No. 89 Squadron Malta Detachment, 1942

[Nick Beale]

The National Archives have Operations Record Books for this detachment in AIR 27/729 but the ones I've found only go as far as 30 September.

Does anyone know if the Detachment's ORB for October 1942 exists and where it is?

[Russell]

Nick

I have never found it either.

Regards

Russell

[Nick Beale]

Curses, foiled again!

Thanks Russell.

[AUS_RAAF]

Hi Nick,

I have some document copies relating to the Australians with 89 Squadron during this period – Gray, Crombie, Shipard and Ross. These were sourced from an Australian War Memorial file donated by author Lex McAuley (Against All Odds) and include notes from presumably the ORB, logbooks and other files – date range Jun 42 until Dec 42. Are there any specific details you are after from the October 42 period? Am happy to do a lookup for you.

Regards, Drew

[Nick Beale]

Originally Posted by AUS_RAAF

Hi Nick,

I have some document copies relating to the Australians with 89 Squadron during this period – Gray, Crombie, Shipard and Ross. These were sourced from an Australian War Memorial file donated by author Lex McAuley (Against All Odds) and include notes from presumably the ORB, logbooks and other files – date range Jun 42 until Dec 42. Are there any specific details you are after from the October 42 period? Am happy to do a lookup for you.

Regards, Drew

Thanks, Drew. I'm interested in two "special" Beaufighters, X7702 "K" and X7695 "S", which were modified to deal with German jamming of A.I. Mk. IV and VHF voice traffic. Also any reference to jamming, or to A.I. Mk. VII which the detachment had in a handful of machines.

This is what it's all in aid of, by the way: http://www.ghostbombers.com/recon/Koch/koch_01.html

[AUS_RAAF]

Hi Nick,

89 Squadron’s first detachment to Malta included RAAF pilots MC Shipard and JMcK Ross. Shipard remained until 20th Oct. CA Crombie and KJ Gray were the Australian contingent of the second detachment to Malta on 20th Sept 42. All three flew X7702 and X7695. I have copies of logbook pages for Shipard, Ross and Crombie while the details for Gray come from handwritten notes. These notes look like they were sourced from the ORB as there are a few entries for non-Australian personnel. Perhaps the October pages were still around when McAuley did his research for Against All Odds?

Anyway I will send you a PM with flight listings for the above aircrew in both the Beaufighters. Hopefully it might help a little with your research.

Regards, Drew

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

If I may, the correct spelling of Lex's surname is "McAULAY", not McAULEY.

Col.

[Tom Semenza]

Hi Nick,

Just curious what your source for the codes for X7695 and X7702 is? Aces High shows X7702 as "T" when flown by Fumerton and Reeves during June and July.

Thanks,
Tom

[Tom Semenza]

Hi Drew,

I was wondering if the info you have on the Shipard, Ross, Crombie and Gray reveal any aircraft codes that can be matched up to serial numbers? I, for one, would be very interested in that information. There are a few serial-code match-ups for 89 Sqn. found in Aces High and Malta: The Spitfire Year but many of the codes used remain, to me at least, unknown.

Thanks,
Tom

[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:

Coastal Command file "Enemy interference with ASV" (AIR15/93) contains 2 reports from Malta from late '42 covering Malta's experience with jamming of ASV, AI, GCI and COL. One of them includes a day-by-day sortie report from 89 Sqn. Although the focus of these is supposedly ASV jamming, these might still be of interest as I get the impression from Ultra that a large part (possibly the majority) of Kommando Koch's effort around this time was ASV jamming. If you haven't already seen these PM me and I'll send copies.

Another interesting source relates to the deployment of AI Mk VII to Malta. 5 AI Mk VII aircraft were earmarked for Malta, but one crashed in the UK before delivery. Over succeeding months 3 more AI Mk VII aircraft were sent out as attrition replacements but all were lost en route.
The 4 that did make it to Malta were sent out with radomes and hydraulics (for the scanner) installed, but all of the radar equipment removed. These aircraft were taken from Fighter Command
inventory (one from each of the 4 Fighter Command squadrons that each had a flight of AI VII a/c). The radars and scanners went out separately in two 10 Sqn (RAAF) Sunderlands with a Flt Lt Willis, 2 Radio fitters and a hydraulic fitter (the latter for scanner maintenance). 2 of the 4 aircraft were crashed soon after arrival and the radars were recovered and installed in other Beaufighters. Willis (who I believe to be 60617 Frederick Robert Willis - ex TRE and also SSO on 29 Sqn) sent very detailed monthly reports from Malta to TRE. These are in a TRE file "AI Mk VII: Reports from operational squadrons" (AVIA7/884). Again, if you don't already have these PM me and I'll send em over.

Hope this helps
Niall