[niallc]

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