CONTACT !

The Newsletter of the former RAF Reunion Association, now merged with the DEFFORD AIRFIELD HERITAGE GROUP in partnership with THE NATIONAL TRUST, CROOME http://deffordairfieldheritagegroup.wordpress.com Editor: Bob Shaw Distribution: Ann Sterry Number 125, March 2019 METEORIC PROGRESS!

Meteor WD686 was rolled out of its hangar on January 28th 2019. On 28 March 1958, WD686 was the last ‘plane to fly out of Defford before the airfield closed for flying. The Meteor was rescued from dereliction by DAHG, who obtained funding thanks to the generosity of Vernon Hill, chairman of Metro Bank. DAHG were introduced to Mr Hill by Lord Flight. DAHG arranged for Boscombe Down Aviation Collection to restore the aircraft in their workshops at Old Sarum near Salisbury. The photos come from Ron Fulton, Technical Director of BDAC, who leads the restoration team in the BDAC workshops. (Continued on page 2.) 2, Meteoric Progress – continued from front page:

Ron Fulton reports: “The belly was painted while the centre section was vertical and the undercarriage has been fully refurbished. We have made good progress since we brought the cockpit section back from Croome on November 5th having bolted it to the centre section. This assembly is standing on the undercarriage and has the tail and the fuel tank cover restored and in place. It is now ready for painting. This leaves the engine intakes and exhausts, the wings and the belly tank needing attention and still to be fitted. I think we can safely say the end is in sight”.

The Meteor when erected for display at Croome with wings attached, will be a large exhibit, measuring 50’ (length) x 43’ (span) x 14’ height to top of the fin.

The exact date of when the complete Meteor WD686 returns to Croome has not yet been decided, nor has the length of stay of the Meteor at Croome. But it has been agreed the Meteor can be displayed out of doors and not under cover, so no marquee is required, although security for aircraft on display has to be paramount. The detail of how the Meteor will be displayed has yet to been finalised, but will almost certainly be located immediately adjacent to the Ambulance Garage. This has been agreed between the National Trust (Michael Smith), BDAC and DAHG. The location has to be such that it is within the ‘security pay barrier’ and easy access and back-up for Volunteer Stewards is catered for. Access for Visitors to be via the Museum.

The Meteor will be separated into major sections for transit, divided between three specialist vehicles. The aircraft will have to be located for assembly and display in a place offering direct immediate access on the level from the car park for large vehicles. The open air position agreed by the three parties involved (NT, BDAC, and DAHG), as described in ‘Contact!’ no. 122 December 2018, p.2, appears to be the only location which meets all the necessary criteria.

Bob Shaw is the project leader, but he is likely to be standing down this year, so DAHG and NT will be seeking new Leaders or Leaders for the Meteor at Croome, liaising with BDAC at Old Sarum, while the Volunteer team will need to be expanded with further recruiting.

For further information in the project, especially for anyone who wants be involved, please contact Bob on [email protected] or mobile 07778 733 499 (see Latest News on WD686 on page 10) 3. HERMES ii

In the last issue of ‘Contact!’ (no.124, February 2019), DAHG member Les Eales, while writing about the Valiant crash and his youthful plane spotting experience at RRE Pershore, commented en passant: “Do (you) remember the ‘Tail Dragger Hermes’ that was based at Pershore for many years … the only one ever in RAF markings”? Ever anxious to oblige, see below an account of the elegant and valuable sole Hermes II which as VX234 served RRE Pershore after Defford was closed for RRE flight trials in 1957.

Above: Hermes II VX234, formerly G-AGUB, taking off at RRE Pershore. The for the Sideways Looking Airborne (SLAR), intended for the TSR2, can be seen under the centre line of the fuselage (Crown copyright)

LEFT: Hermes II G-AGUB shortly before the first flight of this, the second prototype Hermes, in September 1947

When the first of two prototypes of the Hermes emerged in 1945, it was envisaged as an airliner for BOAC which offered the potential to be adapted as a military transport and which eventually manifested itself as the Hastings. The first flight of the Hermes I was a disaster, the aircraft seeming to be inherently unstable. It crashed within minutes of take-off, killing the crew and destroying the aircraft.

