[bearoutwest]

Hello Peter,

I had a quick look in James Oughton's book "The Liberator in RAF & Commonwealth Service", and here's a quick summary of the Middle East Liberator IIs:

AL511
108 Sqn [A]. Night of 3/4-5-42, shot down by Ju88 (or Bf110) of 1/NJG.2 raiding Tripoli Harbour.

AL520
160 Sqn detachment (under 120 Sqn). 1-6-42, shot up convoy, one crew killed. By road to SAL.

AL534
159 Sqn. FTR raid on Benghazi 23-Jul-42.

AL537
159 Sqn [S]. Shot down by flak during raid on Tobruk 24-8-42.

AL542
159 Sqn. DBR landing accident 3-7-42..

AL548
160 Sqn [R]. FTR raid on Maleme, Crete 28.10.42.

AL551
1445 Flt. Damaged 20.7.42, repaired by SAL.

AL554
159 Sqn. Ran out of fuel returning from raid on Tobruk 19-7-42, force landed on sand dunes in Palestine.

AL566
159 Sqn. Shot down by flak during raid on Benghazi 15-7-42.

AL584
160 Sqn. Damaged 24-7-42.

AL620
159 Sqn [S], 160 Sqn Detachment [S]. Lost 14/15-1-43 on raid to bomb Tripoli.

AL638
159 Sqn [X], 160 Sqn detachment [X].6-10-42, damaged on landing due to enemy action.
178 Sqn [X]. 4-3-43 shot down by night fighter on raid to Naples.

The squadrons seemed to share aircraft under detachment quite regularly, so perhaps your Liberator in question wasn't operating as part of 159 Sqn, hence not appearing in the war diary of that squadron. I only looked through the LB-30/Liberator II listings.

Regards,
...geoff