Newsletter of the 14 Squadron Association

Mike Napier

Hon Secretary's Bit

October '04 Reunion

The October '04 Reunion was held at the Garden House Hotel in Stamford and largely thanks to the efforts of Bill Yates was very well attended, with 43 of us present. The venue was excellent and the food was superb – so good in fact that we're going back this year! The following (in alphabetical order) attended:

John Arthur, Steve Beardmore, Ron Clark, Marcus Cook, Nige Cookson, Alison & Amy Donovan, Brian Dutton, John Galyer, Tony & Biny Gregory, Mike Hathaway, Andy Jeremy, Ed & Eileen Jones, Colin & Priscilla Labouchere, Stu & Polly Morton, Douglas & Lynda Moule, Mike Murtagh, Mike & Shani Napier, Mike Oldham, Snip Parsons, Rick & Alison Pearce, Tim Rust, Hugh Skinner, AVM Deryck Stapleton, Bernie Tebb, Kevin & Erika Toal, Roy & Wendy Trotter, Binkey & Jane Wells, Larry Williams, Doug & Pat Wilson, Bill & Olive Yates.

 

90th Anniversary

The Squadron marked its 90th Anniversary with a weekend of celebration at RAF Lossiemouth. It was a splendid weekend, the focus of which was a formal dinner for 360-ish, held in the Squadron's hangar. The Squadron produced a commemorative booklet about its 90 year history – if anyone would like a copy, please let me know (or contact the Squadron directly)

 

News of People

In no particular order, it was good to see Russ Torbet at Lossiemouth where he is in his last year as the Station Commander. Tim Anderson takes over as Commandant of the Air Warfare Centre later this year. Tim Rust has started flying Boeing 757s with DHL and Marcus Cook has started as an Inspector with the Air Accident Investigation Branch. Mike Murtagh is now an Ops Inspector at the CAA. Nick Maunder is still on 14 Sqn but leaves the RAF soon to help run a nursery in Elgin. Also back on 14 Squadron is Andy Glover. Tom Boyle, one of the few ex-Squadron Commanders to attend the 90th Anniversary finishes his stint as a full-time reservist Tornado pilot soon. Also at the 90th Anniversary Arthur Galilee represented the wartime generation, along with our President AVM Deryck Stapleton. I'm still in touch via e-mail with Colin Campbell in Australia, as well as fellow antipodeans John Robertson and Wal Clark-Hall via more traditional forms of communication. Chris Platt is at Strike Command, but commutes home to Lossiemouth, which reminds me of Martin Spanswick who is trying to work out how to live in South Wales but work at Wyton! I was delighted to hear from Nick Hampson, now living in Yeovil.

Information Wanted!

Please can anyone help with the following requests I've received since the last newsletter? Please can you wartime chaps have a good look through your memory cells!

Eugene Stout - Eugene ("Ellie") Stout, an American who joined up via the RACF, was a tail gunner in Haddingham's crew in 1944. His grandson is keen to know anything about his service with the Squadron and wonders if there are any photos of him and the crew.

John Jeudwine - a relative of John Jeudwine is keen to find out about his time on the Squadron and any information about his death in a single-seater aircraft in UK in 1945.

Herb Ford - Sgt Herbert Frank Ford RAAF was killed when John T Willis' aircraft crashed into the Bay of Tunis during a mine-laying operation in Dec 1942. His nephew wants to find out more about Herb's time on 14 Squadron – I suspect that he was with Willis on Blenheims before the conversion to Marauders. Has anyone got a photograph of Herb Ford?

Raymond Eland - Raymond Eland served on the Squadron between 1939 and 1944, I think, but don't know, that he was in a ground trade. Can anyone remember him and give any details of his service with the Squadron? His younger brother wishes to find out more about his wartime service.

Reginald Lodge - Flt Sgt Reginald Lodge was killed during a landing accident at Castel Benito in Jul 1942 with Plt Off Dolan at the controls. Can anyone provide any more details of Reginald lodge's service or of the accident, for his wife?

Run down of the RAF immediately after WW2 – can anyone help a researcher who is writing a book on this subject? Let me know if you want to help and I'll put you in touch.

HALT! Who Goes There?

It was the autumn of 1954. A very young airman, straight from trade training at St Athan was posted to14 Squadron at RAF Fassberg in Northern Germany, not too far away from the border between the Britsh Zone and the Russian Zone.