4. Following this it is not surprising that completion of the second Hermes prototype was delayed for extensive modifications especially to the flying and control surfaces, and it was not until September 1947 that the second prototype, G-AGUB, designated as the Hermes II, took to the air at for an entirely successful first flight. By the end of February 1948 it had completed 40 hrs of trouble free flying which went on to provide useful information for the production Hermes, the Mark IV which among other developments was fitted with nosewheel undercarriage. Meanwhile flying trials with the sole Hermes II G-AGUB continued to provide information relevant to both the Hermes IV and the military Hastings which in parallel had, through a series of modifications, reached full production standard for the RAF. The one and only Hermes II was retained for BOAC crew training until 1951 when it became used for a number of scientific research projects and trials for various Government departments, from 1953 as VX234. In 1958 it was allotted to the Royal Radar Establishment at Pershore, being used for radar trials, notably being fitted with Sideways Looking Airborne Radar (SLAR) being developed for the TSR2. The work of VX234 continued at Pershore, the Hermes II having logged over 1,000 hrs by when it was finally struck off charge and scrapped at Pershore in 1969, after a long and useful life.

ABOVE: Hermes II VX234 at RRE Pershore, after its final flight (Crown copyright)

RIGHT: VX234 above the clouds while serving with RRE flying from Pershore (Crown copyright)

BELOW: Superb colour image of Hermes II which flew from Pershore on trials for RRE Science Groups 4 and 12 (Crown copyright)

5. HALIFAX V9977 In view of current interest in the tragic crash of Halifax V9977, we are reprinting from ‘Contact!’ for June 2017, this article by DAHG Curator, Dennis Williams The 7th June 2017 is the 75th anniversary of the worst accident, in terms of aircrew casualties, at Defford and indeed, in the history of British military test flying. On the afternoon of Sunday 7th June 1942, a , V9977, took off from RAF Defford in . This aircraft was equipped with an experimental radar, code-named ‘’. During the early years of the war few RAF were finding their targets, so the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) – which occupied Malvern College during World War II – invented the H2S system to provide a bomber navigator with a ‘radar map’ which revealed coastlines and built-up areas. Halifax V9977 was operated by a five-man RAF crew from the Telecommunications Flying Unit, based at Defford. Their captain was Pilot Officer Douglas Berrington, an experienced pilot. Also on board were Geoffrey Hensby (a TRE scientist in the H2S radar team led by Dr ), two RAF liaison officers attached to TRE, and three engineers from EMI at Hayes, including the distinguished engineer . EMI had been granted the production contract for H2S, and Blumlein, who had pioneered stereo sound recording and the 405-line television system used by the BBC, was leading this radar work at the company. The Halifax headed to the Bristol Channel area to provide the EMI engineers with a demonstration of the H2S radar, but at 4.20pm the bomber was seen over the Forest of Dean, trailing smoke from one of its four Merlin engines. A servicing error a few days previously had led to a catastrophic engine failure which resulted in a fire that spread to a fuel tank. Just two minutes later the starboard wing detached and the aircraft crashed in a field north of the River Wye, at Welsh Bicknor, Herefordshire. All 11 on board died instantly. A few days after the accident Dr Lovell was informed personally by the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, who insisted that H2S radar development had high priority status. H2S went into action with in January 1943 and provided crews, for the first time, with a means of navigating accurately to targets as far afield as .

The sacrifices made in furtherance of radar test flying are commemorated in the stained glass of the Radar Memorial Window in the chapel at Goodrich Castle, close to the crash site of Halifax V9977. This window was dedicated on 7th June 1992, the 50th anniversary of the crash. Defford has its own RAF memorial on the Village Green. This was unveiled in 2002 by Sir Bernard Lovell OBE FRS, Emeritus Professor of Radioastronomy at the University of Manchester. At Hurn, two Handley Page Halifax bombers were fitted with different transmitting sources: a and a resonant . Flight trials showed that the higher power output of the magnetron yielded a greater radar range, so this version was chosen for H2S production.

On 7th June 1942, just days after the TFU’s move to Defford, the H2S project suffered a devastating setback. Halifax V9977, equipped with the cavity magnetron radar, was on a demonstration flight when it suffered a catastrophic engine failure and crashed in flames in the Wye Valley. All on board were killed, including the distinguished electronic engineer Alan Blumlein, leader of the EMI team working on the manufacturing contract for H2S. Despite this loss, production of the 10cm H2S radar was given priority status and it went into action with Bomber Command. Left: Halifax V9977, before the crash, at Defford with H2S scanner fitted (Crown copyright)

6. A COASTAL COMMAND PILOT AT WARTIME DEFFORD GROUP CAPTAIN MARTYN ALLIES DFC

Martyn Allies was a student of aeronautical engineering at Queen Mary College in September 1939. He joined the University Air Squadron, first flying dual in an Avro Tutor in March 1939, going solo on June 27th 1939 at Northolt, then being introduced to flying a more advance type, the Hawker Hind.

