46 Sqn. Hurricanes in Norway.

[Alex Smart]

Hello Andy,
Re L1798.
Noted in 151 Sqn documents from 28 January 1939 up to 23 September 1939. Then in the ORB for January and February 1940.
Noted with 5 OTU in September 1940 and then as crashed on 10 September 1940 with 55 OTU and ended as 3576M dated 2 March 1943.

[Alex Smart]

Hi Andy,
I found AIR2/7262 but it isn't digitised.
Looked also under its old reference S5301/ID/46/259, same result.
How many pages were there ?
Thanks
Alex

[ATCCbengt]

AIR 2/7262 is at about 155 pages. Most of it is reports and proceedings from various officers participating in both south (Aandalsnes area) and north (Narvik area). Not much about 46 squadron directly I'm afraid. Here's extracts regarding 46 squadron:












There's one more page but I'm not able to upload it to IMGrPost.



Bengt

[Alex Smart]

Many thanks Bengt, I thought that it would be many pages, which would put it out of my price range.
Would have liked to have had the opportunity to view through them but not yet digital.
Again many thanks for providing the pages relevant to 46 Squadron.
I appreciate the kind gesture.
Do you know if any other squadrons are mentioned in the document ?

Alex

[Birgir Thorisson]

The correct name of the ship that took the Hurricanes back is COXWOLD, not Cotswold.

The ship sailed with the "slow convoy" on June 8th, which would have fallen prey to the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau if they had not run into the Glorious first.
Details of the ship are in the British shipbuilding database.
http://shippingandshipbuilding.uk/vi...vessel=COXWOLD

[ATCCbengt]

Originally Posted by Alex Smart

Many thanks Bengt, I thought that it would be many pages, which would put it out of my price range.
Would have liked to have had the opportunity to view through them but not yet digital.
Again many thanks for providing the pages relevant to 46 Squadron.
I appreciate the kind gesture.
Do you know if any other squadrons are mentioned in the document ?

Alex

I'll have to check again Alex but I don't think so.


Bengt

[Martin Gleeson]

Hello Bengt and Birgir,
Thanks to you both for the very helpful information on the SS ‘Coxwold’, which I will refer to later.

It seems clear that 46 Squadron only took 18 Hurricanes to Norway, just those launched from ‘Glorious’. All sources I have seen support that number. The inclusion of L1798 instead of L1805 in the May 9th listing in the squadron ORB is a mystery. Even more odd is that it is recorded flying operationally once (May 28th ) during the campaign. It is clear too from reading the ORB that it was written up sometime after the unit returned from Norway so it should be no surprise if errors crept in.

The F.78 aircraft history card for L1798 has no mention of 46 Squadron. It had been flying with 151 Squadron until 14 February 1940 when it was belly-landed, receiving extensive damage in the process. L1798 was then Taken On Charge by 54 Maintenance Unit on 19 February 1940, or rather recovered by them. Next it was TOC by 4 M.U. (A.S.T.) for repair on 19 March 1940. This leaves a gap of almost four months until the following entry on the F.78, for 27 M.U. on 10 July 1940.

I have to believe the two references to L1798 are in error. L1798 does not appear once in the detailed 46 Squadron F.541 for all of March and April 1940, but L1805 does. L1805 is recorded many times in the 46 Squadron ORB from May 28th to June 8th when it was lost on the ‘Glorious’ but L1798 was being flown by various units into 1941 at least.

A short recap on the fates of the 18 Hurricanes taken to Norway.
10 were lost in ‘Glorious’ on June 8th .
3 were lost in action (crashed) on May 29th .
2 were abandoned in a damaged state on evacuation of Bardufoss on June 8th (L1812 and N2543).
3 were returned to the UK on board the ‘Coxwold’ (L1814, L1892 and N2652).

This week I acquired a copy of ‘STRAIGHT AND LEVEL’ by Kenneth ‘Bing’ Cross and Vincent Orange. This was very helpful in clarifying the three accidents at Skanland on May 26th and 27th , in conjunction with the 46 Squadron ORB. L1892 (Stewart) on the 26th and L1814 (Bunker) on the 27th were both overturned on landing or take-off. Whereas the aircraft of Cross (P2632) on the 26th suffered only minor damage to the tips of the propeller blades and this was repaired the same day and flown again many times during the campaign. That leaves N2652 which for unknown reasons became unserviceable on return from a patrol on June 2nd . We know it subsequently reached the UK and was repaired.

From a variety of published and online resources I know a little more about the SS ‘Coxwold’. It and the rest of the slow ‘equipment’ convoy apparently left Harstad late on June 7th . The ‘Coxwold appears to have reached Scapa Flow on June 14th and sailed on to the Clyde the following day. At a guess, looking at distance and probable speed, it would have taken that slow convoy at least five days to reach Scapa Flow from Harstad. Unfortunately the ship’s Movement Card (in the BT 389 series online at TNA) does not record any details of its movements in Norway. To disassemble N2652 at Bardufoss from the evening of June 2nd to putting it on the ‘Coxwold’ must have taken several days of hard work, especially with scarce transport and a difficult road network in the area. Presumably there was not enough time or resources to salvage L1812 and N2543.

Thanks to the contributions of all I feel I have a much better understanding of 46 Squadron operations in Norway and the fates of all the Hurricanes they took with them.

Regards,

Martin.