HMS Reaper sailing log

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear All,

I'm trying to properly date, as best I can, Watson's Whizzers photos of the captured German aircraft transported aboard HMS Reaper from Cherbourg to New Jersey. The best document I have on the Reaper says its arrival at Cherbourg was expected about July 16, 1945, although a communique 2 days earlier thought its arrival would be about July 11th. From what I have been able to piece together, the Reaper departed Cherbourg on July 20th. Given the tighter timeframe, this would have meant loading was performed between July 16 and July 19. It would be really helpful to better pin this down if someone has actually seen the ship's log, which I assume is in an archive in England.

Can anyone help on this?

Regards,
Richard

[peter.r]

Hi Richard,looking on the royal navy research archive site I found that HMS REAPER after loading at Cherbourg sailed for New York on 19th July 1945 and arrived on the 31st July 1945 docking at pier 14.Hope this helps. peter.

[Richard T. Eger]

Dear Peter,

Thank you for your attempt to help. I do appreciate it.

I was at this site yesterday and felt I was looking at secondary material. There is no ship's log, per se, which is what I am looking for. I was also dissuaded by the mention of "Ford Field", which I'd never heard of. Nor does it come up in a Google search, except for this singular reference.

As usual, I am looking for a primary source or at least one that tends to imply that it is accurate.

Regards,
Richard