Wellington 'Dumbo' 12 Squadron Binbrook 1942

[Theo Boiten]

Dear all,

I recently acquired a fine photo of a 12 Squadron Wellington at Binbrook with a painting of the Disney character 'Dumbo' below the cockpit. F/Sgt. Colin Alt RAAF flew the aircraft on ops; he was taken PoW 2-3 September 1942. Who can tell me the serial number of Wellington 'Dumbo'?

Cheers and thanks for any details, Theo

[SteveR]

F541 shows Alt flying aircraft "U", serial Z8529 when he FTR the night of 2/3 Sept. 1942.

[Theo Boiten]

Thanks for that Steve! The Wellington 'Dumbo' depicted in the photo may however be a different a/c than the one that F/Sgt. Alt flew on 2-3 September 1942, as my source told me that 'the photo (i.e. Dumbo) was the first Wellington that the Alt crew flew on ops'.

Cheers, Theo

[Chris Goss]

From what I can see Alt only flew twice before and both times in Z8529

[M sIMPSON]

Colin Alt's time at 12 Sqn is a little unusual. He was originally posted in to 12 Sqn 28/2/42 from 23 O.T.U. He then flew two sorties as second pilot in the crew of R50712 Francis John Lowe - 10-11/3/42 on Essen in Wellington W5372 and 12-13/3/42 on Kiel in W5460. This was followed with seven sorties as second pilot with the crew of AUS404808 Lloyd Charles Deignan - 25-26/3/42 on St. Nazaire in Wellington W5372, 12-13/4/42 on Essen in Z8538, 14-15/4/42 on Dortmund in Z8502, 17-18/4/42 on Hamburg in Z8502, 23-24/4/42 on Rostock in Z8495, 24-25/4/42 on Rostock in Z8502 and 26-27/4/42 on Rostock in Z8591. The aircraft code is not recorded for any of these nine sorties, but a bit more digging shows that W5372 was coded 'D' when lost 26-27/3/42, W5460 was coded 'Y', Z8538 was coded 'O Bar' at least in August 1942 and Z8591 was coded 'O' when lost 25-26/7/42.
Colin Alt was then posted to 25 O.T.U. 26 or 27/5/42 and returned to 12 Sqn with a crew 21/8/42. He then flew the following sorties as captain of aircraft - 27-28/7/42 on Kassel in Wellington Z8529, coded 'H', 28-29/8/42 on Saarbrucken in Z8529 'H', 1-2/9/42 on Saarbrucken in Z8529 coded 'U' and 2-3/9/42 on Karlsruhe in Z8529 'U'. It would appear that Z8529 was recoded at the end of August 1942.
All the above taken from the 12 Sqn O.R.B., so the usual caveats about accuracy, and Colin Alt's service file, which has been digitised at NAA. Doesn't really help with your photograph, but hopefully of interest.
Regards, Mark.

[AndyMa]

Mark,
Can you re-confirm Z8358 please? According to the AM78, available via:
http://lancasterbombersinfo.ipage.co...ile/index.html
this aircraft did not serve with 12 Sqn.
Andy

[AndyMa]

Ah, disregard, I can see it is a typo for Z8538.

[Theo Boiten]

Cheers and thanks for that chaps -all interesting and useful.

Best, Theo

[BigWeeker]

Forumites
As “D” (W5372) was the aircraft Ros’s father, Colin Alt, flew on his first “op” ( to Essen in March ‘42, from his logbook), is it not possible that as the individual a/c letter was “D”, the aircraft was named “Dumbo”?.
Atb to one and all
Andy

[Theo Boiten]

Good point Andy, thanks!