The AC plonk was put on a Ground Combat Training course more or less straight away and on completion, after he had proved he could fire a rifle after running 400 yards down the range and firing after each 100 yards, he was issued with a "Small Arms Proficiency Certificate" (2TAF Form 80) to put in his Airman's Service Book (RAF Form 64). This chit indicated he was "proficient in the use of and has fired the under mentioned firearm (which was the said rifle) on the date stated"

Now that the airman had this valuable certificate it meant that he had to do his share of hangar guard duty. At Fassberg this was an all-nighter, patrolling inside the hangar with a Lee-Enfield 303 rifle loaded with a clip of 5 rounds, which had been issued by the Orderly Officer at the start of the duty. (Not like at Sylt where you were only armed with a pickaxe handle!)

All was going well: he had his overnight rations from the cookhouse, the aircrew crew room had the coffee and their armchairs were very comfortable. Then he heard a banging noise coming from the far end of the hangar. This was where the Squadron kept their MT vehicles in a largish room that had access via an outside door. He thought someone was trying to gain an entry via this door.

Cautiously he crept down the side of the hangar wall until he reached the room where the banging noise was coming from. He looked into the room, could see nothing untoward, but the noise continued so he shouted "Halt who goes there?" The noise still continued so he said loudly, "I have a loaded rifle and I'm coming in". With this he put a bullet up the spout rather noisily. He crept in down the side of the room looking for signs of legs or feet between the wheels of the vehicles. No sign, so he went in further. By this time his heart was thumping and he was getting very uptight. At that moment there was a loud bang behind him - instinctively he turned very quickly and fired his rifle. His ears were ringing from the noise in the enclosed space. As the bullet then ricocheted around the room (fortunately missing him) he realised that all the noise had all been caused by an airlock in a radiator on the wall! When he had regained his composure he went back to the aircrew crew room and made himself a very strong mug of coffee.

In the morning the Orderly Officer (who was aircrew luckily, not a Rockape) returned for reports and to collect his clip of 5 bullets. When he was given only 4 live rounds, an empty cartridge and an explanation he just laughed and said no more. The airman went back to the room to try to find the bullet, but was unsuccessful so he kept quiet about it (until now!).

But I'm glad to say, the ringing in my ears had gone, I had regained my composure and I had a clear conscience as I had my chit saying I could fire a rifle! 'Nuff said!!!!

Sandy Sanderson

Memoires of a Sprog Mosquito Pilot on 14 Squadron

The concluding part of Mike Levy’s adventures…

Two days after the BAFO Air Display 14 and 98 Squadrons were detached to West Malling which was always our venue for UK detachments. We invariably shared a dispersal with No.29 Squadron who flew Mosquito night-fighters. We came to know West Malling extremely well and that added to the interest when we carried out night intruder attacks on it during UK major exercises. On these we would hang around the target airfield with navigation lights off for about thirty minutes, from time to time making simulated attacks on buildings and on the night-fighters as they took off or landed.

Our detachment to West Malling on this occasion was to take part in the RAF Display at Farnborough. This was, as far as I know, the only post-war resurrection of the RAF Pageants at Hendon which were annual events up to 1939. West Malling was full of aircraft for this event. In addition to the three resident Mosquito night-fighter squadrons, plus 14 and 98, there were also the Linton-on-Ouse and Church Fenton wings of single-seater DH Hornet fighters. The task of 14 and 98 was to re-create the wartime bombing by Mosquitoes of Amiens Prison when the attack had to be extremely precise to knock down parts of the building to allow the escape of French resistance fighters who were due for execution. For this a model of the prison was built on Farnborough Airfield and the attacks were as authentic as possible with interceptions of the attacking Mosquitoes being made by Spitfires in painted in German markings. The RAF Display was repeated on two days, 7 and 8 July 1950. For the sake of authenticity our attacks were made by echelons of three aircraft and this raised a certain problem. We were dropping practice bombs on the target although explosive charges detonated from the ground were fitted in the target.

Naturally we wanted our bombs to hit the target but its small size made this difficult for an attack in echelon. The target was an excellent representation of the original prison but it was scaled down and was only about 100 feet wide. As the wing span of a Mosquito was 54' 2" it will be real1sed that three aircraft could not be fitted into this width. We therefore flew our echelons with the aircraft well stepped back with wing-tips overlapping. Even so, as a No.3, I could not get lined up on the target. I therefore decided to slide across and below the other two as we approached the target. As they were flying at about 50 feet and the target was about 30 feet high this got quite exciting, particularly as I was in the slipstream of the leading two aircraft! I tended to cross the target with rapid control movements to full travel in either direction.

