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Defford Airfield Heritage Group CONTACT ! The Newsletter of the former RAF Defford Reunion Association, now merged with the DEFFORD AIRFIELD HERITAGE GROUP in partnership with THE NATIONAL TRUST, CROOME http://deffordairfieldheritagegroup.wordpress.com Editor Mike Mullins - email Michael.mullins2 @outlook.com Number 134, March / April 2020 Shaun Pocock RAF Defford WW2 serviceman and museum Steward adds more details of the 1961 non-fatal Valiant crash See page 2 The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito Originally conceived as an unarmed fast bomber, the Mosquito evolved during the war into many roles, including low- to medium-altitude daytime tactical bomber, high-altitude night bomber, pathfinder, day or night fighter, fighter-bomber, intruder, maritime strike, and photo-reconnaissance aircraft. The Mosquito proved to be very fast indeed, with a top speed of 380mph. This was 20mph faster than the Spitfire. The Mosquito entered RAF service in November 1941 and came to RAF Defford in 1942. It was a popular aircraft and proved a good platform for testing airborne radar and other roles. See pages 6 and 7 Harry Badger, Defford and Pershore aircraft engineer and now museum steward talks about his experiences working on Defford and Pershore aircraft. See pages 4 and 5 Shaun Pocock adds more details about his friend Douglas Webber who was trapped in the 1961 Valiant crash at RRE Pershore. Shaun also looks at the subsequent work of Roy Hodges and George Randall on the Valiant aircraft. The failed Valiant take off took place on the 14th of March 1961. There was a crew of five including Douglas Webber, a civilian experimental officer from RRE Malvern. The crash was well documented by Bob and Dennis in Contacts 123 and 124 in 2019. These are Shaun’s words………… “I read the information in Contact 123 about the Valliant crash. I am surprised that no mention was made about the boffin, Douglas Webber, who was trapped seven hours in the cockpit, before he was rescued. Doug was a friend of mine who often visited my calibration room and instrument workshop. He often came with Roy Hodges as they were from the same section in Malvern and were working on the H2S project. Doug told me about his rescue, how he was covered with earth scooped up by the aircraft, only his legs were injured. Doug also was a maths teacher at Malvern College of further education. He was a very good teacher as I found out, when the Malvern people joined us for the third year of the National ONC course I was taking. Their maths was far superior to ours even though we were taught by the head master of the local grammar school. Doug also spent time winning competitions. He had many free holidays around the world and a new garage and plenty of money prizes. Some of these firms paid him to test their new competitions before they would set them up. My mechanic with our Valiant was George RAF Engineer George Randall, they eventually found the Randall later became a problem and the RAF were very pleased Councillor and leader and modified their gyro units as George of Worcester City had done. When George left RRE he Council between 1980 eventually became the Mayor of and 1992 Worcester. Roy Hodges wanted some information from the aircraft’s automatic control to work his product. With help from the manufacturer of the autopilot, we were able to modify the gyro until it gave Roy the control his equipment needed. Roy was testing these results in the Valiant at Gaydon when another problem arose. This was known by the RAF on all jet aircraft”. Roy Hodges (foreground) with Stella Budden (standing) and other wartime TRE colleagues at Malvern College. Photo courtesy of Jayne Stephenson Page 2 Roy Hodges and his wife Yvonne were keen swimmers. This photo was taken in Sheffield in 1996 when they both competed in the Masters swimming championships. Both won several events in their group, including Roy in the 100m backstroke and Yvonne in the 200m individual medley. Their daughter, Jayne Stephenson is a Museum Steward. She is also a keen swimmer, see below. Roy and Yvonne’s Daughter Jayne Stephenson is a Museum Steward and keen swimmer. She recently competed in the Masters Championships in Gwangju South Korea winning a medal in the 800m free style. Photos courtesy of Jayne Stephenson Shaun the Record Breaker - August Bank Holiday 2016. Shaun has been a steward since the opening of the museum in Sept 2014, He has regularly worked the Monday morning shift and has done so continuously almost without an absence. Mondays can sometimes be quiet, but not so on Bank Holiday Mondays. Shaun was on duty on the 29th August 2016 when Croome was packed. A total of 1002 