one I thought it was is actually further inland, out of sight. Anyway here are some pics from the present day:-
Your humble servant on the famous ramp, about to be run over by returning yachties.
In comparison.
The same site from further east, ramp at left, eastern Plymouth in the background.
Memorial to those who served at Mountbatten in the shape of a Sunderland propeller, Mountbatten Fort in the background.
Memorials on the wall of the fort to the Ausralian squadrons who served there-No.10 squadron insignia bottom left.
View back along the breakwater towards the fort-former seaplane base behind it (now a watersports centre)
View from the end of the breakwater to Plymouth Hoe-basically looking towards where the pic in my earlier post was taken-note War memorials-Donald 'Pathfinder' Bennett's ashes are interred beneath the RAF memorial, the shortest one, on the right.
When I first arrived, I had serious doubts that the picture was taken there-I had a copy with me, and despite looking from various angles I couldn't see anything that matched the photograph-until I realised that the copy I had showed the squadron code on the Sunderland back to front-the neg was reversed! Then it all became clear, and further investigation of the aerial shots has confirmed that I was in the right place. There's been quite a lot of change and land reclamation since the War, and a lot of what's in the pic has gone, including the big gasometer in the background. I was wrong about that one-the one I thought it was is actually further inland, out of sight. Anyway here are some pics from the present day:-
Your humble servant on the famous ramp, about to be run over by returning yachties.
In comparison.
The same site from further east, ramp at left, eastern Plymouth in the background.
Memorial to those who served at Mountbatten in the shape of a Sunderland propeller, Mountbatten Fort in the background.
Memorials on the wall of the fort to the Ausralian squadrons who served there-No.10 squadron insignia bottom left.
View back along the breakwater towards the fort-former seaplane base behind it (now a watersports centre)
View from the end of the breakwater to Plymouth Hoe-basically looking towards where the pic in my earlier post was taken-note War memorials-Donald 'Pathfinder' Bennett's ashes are interred beneath the RAF memorial, the shortest one, on the right.
Andrew
Well-Known Member
Thanks for doing this Mikey, I love comparisons like these as it makes it so much easier to imagine the scene in the old pics. Fantastic that the old ramp is still there and it's being used. So often these things are dug up and destroyed (like the old AAF runways in Brisbane).
I don't know anyone who flew from here but i'll ask around this week, it would be nice to pass on your great shots.
Hey, what's that behind you?
I don't know anyone who flew from here but i'll ask around this week, it would be nice to pass on your great shots.
Hey, what's that behind you?
jack aranda
Member
Thanks, Mikey. That's is a cool photo essay. Looks like you had a pleasant time putting it together.
MikeyB-17
Well-Known Member
Andrew said:Hey, what's that behind you?
Yeah, somebody left an old plane lying around, the yachties kept bumping into it.
That was neatly done, had to look twice there!
I've been looking at Google Earth, etc.-I reckon the gasometer is still there-it's just empty and retracted now, so out of sight. Ignore my previous comments!
Peter Graham
Well-Known Member
Good stuff Mikey. I love "then and now" comparisons. Coastal Command has always held a special interest for me, probably because of the connection with Northern Ireland. Many Coastal Command squadrons were based here. I love to visit the old stations on Lough Erne in County Fermanagh. Very atmospheric places, especially when you know that some of the flying boats are still there in the lough, hidden forever. This might be of interest. It's painted on a wall in one of the old workshops at RAF Limavady, a Coastal Command station just a few miles from my home. It reads "Coastal Command Gremlin MK 111".