Another little problem that came to light during practices before the Display was that of our bombs skipping. The target was only made of canvas so that our bombs went straight through it, skipped on the hard ground surface and bounced over a line of trees beyond to land in some aircraft dispersals on the airfield perimeter. The RAE civilians working at these dispersals got quite annoyed about it.

In September we were back at West Malling again to take part in the Battle of Britain Flypast over London. Although we completed a couple of rehearsals flying in a formation of 36 Mosquitoes, including the West Malling and other night-fighter squadrons, the weather on the day was, as ever, appalling and the flypast was restricted to just a solitary Spitfire and Hurricane. We stayed on at West Malling for a couple of extra days to take part in the station's own Battle of Britain Display. In the meantime we had sent one aircraft back to Celle to load up with 60 lb IT bombs and bring them to Malling. On the day each of our four aircraft carried one, as did four from 98 Squadron. This was the occasion when both squadrons missed the target and 98 Squadron sustained blast damage to their aircraft.

Incidentally each of the four Celle Mosquito squadrons tended to develop their own formation specialities. Nos. 4 and 11, flying the much lighter and more responsive Mark VIs, tended to do fighter-type upward fan breaks over the airfield. 98 spent hours running backwards and forwards over the airfield with very steep pull-ups and wing-overs at each end. They were led by Flight Lieutenant Roger Topp, who won an AFC for his outstanding number of met climbs at Wahn and Celle, a bar to it for later test-flying solo the Comet I airliner trying to determine why two of the BOAC models had disappeared without trace and a further bar for his work in leading the Hunters of No.l11 Squadron, the Black Arrows, in some of the most outstanding formation aerobatic demonstrations of all time. It was Roger who led the famous formation loop of 22 Hunters at one of the SBAC shows at Farnborough.

We on 14 developed a bomb-burst type of formation break. We would approach the airfield low, then Nos.2 and 3 would break upwards to right and left respectively, the leader would pull hard up straight ahead before banking left at the top to follow No.3 round the circuit, while I in the box went down as sharply as possible, usually disappearing below trees on the edge of the airfield. I would then hold the aircraft down before pulling up to the left to follow the leader. We used to land in the order of 3, 1, 4, 2. It was ideal if there was a depression in the ground beyond the airfield, such as at West Malling, as that allowed me to steepen the dive more. To try to achieve a steep attitude I used to snap the throttles closed closed, push the stick hard forward and almost immediately have to increase to full power on the pullout. It was apparently quite spectacular viewed from the ground and certainly un-nerving for the unfortunate navigator who flew with me!

Having lost my original crewman, I used to fly with a variety of different navigators. However, during 1950 the man with whom I flew most of all was Flight Sergeant Felix Suskiewicz, a really outstanding Polish navigator. Felix had flown something like 80 operational Mosquito sorties during World War 2 in the Second Tactical Air Force. He had started before the 1944 Normandy landings and had operated right across Europe as the Allied armies had advanced. His pilot at that time was the same Flight Lieutenant Atkins who had taken me on my first-ever ride in a Mosquito from Lasham in 1944.

Soon after our return from West Malling in September 1950 we were engaged in Operation Broadside, a joint Army/Air Force exercise in Germany.

An interesting sortie was on the night of 23 September. Six of us were briefed to make a night attack on a wood South-West of Hanover which was reputed to hide a divisional HQ. We were to use parachute flares, a technique that we had not used before. The plan was that we would attack individually at intervals of about two minutes. The leader would identify the target wood visually and drop a flare over it. As the flare lit, I as No.2 would be starting my dive to come in and attack under it. I would then do a 270 degree climbing turn and drop another flare to illuminate the dive attack by No.3 who then illuminated for No.4 and so on until the leader made the final attack under the flare from No.6. At take-off time there was heavy rain and low cloud at Celle but we streamed off at two-minute intervals. About 20 minutes out we broke clear into bright moonlight. The attack was a great success, but we did not leave it at that.

In the canopy of the Mosquito we carried a Very pistol which fired vertically upwards. In addition to the coloured signal cartridges, which we never used, we carried white illuminating cartridges which burned longer and gave off an intense light. Having finished our planned attack we milled about on the deck in the moonlight attacking anything that we saw. I found a line of trucks parked down a road which I was able to report as military as I had seen men alongside with rifles slung over their shoulders! At one stage we flew in a long line in a steep turn round the target wood with our navigators firing illuminating cartridges as fast as they could.