visitors came through the museum that day. This is an all-time record for the number of visitors in a single day. The day was extremely hot (and there was no air conditioning then) but everyone was good natured and patient and the day was a great success. Bob sent a nice thank you note to Shaun and all the stewards involved. Page 3 Harry Badger and his experiences working on Defford and Pershore aircraft. Harry’s first involvement with the RAF came when he joined the Air Training Corps (ATC) in 1944 at Pershore. In 1948. He was recruited as a Maintenance Assistant at Defford, then after two years he passed the exam to become an aircraft fitter craftsman grade 1. Harry worked Harry’s logbook is a meticulous record of in this role until Defford closed 1957. He then moved to his service and has proved to be a mine of Pershore until the base there closed in 1976. information. Starting in 1944 with the ATC at Pershore it documents all the aircraft Harry has worked on and flown in. In total Harry flew on 46 aircraft types and worked on many more aircraft types. This was a remarkable achievement, bearing in mind these aircraft had many different marks and sub – variants, because they were undergoing rapid development at that time and were subject to many design changes. Harry working “flat out” on the engine of the Handley Page Hermes at Pershore Harry standing against an Avro Shackleton at Pershore. Harry is in the centre on the engine of a Meteor at Page 4 Pershore whilst Defford’s runway was being repaired Harry is in the centre on the engine of an Avro Ashton at Defford Harry on the afternoon shift Harry works as a museum Steward. He started in 2014 when the museum opened and to date has completed over 250 shifts. Harry is normally on duty on Friday and Saturday afternoons, so it’s great if you can meet up with him then. But stewards and visitors can hear Harry’s voice anytime on one of the audioposts in the musuem (button no.8). On this, Harry mentions working on various aircraft, but gives a specific account of an intermittent problem they had with a Mosquito aileron. Harry flew the aircraft with three different pilots who all noted the stiffness in starboard aileron control, despite having been passed by the inspector as “Controls checked, full and free satisfactory”. Eventually it was found to be a loose screw which had lodged against the aileron cable pulley and had progressively frayed the cable until it formed a “wire bunch” which Harry in a de Havilland Vampire at Defford restricted movement over the pulley. Harry was always vigilant and was congratulated in 1974 by the Ministry of Defence for spotting a frayed cable on a Canberra which was outside his normal work schedule. Page 5 The de Havilland DH.98 Mosquito The prototype Mosquito made its maiden flight on 25 November 1940 The Mosquito came to Defford in 1942 and rapidly had Airborne Radar fitted. These are photos of the A1 Mk IX installation and of the aircraft undergoing trials. Photos © Crown copyright Page 6 Mosquito Aircraft at RAF Defford extracts from W.H. Sleigh’s RSRE Report “Aircraft for Airborne Radar Development”. The MOSQUITO AIRCRAFT was a unique de Havilland concept of 1938 for a high performance twin-engine aircraft relying on speed rather than defensive armament. It mostly was constructed from wood, for both industrial economy and quickness of production. The prototype Mosquito made its maiden flight on 25 Mosquito VT679 with 'Bull Nose' radome to accommodate British or November 1940 with the fighter version following on American SCR 720 Al systems. 15 May 1941. Some 46 different variants were produced, 19 of these variants being fitted with a wide variety of radar systems, initially involving the early 1.5 metre Al Mk VI equipment, for incursion activity over enemy territory, but in the main they were fitted with British AI Mks VIII and IX, the American SCR 720 [Al Mk X] and ASH [Al Mk 15] systems. Mosquitoes at TFU were also involved in the development of the Oboe precision marker system, H2S for reconnaissance work and in a wide selection of radar RCM systems. Over 79 Mosquito aircraft are known to have been at Defford between 1942 and 1953 whose projects embraced 62% of the science activity groups listed in Annex 2. In terms of individual aircraft 35% were associated with Al radars compared with 16% being involved with bombing systems such as Oboe, H2S and G-H radars. The night fighter prototype, Mosquito NF Mk ll DD715, was a conversion of a basic NF Mk ll by transfer of the front mounted guns to the lower fuselage and in their place a new nose was constructed to accommodate Mk Vlll radar with its airframe profiled radome.
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