Hello Col,
Thank you for the wake up call,
Wrong book, the detail came from The Beaufort File page 11.
Quote:
It was decided on 16th March 1939 that, of the first 78 aircraft, five would act as prototypes, two as trials aircraft,
21 would re-equip 100 Squadron in Singapore, and that the remaining 50 would go to the RAAF.
I think that I got mixed up with the
six older types these I think must be the six that were to be sent north to Singapore, T9541;9542;9543;9544;9545;9547. Unless I read somewhere that at the time there were six Vildebeests .
Or I might have gotten mixed up with the Vildebeests, again 21, page 58 of BS vol1,
North Malaya
36 Sqdn detachment - 7 a/c - Gong Kedah
Then
Central & Southern Malaya
36 Sqdn - 5 a/c - Seletar
100 Sqdn - 14 a/c + 6 Beauforts.
RDF Calibration Flt - 2 a/c
(21 a/c)
Total 28 Vildebeests
So back to the 21 that were to re-equip 100 Squadron in Singapore, the T series gives 19 serials, so what were the other two numbers ?
Six a/c sent up to Singapore, one a/c retained T9543 as a long range PR a/c, burnt out at Kota Bharu. The remaining five returning to Australia, 100 Sqdn handed 13 a/c over to the RAAF on Feb 25th 42. Which rounds up to 19 a/c ( T9540;9546;9548;9549;9550[destroyed in RAF service before transfere to RAAF];9551;9552;9553;9554;9555;9556;9557;9558).
I expect that this will be made clear to me when I look on the adf link that Andrei offered.
Thanks to you both for the guidance.
Have a Great Christmas
Alex
Alex