An interesting airman - anyone have any reference?

Okay, spoke to John and will catch up with him in a couple of weeks. He gave me some more detail during the brief phone call.

He and two other pilots were attached to an "Army group" with their Hurris initially doing artillery spotting. They eventually got Mk IIDs equipped with "heavy cannon" and usually hit airfields etc.

He flew with 148 Sqn on Wimpys and 178 on Libs.

 

From: www.rafweb.org

148 Squadron

178 Squadron

 

Interesting you say IIDs because there weren't too many squadrons around with them (the majority had the C). Though I need to do some checking, a likely candidate seems to be No 6 Squadron.

 

I thought that as well, Kyt. However, he said IIDs twice as I asked him again! "IIDs?", he said amazed. "Yes", said John, "IIDs."

Sounds like we were talking about Sabrina!

 

The problem is that no histories seem to have been written about 6 Squadron during its WW2 service; nor can I find any decent websites for it.

 

Yeah, I encountered that as well. What about Army Co-op detachments or units that had Hurris attahced to them?

John said he had a couple of photos of an airfield they hit and of him running up a Hurri so we might get some clues from those if I get a chance to scan them. Hopefully seeing him the weekend after this one.

 

Well, you know those books that we were discussing last night about North Africa/Tobruk/Tunisia etc - well, they would have the required info. Unfortunately, I haven't quite got the £200+ for the 3 or 4 books at the moment :cry_smile:

 

Gee, where's your commitment?!

I think you're spot on there, Kyt. With a bit more detail we may not need the books! They would be nice though. Oh boy, they would be nice!

 

Well, I came across John's number and gave him a ring. I said I was having trouble finding references and asked, given his Russian heritage, whether he had served under a different name. When he said no, I asked him what units he flew with. He rattled off some countries and then listed these:

205 Group (fair enough!)
178 Sqn
148 Sqn
Army Group with Hurris - nothing new so far
1675 Heavy Conversion
16 AGS training gunners in Egypt
76 OTU on Wellingtons

That was me scribbling hard. He also said a few other things but by then I had decided he's got more than one logbook!

He said he was free next Monday and Tuesday but I have to work of course. He then said to ring him later next week to arrange a time to talk.

He also mentioned being a horse breaker on the Nullarbor, getting his US Navy driving license and being a supervisor at Exmouth (there was a USN base there in the north of West Oz).

If ever there was a guy who needs a book written on him...

 

Did someone say book?...................

 

LOL, no, dunno what you're talking about, Owen!

Seriously, as you'll see from this thread, I really need to sit down and talk with John. Whenever I've met him, he always mentions something I haven't heard before.

 

1675 Heavy Conversion Unit pictures
RAF Liberator Squadrons Gallery

No 76 Operational Training Unit
Formed at Aqir in Palestine on 1 October 1943, equipped with Wellingtons to train night bomber crews for squadrons in the Middle East, disbanding on 30 July 1945.

 

Spoke to John again and am seeing him next Wednesday arvo. He mentioned he was putting together a talk on the Warsaw Airlift. I've assumed he was involved. Hopefully, some shall be revealed on Wednesday.

Spoke to David Bennett as well and he said John had flown the Judge Advocate General around North Africa to wherever court was in session/required.

 

Spoke to John and have some basic additions:

He was in Italy, based at Foggia, when on Libs. Shared Foggia with 2nd and 97th BGs of the USAAF. Did a lot of supply drops to Tito's forces in Yugoslavia and one extremely low lever run to Warsaw during the uprising. He said the wing (205) lost 37 aircraft during the flights to Warsaw.

An amazing character who is very easy to talk to but you have to keep track as he goes off on tangents. Born in Russia in 1922, his father and mother, surgeon and nurse respectively, led them across the Black Sea in 1932 to escape Stalin's purges. They ended up in England and John went to school before getting involved in the movie business as a projectionist. This led him, at the age of 16, to head to the US where he lived in Queens, New York and then LA where he worked on early colour films and did some flying. He was called back to England by his Dad who said his brother had joined the Army and, since John could fly, he should join the RAF. He arrived back in August 1940 and six weeks later was a Hurri pilot but missed the BoB.

Three tours later... He reckons his total is 106 ops!

Btw, his full name is Raymond John Bailey!

 

Aaargh, I still can't find any reference but it's late so I might be missing something obvious.

 

Can't find a Raymond John Bailey but there is a Raymond BAILEY (61347).

Pilot Officer on probation 21st Feb. 1941.
Pt. Off. (prob.) confirmed. in appts. and to be Flying. Off. (war subs.): — 21st Feb. 1942
Flg. Off. to Flt. Lt. (temp.): — 1st July 1944.
The undermtd. are granted the rank of Ft. Lt. (war subs.): — 2nd Sept. 1945

 

The base shared with the USAAF was Amendola, and it's 205 Group, not Wing.

The actual group was made of Wings:

231 Wing - 37 & 70 Squadron,
236 Wing - 40 & 104 Squadron
240 Wing - No. 31 Squadron, SAAF, 178 Squadron, RAF & 614 Squadron, RCAF -
330 Wing - 142 & 150 Squadron

This site on 37 Squadron may help you build up a picture:

Table of Contents

 

Aircraft lost on Allied Force’s Special Duty Operations & Associated Roll of Honour is a large pdf, but it incorporates the losses of the Warsaw losses:

http://harringtonmuseum.org.uk/Aircraft lost on Allied Forces Special Duty Operations.pdf

 

Thanks Kyt. I've listened to most of the recording again (1.5 hours today, pleased with that effort) and the Wing/Group bit was my error in the post (have even referred to 205 Group in an above post! Pffft!) and Amendola was remembered after posting and listening so thanks for clarifying.

Have another visit with him same time next week. We've made our way, with numerous tangents, to about the time he arrived back in the UK from the US.

 

BBC - WW2 People's War - My RAF Life - Chapter 5