No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942

[AUS_RAAF]

Hi Tom,

Unfortunately Shipard, Ross and Crombie did not record aircraft identification letters in their logbooks, only serial numbers. All were light on mission details as well! I do not have a copy of Gray’s logbook only some correspondence. However, in the same AWM file there were some handwritten mission notes possibly by Lex McAulay (presumably from 89 Squadron’s ORB) from Jun 42 until Feb 43. The following are the listed Beaufighter tie-ups - cannot guarantee accuracy!

Regards, Drew

T T5165
B V8219
C V8220 Nov 42
F X7642
G X7642 Jul 42
J X7676
M X7694
S X7695
T X7702
K X7702 Jul 42
Z X7704
A X7716
H X7716
C X7748
A X7840 Aug 42
D X8012 Dec 42
U X8017

[Nick Beale]

I can confirm K = X7702 and S = X7695.

V8219 B was fitted with AI M. VII. salvaged from other a/c.
X7695 S is confirmed by TNA AIR 23/7371
X7840 is given by Oxby as A, delivered to C Flight on 7 August 1942.

Regarding T5161 and 5165, Oxby said they were coded T and U respectively (although he put a query against the T), the ORB calls them Coastal Command Beaufighters, allocated for special duties.

P.S. To clarify, years back I help Oxby's son edit his father's memoirs, so I have had sight of them but of course they aren't mine to share and so I feel I have to confine myself to a few brief citations. Unfortunately I've lost contact with Richard Oxby.

[Stig Jarlevik]

Drew/Nick

Very interesting list, Drew. Thanks for posting that!!

Checking JJ Halley and his RAF serial monographs most of your Beaus fit with his listings.

The following does not!

T5165 (very, very few aircraft in the T5100-T5350 batch ended up with 89Sq. He lists only T5113 and T5172)
V8220 (far more aircraft were delivered to 89Sq in the batch V8219-V8385)
X8012

From own experience handwritten documents are a pest (sometimes ) and if the individual who took down the notes or JJ Halley have made a mistake, I don't know.

Cheers
Stig

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by niallc

Hi Nick

In the absence of F540s/541s for 89 Sqn's Malta detachment for the period of interest, all's not necessarily lost: The ORB for Luqa gives a lot of useful, sortie-by-sortie data, and, even more useful are the Malta Daily IntSums (for this period in AIR22/392). These give a lot of detail on 89 Squadron's operations …

There are also a couple of other useful sources that you may already have seen: Again, if you don't already have these PM me and I'll send em over.

Hope this helps
Niall

Thanks Niall, these are things I'll follow up for myself at Kew shortly. I'd just cottoned on to searching for files with "Interference" in their titles, after exhausting "Jamming".

I get the impression from Ultra that a large part (possibly the majority) of Kommando Koch's effort around this time was ASV jamming

True. VHF R/T was also being jammed and both ground and airborne sources were blamed (ditto with ASV) and it doesn't seem there was enough capacity in the MTO at the time to definitely establish the source of each incident.

[Bruce Dennis]

Originally Posted by Nick Beale

I'd just cottoned on to searching for files with "Interference" in their titles, after exhausting "Jamming".

Don't have my notes to hand but I recall 'countermeasures' had over 600 hits in the search just in the AIR series.

Bruce

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by Bruce Dennis

Don't have my notes to hand but I recall 'countermeasures' had over 600 hits in the search just in the AIR series.

Bruce

Needles and haystacks spring to spring to mind — one can but persevere!

[Tom Semenza]

Drew, many thanks for sharing that list, most of which is new to me.

Nick, thanks for the source info.

According to the serial lists I've seen, T5161 and T5165 were Mark VIc Beaufighters. The note I have in my files says that the latter, at least, was on loan from 227 Sqn. I am away from home at present and so don't have access to my books but this may be from Malta: The Spitfire Years. This also may only be my interpretation based on the Air Britain serial number book.

Regards,
Tom

[SteveB]

Nick

Is this research going to get published somewhere?

Steve

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by SteveB

Nick

Is this research going to get published somewhere?

Steve

Here: http://www.ghostbombers.com/recon/Koch/koch_01.html

(27,000 words to date)

[SteveB]

Apologies.. the grey hair saps my mental faculties!!