No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

The National Archives have Operations Record Books for this detachment in AIR 27/729 but the ones I've found only go as far as 30 September.

Does anyone know if the Detachment's ORB for October 1942 exists and where it is?

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Nick

I have never found it either.

Regards

Russell

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Curses, foiled again!

Thanks Russell.

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Hi Nick,

I have some document copies relating to the Australians with 89 Squadron during this period – Gray, Crombie, Shipard and Ross. These were sourced from an Australian War Memorial file donated by author Lex McAuley (Against All Odds) and include notes from presumably the ORB, logbooks and other files – date range Jun 42 until Dec 42. Are there any specific details you are after from the October 42 period? Am happy to do a lookup for you.

Regards, Drew

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Thanks, Drew. I'm interested in two "special" Beaufighters, X7702 "K" and X7695 "S", which were modified to deal with German jamming of A.I. Mk. IV and VHF voice traffic. Also any reference to jamming, or to A.I. Mk. VII which the detachment had in a handful of machines.

This is what it's all in aid of, by the way: http://www.ghostbombers.com/recon/Koch/koch_01.html

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Hi Nick,

89 Squadron’s first detachment to Malta included RAAF pilots MC Shipard and JMcK Ross. Shipard remained until 20th Oct. CA Crombie and KJ Gray were the Australian contingent of the second detachment to Malta on 20th Sept 42. All three flew X7702 and X7695. I have copies of logbook pages for Shipard, Ross and Crombie while the details for Gray come from handwritten notes. These notes look like they were sourced from the ORB as there are a few entries for non-Australian personnel. Perhaps the October pages were still around when McAuley did his research for Against All Odds?

Anyway I will send you a PM with flight listings for the above aircrew in both the Beaufighters. Hopefully it might help a little with your research.

Regards, Drew

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Hello,

If I may, the correct spelling of Lex's surname is "McAULAY", not McAULEY.

Col.

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Hi Nick,

Just curious what your source for the codes for X7695 and X7702 is? Aces High shows X7702 as "T" when flown by Fumerton and Reeves during June and July.

Thanks,
Tom

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Hi Drew,

I was wondering if the info you have on the Shipard, Ross, Crombie and Gray reveal any aircraft codes that can be matched up to serial numbers? I, for one, would be very interested in that information. There are a few serial-code match-ups for 89 Sqn. found in Aces High and Malta: The Spitfire Year but many of the codes used remain, to me at least, unknown.

Thanks,
Tom

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Hi Nick

In the absence of F540s/541s for 89 Sqn's Malta detachment for the period of interest, all's not necessarily lost: The ORB for Luqa gives a lot of useful, sortie-by-sortie data, and, even more useful are the Malta Daily IntSums (for this period in AIR22/392). These give a lot of detail on 89 Squadron's operations.

There are also a couple of other useful sources that you may already have seen:

Coastal Command file "Enemy interference with ASV" (AIR15/93) contains 2 reports from Malta from late '42 covering Malta's experience with jamming of ASV, AI, GCI and COL. One of them includes a day-by-day sortie report from 89 Sqn. Although the focus of these is supposedly ASV jamming, these might still be of interest as I get the impression from Ultra that a large part (possibly the majority) of Kommando Koch's effort around this time was ASV jamming. If you haven't already seen these PM me and I'll send copies.

Another interesting source relates to the deployment of AI Mk VII to Malta. 5 AI Mk VII aircraft were earmarked for Malta, but one crashed in the UK before delivery. Over succeeding months 3 more AI Mk VII aircraft were sent out as attrition replacements but all were lost en route.
The 4 that did make it to Malta were sent out with radomes and hydraulics (for the scanner) installed, but all of the radar equipment removed. These aircraft were taken from Fighter Command
inventory (one from each of the 4 Fighter Command squadrons that each had a flight of AI VII a/c). The radars and scanners went out separately in two 10 Sqn (RAAF) Sunderlands with a Flt Lt Willis, 2 Radio fitters and a hydraulic fitter (the latter for scanner maintenance). 2 of the 4 aircraft were crashed soon after arrival and the radars were recovered and installed in other Beaufighters. Willis (who I believe to be 60617 Frederick Robert Willis - ex TRE and also SSO on 29 Sqn) sent very detailed monthly reports from Malta to TRE. These are in a TRE file "AI Mk VII: Reports from operational squadrons" (AVIA7/884). Again, if you don't already have these PM me and I'll send em over.

