Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin and 40 Boston bombers in 1942 – can serials be identified?

[Dan History]

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

The list provided by Zoran does not entirely fit the list in Brent's book on the SAAF aircraft.

Thank you for your further comment, Stig. Would it be possible to ask you for the list from Brent's book?

Here is a further twist to the tale. The following caption appears in Air Arsenal North America, by Phil Butler and Dan Hagedorn:

"Douglas Boston III 119406 coded ‘F’ of No.12 Squadron, SAAF, at Landing Ground ‘Z’ (Mahsma) in the Suez Canal area, about the time of the Battle of El Alamein. This was one of the forty Bostons intended for delivery to the USSR that was repossessed while en-route, for service with the RAF Desert Air Force. This one was allotted the RAF serial number HK899 locally by Air Headquarters in Cairo, although it is not known if that was ever painted on the aircraft.
IWM CM4682"

That is therefore an aircraft from Zoran's list, which I linked to above, "41-19406/F 12 Sqn SAAF, X.42-III.43." The Warpaint list that Zoran provided does indeed list serial HK899 as assigned to 12 SAAF. Yet, Alex has cited James J. Halley's Air Britain volume as assigning this serial to a batch of Bostons "Transferred from Russian deliveries in December 1942", in exchange for British Spitfires. Hence, it is not at all clear whether 41-19406 and HK899 were in fact one and the same aircraft, or two different ones.

Kind regards,

Dan

[Stig Jarlevik]

Hi Dan

I will be happy to send the pages from Brent's book.
Unfortunately he has used a printing company which, in my eyes, were second class, meaning the binding
has started to crack and I cannot scan the pages.
On the other hand I can use my phone and take pictures.

Please send me a PM with your e-mail address and I will get right to it.
FYI Brent lists no USAAF s/ns, only RAF ones. HK899 and not 119406. Since it was SOC in 1945 I am pretty
certain it was painted at some point as HK899

Cheers
Stig

[Dan History]

Originally Posted by Stig Jarlevik

I will be happy to send the pages from Brent's book.
Unfortunately he has used a printing company which, in my eyes, were second class, meaning the binding
has started to crack and I cannot scan the pages.
On the other hand I can use my phone and take pictures.

Please send me a PM with your e-mail address

Thank you, Stig! Private message is in your inbox Phone pictures will be just fine, all I am looking for is the set of serial numbers, not a high quality scan.

I assume the SAAF did manage to pain the serial on the aircraft before it was struck off charge, but one cannot be sure until there is photographic evidence, which might be difficult to obtain in 2023, a few years after the event

Kind regards,

Dan