On September 3rd he was called up as a Sergeant Pilot, but heard no more from the until spring of 1940 when he was commissioned a Pilot Officer and in due course posted to the EFTS at Meir in Staffordshire flying the Miles Magister. On to South Cerney where he qualified for his ‘Wings’ on the twin-engine Airspeed Oxfords, followed by posting to No 1 School of General Reconnaissance at Squires Gate near Blackpool for navigation training on Ansons and Bothas – engine failures were common on the latter, and it was salutary to fly over the carcasses of Bothas lying pathetically on the Blackpool sands. The Hudson Operational Training Unit at Silloth in Cumberland was to be his next posting prior to joining 269 Squadron at Wick in March 1941 prior to the whole squadron moving to Kaldarnes in Iceland to undertake the task of escorting convoys as far as the limited range of the Hudson permitted, and to carry out sweeps against U-boats between Iceland and . On one of these sweeps, on August 2th 1941, a message was received from another aircraft that it had forced a U-boat to surface and surrender, and Allies’ Hudson was required to escort the U-boat until the Navy could take over. They found U-570 on the surface with the crew clustered on the conning tower, which they photographed. This U-boat became HMS Graph.

RIGHT: Hudson of 269 Squadron over Iceland

Flying from and over Iceland was an exciting and exhilarating experience. The Hudsons were now fitted with tanks which allowed an 8 hour endurance for reconnaissance over the icefields where in summer the sun barely dipped below the horizon, establishing the extent of the icefields and to determine if it was broken up sufficiently to allow U-boats to cross into the Atlantic between Greenland and Iceland. Navigational aids were primitive and more than one Hudson came to grief when it flew into the 1,000ft hill which was on the circuit of Kaldarnes airfield. In November 1941 Allies was granted leave to be married, and posted as an instructor on Hudsons at Silloth. He was then posted to Thornaby on Tees in where the unit converted to the underpowered Wellington Mark I, with the added hazard of the airfield being surrounded by barrage balloons with visibility around the airfield so affected by industrial smoke that landings had to be by flare path in broad daylight!

August 1943 saw Allies on the move again, this time to Nassau in the Bahamas for a conversion course onto Liberators, but first on Mitchells to become accustomed to tricycle undercarriages. He recorded “Flying in the Bahamas was a joy! The sun shone constantly, the sea was azure and the shallow water ringing the islands’ golden beaches was emerald. This paradise lasted only for a month, then we were on the train from and back to New York, and on the Queen Mary…”

Back in , he was posted to 547 Squadron at St Eval to keep U-boats out of the Channel during the Invasion period. In November 1944 the squadron moved to Leuchars in Scotland, from where Allies and his crew made a successful attack on a surfaced U-boat which resulted in the award of the DFC.

7.

On May 12th 1945, Allies was posted to Defford, promoted to Squadron Leader, and became CO of the Coastal Flight of the Telecommunications Flying Unit. He recorded that in the TFU: “… were large variety of aircraft ranging for Auster to Dakota, from Anson to Lancaster and from Warwick to Fortress, and our purpose was to fly the ‘boffins’ from the TRE at Malvern as they developed or perfected radar devices employed for the most part in Coastal Command aircraft.”

RIGHT: Martyn Allies (centre left front row) with his Liberator crew

“One of the devices which was being ‘perfected’ was a blind landing system and the aircraft used for the experiments was a Boeing 247D (which was) ideal for my task of demonstrating the system to senior personnel in the RAF and civilian airlines, including Air Marshal Critchley and Captain Wilcoxson, who was at that time the Senior Captain of Imperial Airways (which had by this time become BOAC – Ed.). The system aligned the aircraft with the runway and brought it down close to it but it was here a difficulty arose – it tended to provide a touchdown either 10 feet above, or more alarming, 10 feet below the ground! (The ‘automatic landing’ system operated the flying controls – but not the throttles – Ed). The problem could be overcome by gentle manipulation by one’s knee of the elevator trimmer wheel which one’s passengers either did not notice or were too polite to mention …”

Whilst he was at Defford, he and his wife Lily and son Christopher (born December 1943) lived “… in a crumbling Victorian mansion called Wellington Lodge in the charming village of Bredon amid the plum orchards of the Vale of Evesham”. His last trip as a pilot was on July 9th after which he left the RAF to attend Bristol University, their daughter Cheryl being born in March 1947. They left Bredon in the summer of 1947.

LEFT: Group Captain Martyn Allies (centre) c.1967

After graduating at Bristol University, he re-joined the RAF, as an Education Officer, rising to the rank of Group Captain, retiring in 1972 (photos courtesy Chris Allies)

Martyn Allies was one an elite group of pilots who flew Boeing 247D DZ203/G on automatic landing trials in 1945/1946. LEFT: Boeing 247D DZ203/G performing what was claimed as the world’s first automatic landing, at Defford in 1945. Technology created by Flt Lt ‘Figaro’ Barber at Defford combined with the ‘Black Box’ developed by the American Colonel Moseley and a standard American electric autopilot enabled the Boeing to home on Defford airfield from 50 miles out, line up on the runway and touch down - all without the pilot’s hands and feet on the controls.

