Claims of 151. Wing on 6.10.41: 2 or 3 Ju 88?

[markjsheppard]

Tim

Yep, 19 pilots with each squadron and adjutant/Intelligence officer with each. The Wing consisted of 21 officers - Engineering, equipment, intelligence, medical as well as other support officers at Archangel on on board HMS Argus.

This is why the 39 Hurricanes was interesting - one pilot had to fly two aircraft over from Keg Ostrov.

The only pilots/families I could not find were 'Binnie' Barnes and 'Griff' Griffiths of 134 Sqn and 81 Sqn intelligence officer - Kennedy (from the West Indies).

regards

Mark

[Mirek Wawrzynski]

Mark, something wrong (?). Are you sure about HMS Argus, there were 24 HC, which took off.
The whole stuff plus 16 next HCs were loaded on the borad SS Llanstephen Castle (11 000 BRT) with this over 500-550 RAF soldiers.

During uploading one HC was missing (maybe was earlier damaged), then we have 39 servicable HCs.

Keg Ostrow was English name, Kadnikov Russian one.

HMS Argus, maybe I am wrong, did not sailed to Archangel? He had low amount of fuel and 7.09.41 was the last day to despached carried Hurricanes, if not they had to returned.
If Argus had sailed to Archagel, he could despached HCs a few day later too, it would no matter in this situation.

BTW
Do you have all HCs numbers?

Regards,
mirekw

[markjsheppard]

Mirek

24 Hurricanes and 24 pilots (12 from 81 Sqn and 12 from 134 Sqn) took off from HMS Argus and flew to Veanga.

The other 16? Hurricanes were delivered by the first convoy - Operation Dervish - SSLlanstephen Castle was the flagship and 5 other merchantmen.

Not only were 15 Hurricanes assembled (the equipment officer F/Lt Gittins) was also given a Soviet Award. Cannot recall the name - Order of Kuznetsov?

Besides the Hurricanes, P40C/Tomahawk IIB's were assembled by an RAf team at Keg Ostrov and test flown by Lt Zemke and Lt Allison. (Zemke was Hub Zemke - later leader of 56FG Zemke's wolfpack).

HMS Argus did not sail to Archangel but the convoy did. It had other supplies.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dervish_Convoy

regards

Mark

PS - Yes, I have all 39 Hurricanes and 95% of the RAF serials /Soviet numbers. Only three I believe were not given Soviet numbers.

[Mirek Wawrzynski]

Besides the Hurricanes, P40C/Tomahawk IIB's were assembled by an RAf team at Keg Ostrov and test flown by Lt Zemke and Lt Allison. (Zemke was Hub Zemke - later leader of 56FG Zemke's wolfpack).

Yes, there were supplied next 48 P-40C/Tomahawks, but according Russian they were not assembled in the same place (Keg-Ostrov) but in other one - Yagodnik.

Check you private mail box on this forum.

Regards,
mirekw

[markjsheppard]

Mirek

Correct - P40's were assembled at Yagodnik.

regards

Mark