It turned out that the poor pongos, from the general downwards, spent most of the night fighting fires in the wood. They took it in good part though and sent us a signal saying they were glad that we were really all on the same side. Apparently, as the attack had started, the general had been briefing his officers Montgomery-style alongside his caravan when one of our flares crunched into the ground right alongside.

On 1 November 1950, 14 and 98 Squadrons moved to Fassberg, while 4 and 11 stayed at Celle to convert onto Vampire FB.5s. I flew seven more sorties from Fassberg before the runway became unserviceable through snow and ice. My last trip was with Felix Suskiewicz on an air test on 16 November. I never flew a Mosquito again after that.

I left 14 Squadron on 28 December 1950, travelling on my own on various troop trains to Vienna. From there I was flown to RAF Zeltweg, a care-and maintenance airfield in Austria, which I commanded for two months while the regular CO went on leave and courses. There I got involved in catching spies, the court-martial of a previous CO and other unusual events but that is another story. I returned to the UK in March 1951 to attend the Central Flying School and train to be an instructor. From there I went to instruct on Meteors at Driffield where I had completed part of my Mosquito training in 1948.

To finish perhaps a few points about personnel matters would be in order. Arriving on 14 Squadron in 1948 as a Pilot Officer I was paid 16 shillings per day. In 1949 I was promoted to Flying Officer on 18 shillings per day. In July 1950 I became a Flight Lieutenant on 23 shillings per day. Within a month things changed dramatically. As a result of the Korean War the Government had to reverse their run-down of the Services and there was a critical shortage of aircrew recruits. The pay structure was therefore much improved and flying pay was introduced. I therefore had an increase from 23 to 29 shillings per day plus 9 shillings per day "flying pay". I had never known such riches before. Even so only one officer on the Squadron owned a car and most of us moved around on bicycles.

With BAFO being an occupation force in Germany, the only people allowed to live off the station were those in married quarters which were usually requisitioned houses. On the Squadron there were only about three officers and no NCO aircrew living in married quarters, the rest living in their respective messes. As a result there was a marvellous team spirit with much rivalry between squadrons. Adding in the exciting and enjoyable flying meant that people were really sorry to come home.

Recon Over Rome

Gil Graham, Marauder Tail Gunner, 1943

This is the story of one of the more unusual operations carried out by Dick Maydwell as pilot with myself in the usual place - rear gunner. The policy was that vital military targets in Rome should be bombed by a combined force of RAF bombers and US bombers. The problem was that the Vatican and other most holy places in the city were NOT to be touched. A great deal of planning went into this operation, and as part of that planning it was determined that weather over the entire target area had to be perfect. In order to be absolutely certain of this, it was decided that a Marauder of 14 Squadron would fly to the target area on the morning of the raid, check the weather conditions in the immediate target area and radio the results back to base. Only if the weather was perfect would the raid take place.

So on the 19th July, 1943, Marauder FK 142 ("R" Robert) and named "Dominion Triumph" with Dick Maydwell at the controls and Gil Graham looking after the rear end took off from our base at Protville in Tunisia at 0300 hours (well before dawn) and flying at our operational height of 50 feet headed across the Mediterranean for Rome hoping that we would not be picked up by enemy radar.

The first big surprise came a few minutes after crossing the Italian coast near Anzio when we found ourselves streaking across an enemy field at deck level doing around 260 miles an hour. So surprised were we that I didn't have time to open up on a neat row of Heinkel 111 bombers all neatly lined up alongside the runway. Dick gave me hell when we got back for missing an excellent opportunity to damage or destroy a considerable number of enemy aircraft in one go. However he later apologised because it might have been a fatal mistake if I had opened fire without his permission. Had I done so we may well have alerted the Germans to our presence in the area and would possibly have had half the Luftwaffe fighters looking for us before we had completed the essential part of our mission.

However we got to the target area where the weather was indeed perfect and even though this was around dawn, we were certain that cloud would not develop later in the day. The information was immediately radioed back to base.

We flew over the target area and then continued to fly north and to our delight came to Lake Bracciano where we noticed a number of seaplanes anchored. By now we had completed' essential part of our mission, Dick decided we would try to knock out one or two of the seaplanes. We flew down right alongside them and I opened up on them a saw some strikes on several of them. Reconnaissance the next day showed at least 3 badly damaged and lying on their side in the water.