8.

LAC Sidney Harrington

Neil Cairns wrote from Leighton Buzzard:

I found your "Defford Airfield 1941-57" book in a local charity shop. My father-in-law was based at Defford and I have some photos. He was only an LAC Radar Mechanic and there in 1942-45. If you want I'll scan them and email to you copies. Alas he died some 8 years ago. (I'm ex-RAF myself, 1966-88, Aircraft Engine Fitter).

In response to a request for more information, Neil subsequently added:

My father-in-law's name was Sidney HARRINGTON. He was born in 1914. Alas, as he has long gone there is no one to ask details from, my wife and her sister know very little, not even his RAF service number. What we 'think' we know is that he was conscripted when about 29/30 years old into the RAF. He did some basic training at the Hull Municipal Tech College in 1943 in Class 38; he then went to Defford as an LAC wearing the lightning arrows flash on his arm. He did claim he did a lot of potato peeling! It was only when I saw his arm flash I realised he had been involved in Radar, and your booklet added evidence. I've only three photos (BELOW), one of him just after joining; one on the Class 38 group, and one of a squadron I assume. He is on the RH side, 3rd row, 6th one in wearing glasses. On demob he went back to the Bucks Water Board, living in Newport Pagnell and worked there all his life as an inspector.

Neil Cairns

Do any of our Defford veteran readers recall LAC Harrington, who served at Defford 1943-1945? Ed.

9. A TRIBUTE TO FOUNDERS OF ‘CONTACT!’ Via John and Ann Sterry, Michael Barnard has provided a freshly minted painting in his inimical style, as a tribute to the founders of ‘Contact!’, Andy Walls and Albert Shorrock. Their photos in uniform while serving at RAF Defford, are inset in the artwork. Albert is of course the Hon. President of DAHG, while Andy is now in a care home in Aberdeen – his daughter Marjorie Roadnight keeps in touch with us and attends DAHG Annual General Meetings (all the way from Scotland) on behalf of her father. We believe these splendid gentlemen are aged 96 and 98 respectively. As Michael Barnard remarks that as he is “Only 90”, Andy and Albert call him ‘Laddie’! Their friends will be pleased to hear both Andy and Albert are well, as are Michael and Pam Barnard.

Andy is the Founder of ‘Contact!’, and when he retired to Scotland, Albert (who was the long-serving Hon. Treasurer of the Reunion Association), took over the editorial chair as well.

Number One, the first edition of ‘Contact!’, the Official Newsletter of the RAF Defford Reunion Association. It can trace its origins to 1945/1946, when those who served at Defford were planning for ‘demob’ but wished to stay ‘In Touch’ with wartime colleagues. There was then a lull until the 1980s when there was renewed interest in the epic story of RAF Defford and those who served at the airfield. The interest spread with more people involved – as well as at the core, veterans who had served at Defford, there were sons, daughters and family members of those veterans, and a few others who simply felt the story of what was achieved at Defford, should be researched, recorded, preserved and made better known. In Albert’s words, “The idea blossomed and on September 11th 1990 when Andy Walls who was an airframe fitter at Defford, organised the First Reunion …” and the RAF Defford Reunion Association was formed with over 50 veterans of Defford as early members. Albert goes on to say the concept was given structure and impetus by Don Smith, a former radar mechanic in the section at Defford. Reunions became an annual event until in 2012 the Reunion Association merged with the more recently formed Defford Airfield Heritage Association. With the passing away of many veterans, Albert retired to become Hon. President of DAHG, a position he holds to this day.

10 A Tribute to the Founders of ‘Contact!’ (continued from. page 9).

Also from Michael Barnard, comes this piece of his art work, He explains that when he (Michael) was an ATC cadet. “…Andy (Walls) told me of this trip over Germany (soon after VE day 1945) in a Lancaster when I told him I flew on a similar trip at that time in another Lancaster II (PA?) ‘936 from the same squadron but with the same pilot, Flt Lt Jack Etchells, also Fg Off Don Parker and Flt Lt Frank Leatherdale …” Above, a copy of an extract from a flying log book, a drawing of the return to Defford of Lancaster II ‘936, and inset, photo of LAC Andy Walls. FINALLY, THE LATEST ON METEOR WD686

Latest news on restoration of Meteor NF11 WD686, the last aeroplane to fly out of Defford in 1958, from Ron Fulton of BDAC at Old Sarum. The news is good. As at February 20th, the engine nacelles on the starboard wing are complete and restored (see photo), together with the jet pipe. Top cover has been fitted over the main full tank in the mid-fuselage, shadow-shade camouflage applied and with period roundels.