'Bob' Braham's Beaufighter Mk VI

[Oxby R]

Hi Adriano, and Peter Verney ! I hope poor old Hajnel, who first asked the question about Bob Braham's Beau - is still reading his thread !! He will have a good source of information I think, on the two versions of Bob's Beau, thanks to your investigations/descriptions. Pity we can't really help him for sure with paintjob for X8147. Never mind, I can see, 'you know your onions, sir ' and are no amateur, Mr Baumgartner. The harpoon is almost certainly Mark IV, which as you know - was reliable in one respect. One could always rely on it to break down. Oxby snr earnt his first gong (a DFC) for fixing a MkIV with a small screwdriver, whilst his pilot was busy trying to hold contact with an e/a (!!) You can imagine what it must have been llike, being bounced around in the back, whilst twiddling with all those valves, cathode ray innertubes and stuff. Anyway, they managed to catch the bogey in the end. Poor chap. About your second Beau - without actually seeing the photo, I can only hazard a guess - I think its unlikely to be the SCR720/Mk X AI. I'm inclined to agree with you - much more likely to be Mk VII/VIII - both pretty dire sets in the opinion of the WingCo. He very much liked the Mk X/SCR720 fitted to the Mossy MkXXX describing it thus : 'At last, a window seat - much better than just being the powder monkey!'

Mr Verney - I was interested to read your account of NF36/Meteors, and of the expression 'murder, murder' (!!) - for that's certainly how it was then. Oxby snr will be interested to know, that the essence of his nightfighter war still lingers on in RAF parlance !! Cheers, fellas. RO.

Ps Adriano - did you know that Peter Spoden, also a Luftwaffe nightfighter occasionally contributes to the TOCH forum ? A very nice gentleman - we have exchanged emails. It was a particular honour for me, to pass greetings and good wishes between Herr Spoden/Oxby snr, effectively reconciling two former 'Enemies in the Dark' 60 years hence !


Gentlemen, it is midnight here now, and I am being summonsed by 'she who must be obeyed'.

[PeterVerney]

Hi All
Re Beau fitted with AI Mk10/SCR720. AFAIK the only Beau fitted with SCR720 was one sent to the US to trial the set before we bought it. Yes we bought and paid for all the SCR720 that we had, after they had been modified to our requirements.
Mr Oxby, I know exactly why your father was so pleased to get "a window seat" also in the earlier version of the Beau the cannon had to be reloaded by the nav/rad. How they handled 60 round drums of 20 mm ammo in that confined space in the dark is quite beyond me. Also I considered AI Mk 10 to be the bees knees compared to the later AI Mk21 (AN/APS57?) in the later marks of Meteor, except for the better range and discrimination afforded by the 3 cm waveband.
(Sorry moderator, I am straying outside WW2)

[Oxby R]

Yes indeed, Peter ! I'll bet lifting 'em down from the racks, in the dark, whilst being thrown about on the tail of someone who's intent on getting away... they'd almost take on a life of their own. The language must have been colourful, too. Best regards. RO.

[Hajnel]

Hello.

First I thanks for all tis posts.
I was analyze that what you write because I have interested aviation of WW2 from 30 years.
I know that squadron 141 was first squadron which has using system “Serrate”.
There are few photos because this system was secret and peoples can’t take photos of this aircrafts. I spoke with radar operator - Henryk Hojnowski of 307 polish night squadron and I know technical informations.

Paint scheme of Braham’s Beaufighter MK VI is very important to me because I want honor this "forgotten" brithis ace a model which I’m going to make. I want make this plane with Braham’s plane’s colours becauce he has got important victories at this plane. Memory of pilots is more important to me than aircraft because we can find technique information of machine but humans are forgotten.

I still please help me with my searches or where I can find help. Is Heddon Museum have this informations?

I’m sorry if I commit mistakes in this post.

Greetings
Hajnel
from Poland

[Oxby R]

Hi Hajnel - think you mean Hendon RAF Museum, in London. Yes, you might try there. If you do a search online - several sites should come up. You might also want to try the Imperial War Museum, which also has a website worth looking at. Try typing 'IWM' into your search engine. One of these institutions will almost certainly be able to assist. Gook luck !! Best regards, R Oxby.