A few minutes later we came across a goods train so we strafed it as well but couldn't asses our results.

We now turned due west a headed for open sea, but as we crossed the coast I noticed considerable numbers of fighters at a higher altitude, but fortunately we ran into a bank of sea fog before they saw us. This provided -us with excellent cover until we were off the coast of Sardinia when we turned south and headed for home where we arrived at 0810 just in time for breakfast.

This mission on the face of may seem extremely easy, but just consider that alone and unescorted we were in very hostile territory the moment we left the Tunisian Coastline. Consider that we had flown alone and then look the fighter escort needed when the raid took place - all told, something like 169 P38s, and it's interesting to note that 107 B- 26s took part in the raid. I think this was the biggest raid ever carried out in the Mediterranean Theatre and I felt pleased to have played small part in it.

On reflection, life might not have been too pleasant had a dozen or so 109s caught sight of us..

NOT YOUR AVERAGE "JOE"

Diary of Alfred "Joe" Tait RCAF, Marauder Navigator - Ghisonaccia, Corsica 1944

May 11 - Eventful Day. Did a 6-hr. 40-minute recco of the French Coast from Nouvelle to Marseilles. We first sighted the 3000 Ton ex-French ship Saumur (German controlled) of Nouvelle. This ship has been sought for a real long time as it is believed to have constantly carried cargo, especially wolfram, from Spain to German-held France. About an hour and a quarter after sending out our message, we got orders to relocate the Saumur: We sighted it approximately in the position where we expected it to be, but unfortunately. It was escorted by 3 ME 109 G 6's (latest type of ME 109) and as we came reasonably near the ship they gave chase to us. Sabe {Lantinga, the pilot] immediately turned our aircraft towards home, used full revs and boost on the aircraft but could only get a top speed of 260 m.p.h. straight and level. When the three enemy aircraft were first sighted by Yours Truly, they were approximately 4 miles away, but they caught us up very easily in about 4 minutes. These 3 aircraft certainly were persistent as they made in the vicinity of 30 attacks and seemed to let go with everything they had. Their first attack was by two of them simultaneously from directly behind closing in to about 200 yards when they fired on us. As they committed themselves to the attack, our rear gunner, Pete, gave them both a burst from his gun which forced them back a bit. Alex, the Wireless Operator, did a marvellous job as fighter controller giving Sabe very good directions, who in turn threw the aircraft superbly about in very violent evasive action, managing to keep their hits on our aircraft down to a minimum. I sent messages out to the effect that we were being attacked by enemy aircraft.

During one of their attacks, one burst put a hole in the main gas tank and until the hole self-sealed due to its construction, we lost a good stream of gas. One hit on the aircraft appeared to Sabe that he has lost one engine,- but it was only a hit on his rudder control. Immediately, he compensated this by three degrees of rudder trim. The three Messerschmidts lost no time in bringing home their attacks because as the two aircraft in the rear broke off from their attacks, the other one came in from either side. At one time this third aircraft third aircraft came over top of us, made an attack from the front, then dove down underneath us. The Wireless Operator thought at first that this aircraft had gone in the water as we ourselves were very low.

Pete, our tail gunner, had about the toughest time of all, as at one stage of the dogfight he had a stoppage of his gun, so he had to let the aircraft come in very freely for attacks. He was always very much pleased to see the bursting shells whistle by either side after Alex gave Sabe instructions to skid either left or right. In the first place these bursts were coming directly for him. When Pete repaired his stoppage, he surprised one of the aircraft when he came in close and gave it a very good burst. This aircraft appeared to be damaged and as the aircraft turned its belly up to turn towards the coast our turret gunner, Ron Eaton, secured hits on the aircraft. As this hit aircraft turned towards home black smoke was streaming from it profusely and losing height gradually the boys saw this until it was out of sight. The other two made one more attack each before turning towards home, either because their ammunition was expended, or to go in aid of their comrade who was m trouble.

The 3 aircraft were firing 20 or 30mm cannons and machine guns. The attack lasted for about 15 minutes. It was quite a day for Ron Eaton, as it was his 20th birthday. At times he didn't know which of the 3 aircraft to shoot at since they were all so close. The boys could see the pilots in each aircraft and the big German crosses on the kites. Pete, to my mind, was a hero as he has a damaged aircraft or a probable to his credit. It is too bad we couldn't have found out but we were in too much danger, other two damaged.