Hope this helps
Niall

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Hi Tom,

Unfortunately Shipard, Ross and Crombie did not record aircraft identification letters in their logbooks, only serial numbers. All were light on mission details as well! I do not have a copy of Gray’s logbook only some correspondence. However, in the same AWM file there were some handwritten mission notes possibly by Lex McAulay (presumably from 89 Squadron’s ORB) from Jun 42 until Feb 43. The following are the listed Beaufighter tie-ups - cannot guarantee accuracy!

Regards, Drew

T T5165
B V8219
C V8220 Nov 42
F X7642
G X7642 Jul 42
J X7676
M X7694
S X7695
T X7702
K X7702 Jul 42
Z X7704
A X7716
H X7716
C X7748
A X7840 Aug 42
D X8012 Dec 42
U X8017

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

I can confirm K = X7702 and S = X7695.

V8219 B was fitted with AI M. VII. salvaged from other a/c.
X7695 S is confirmed by TNA AIR 23/7371
X7840 is given by Oxby as A, delivered to C Flight on 7 August 1942.

Regarding T5161 and 5165, Oxby said they were coded T and U respectively (although he put a query against the T), the ORB calls them Coastal Command Beaufighters, allocated for special duties.

P.S. To clarify, years back I help Oxby's son edit his father's memoirs, so I have had sight of them but of course they aren't mine to share and so I feel I have to confine myself to a few brief citations. Unfortunately I've lost contact with Richard Oxby.

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Drew/Nick

Very interesting list, Drew. Thanks for posting that!!

Checking JJ Halley and his RAF serial monographs most of your Beaus fit with his listings.

The following does not!

T5165 (very, very few aircraft in the T5100-T5350 batch ended up with 89Sq. He lists only T5113 and T5172)
V8220 (far more aircraft were delivered to 89Sq in the batch V8219-V8385)
X8012

From own experience handwritten documents are a pest (sometimes :) ) and if the individual who took down the notes or JJ Halley have made a mistake, I don't know.

Cheers
Stig

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Thanks Niall, these are things I'll follow up for myself at Kew shortly. I'd just cottoned on to searching for files with "Interference" in their titles, after exhausting "Jamming".

True. VHF R/T was also being jammed and both ground and airborne sources were blamed (ditto with ASV) and it doesn't seem there was enough capacity in the MTO at the time to definitely establish the source of each incident.

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Don't have my notes to hand but I recall 'countermeasures' had over 600 hits in the search just in the AIR series.

Bruce

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Needles and haystacks spring to spring to mind — one can but persevere!

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Drew, many thanks for sharing that list, most of which is new to me.

Nick, thanks for the source info.

According to the serial lists I've seen, T5161 and T5165 were Mark VIc Beaufighters. The note I have in my files says that the latter, at least, was on loan from 227 Sqn. I am away from home at present and so don't have access to my books but this may be from Malta: The Spitfire Years. This also may only be my interpretation based on the Air Britain serial number book.

Regards,
Tom

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Nick

Is this research going to get published somewhere?

Steve

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Here: http://www.ghostbombers.com/recon/Koch/koch_01.html

(27,000 words to date)

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Apologies.. the grey hair saps my mental faculties!!

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

Having grey hair didn't stop me writing that stuff. Maybe it's the wild and dissolute life you lead that's to blame!

Re: No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942
 

According to data I compiled from various sources T5107 (227 Sqn), T5153 (227 Sqn), T5161 (89 Sqn), T5163 (227 Sqn) and T5165 (89 and 227 Sqn) were left on Malta from 248 Sqn (Det) in Sep '42. T5165 was coded U in 227 Sqn.
Zoran