Hi Chris
Thanks for the update - I have a few answers for you as well.
AP-S RM693 definitely not RM655 - I have a photo of this as flown by P Pacco of 350 at Lympne, as RM693 MN-S - if you look under the AP you can clearly see a box containing an overpainted MN.
F/Lt Ian Smith (SR80463) - 130 squadron was certainly not his first operational posting - he had been operational in the desert on Hurricanes with 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron, where he famously broke his nose - described in his own words in
“The Great Betrayal” as: “Taking off one morning in the dark and a sea mist on a dawn patrol, my undercarriage hit a bomb shelter at the end of the runway, and I landed in hospital with a bashed face, broken jaw, broken leg, broken shoulder, and a back which at first was thought to be broken but fortunately was only buckled. It was a bit of a mess. The Squadron doctor’s comment was that if I had not been so fit and strong it could have been the end, but after five months of expert medical attention at the Fifteenth Scottish Hospital on the banks of the Nile in Cairo I was passed fit for flying.”
He then flew Spitfires from Corsica, still with with 237 (Rhodesia) squadron, being shot down in the Po Valley, near to Genoa, on 22 June 1944.
He landed in the Ligurian Alps, evaded capture, and was there for five months, fighting with the Italian Partizani against the Germans. Ian Smith decided to come back because the winter was coming on and the Germans were coming down out of the snow line. They had to cross the Maritime Alps above the snow line and walked for 23 days toward France because the American invasion force had come in. He states
“It wasn’t easy. But eventually I brought the team over.”
In
“Spitfire against the odds” by Ronnie Ashman (a pre-war regular erk who became an NCO fighter pilot, and, in March 1945, joined 130 (Punjab) squadron) he states:
On 23 April a certain Rhodesian Flying Officer joined the Squadron, a nondescript character to arrive so late on the second front. He was a likeable chap to talk to on the few occasions I met him, but there was something out of the ordinary about him; he was an intellectual with firm ideas. He entered the service as a Sergeant, flew with the Desert Air Force and was injured. After hospitalisation he resumed flying from Corsica and was shot down again over Italy, but with the aid of the local populace he eventually made his escape. Determination on his part took him to England nearly a year later, to continue the fight, and after conversion at the same old 83 GSU, Dunsfold, we all knew so well, he arrived at 130. This man, although no one could possibly envisage it then, was to be the future Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia and eventually kicked in the teeth by the ruling British Government for his pains - he was none other than Ian Smith (service number SR80463).
Ronnie Ashman is the pilot who delivered JEJ's bubble top XIV MV268 from 83GSU to 125 Wing.
Apologies if I have missed it, but I cannot see any reference to "Blue Group" in the 3 volumes of 2TAF, but it existed - my father, now 87, served at Z Group HQ from day 1, then Blue Group HQ, then 83 Group HQ before moving to 125 Airfield/Wing HQ in April '44 - and 122 Wing HQ from July '45.
It is also mentioned in the 122 Wing history (...It was at Ellon that the Wing had once again to change its address. It had passed through Z Group and Blue Group and 83 Group, and then B.W.E.F. (British Western Expeditionary Force - or Burma When Europe Finished) Now it was to be B.L.A. - British Liberation Army...)
With regard to Phil Tripe - as far as his family are concerned he baled out on 16 January.
RM762 appears as MN-J on the website of my friend Serge Bonge
http://www.350sqn.be/aircraft.html so perhaps that simply became AP-J and the "mystery" is solved??
Serge provided me with the 350 ORB, so he would have taken his record from the same source that I would check, hopefully he has saved me the legwork!!
Volume 4 of 2TAF is already on order at Amazon.co.uk - and eagerly awaited. Trouble is these 3 (soon to be 4) volumes have devalued a much treasured original publication!!!
cheers
Allan