After the attack was over & we settled down to normal cruising speed once more & climbed a bit higher than usual, reports from different crew members were passed on to the pilot. One generator was shot away so we flew back on one generator. The big thing that worried the pilot on the way back was that a good sized hole was made in the nacelle, where the port wheel was, so he feared a burst tyre which would be bad for landing. A damaged flap also gave Sabe much concern.

Soon after we flew over our aerodrome, Sabe selected the undercarriage down so as to inspect the port tyre for holes - it looked okay to all hands. As he selected undercarriage down, there had been a hole in the hydraulic pipeline so we lost the hydraulic fluid through this break and the hydraulic pressure dropped down. There was not enough pressure to put down the nose wheel. We opened the front door and tried to force the front wheel down but to no avail. So Roy, our second pilot, used the hydraulic emergency pump which pumped the nose wheel down & locked it into position. Since there was no more hydraulic pressure left, the pilot knew there would be no flaps or brakes to help out in landing, so he instructed us all to prepare for a crash landing. He brought the aircraft in very low, just skimming over the tops of the trees and he did as he aimed to do - landed the aircraft right on the end of the runway as he came in at a speed of 170 m.p.h. instead of the usual 130. As the aircraft touched down lightly, the port tyre just flattened down so we did a gradual swing to the left, going off the runway over some rough ground. Sabe managed to save the nose wheel leg at one time when going over this rough ground. There was a big bump ahead, so he lifted up the nose wheel to clear the bump, then let it down again. It was really a swell landing and grand airmanship on Sabe's part - none of us were hurt.

Altogether, there were 88 holes in the aircraft, the damage being in these areas: 1 A hole in the main spar and gas tank (thanks to self-sealing tanks); 2. Mainplane skin was buckled at the port root; 3. Severe damage to port flap & flap hinges & jack (if flaps had been selected down, the engineer officer said it would likely have fallen oft); 4. A good-sized hole in the port nacelle which severely damaged & made useless the tyre, airbrakes, generator, forward bulkhead , (also damage to the exhaust manifold); 5. Hole in the rudder; 6. Damage to the trailing edge of the port elevator; 7. Large hole and many smaller ones through the starboard fuselage; 8. One larger hole & several smaller ones through the fuselage tail near the rear gunner's position; 9. Holes through the starboard nacelle and propeller; 10. Several holes through the fuselage belly; 11. Damage to elevator; 12 Main hydraulic line shot up; 13. Leading edge of the port mainplane damaged; 14. Very near miss on port oil tank and several dents in this tank.

Remembering the Forgotten Mechanic

Through the history of world aviation

Many names have come to the fore

Great deeds of the past in our memory last,

As they are joined by more and more.

When man first started his labours

In his quest to conquer the sky

He was designer, mechanic and pilot

And he built a machine that would fly,

But somehow the order got twisted,

And then in the public's eye

The only man that could be seen

Was the man who knew how to fly.

The pilot was everyone's hero

He was bold, he was brave, he was grand

As he stood by his battered old biplane

With his goggles and helmet in hand.

 But for each of these flying heroes

There were thousands of little renown.

And these were the men worked on the planes

But kept their feet on the ground...

We all know the name of Lindbergh.

And we have read of his flight to fame...

But think, if you can, of his maintenance man –

Can you remember his name?

Now pilots are highly trained people.

And wings are not easily won...

But without the work of the maintenance man

Our pilots would march with a gun...

So when you see mighty aircraft

As they mark their way through the air.

The grease stained man with the wrench in his hand

Is the man who put them there...

 

Thanks to Ron Clark for sending this!

Centenary Project

We've just celebrated 90 years of 14 Squadron – not long now until we will be celebrating a full century! It would be a great opportunity to mark the centenary by producing a Squadron history recording the people, aircraft, places, incidents and daily life on 14 Squadron over 100 years. I envisage the history being made up from personal accounts and photographs. A plea, then, for any material

In Memoriam

I am sorry to report that the following Crusaders have been posted to that great Squadron in the sky:

Cecil Goodwin DFC died in 2002 aged 94. A member of the RAAF, Cecil was a navigator and served with the Squadron in the Middle East, doing several flights with Dick Maydwell.

Kevin Toal died in April this year of a heart attack. Kevin served with the squadron on Canberra B(I)8s during the late '60s. On a happy note, his well-attended funeral was an opportunity for many of his colleagues from 14 Squadron days to meet up again.

Pete Esau died in a motorbike accident in May. Tornado folk will remember Pete as the A Shift Rects controller in the mid-90s.