langley
Posts: 183
Joined: 2/1/2005 From: Newbury, Berkshire, England. Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: JeffK quote:
ORIGINAL: jcjordan Andrew some additional things from when I was working on the leaders & from poking around - No488 RAF should be NZ pilot setting as it was an overseas NZ unit but still listed as No488 RAF No435 & 436 RCAF should be RAF with Can pilot setting as they were overseas Canadian units No436 RAF is duplicated with No436 RCAF depending on what you do with 435/436 RCAF No321 RAF should be activated 8/15/42 in SE Asia Ceylon with Dutch pilot setting as it was formed from Dutch pilots escaping from the DEI flying Catalinas upgrading to Lib VI No67 & 243 RAF & No10 RIAF should be set to Commonwealth pilot setting as pilots were mostly from CW not Brit pilots or in the case of No10 Indian it was filled with CW pilots even though it was RIAF but transferred to RIAF at the end of the war & filled at that time with Indian (similar to No5 RAF becoming No5 RIAF after the war). 67 & 243 to get technical should have a pilot setting of NZ as 80-90% of the roster was from NZ but they weren't overseas NZ units just filled with those volunteers for overseas duty. RAF units are quite hard sometimes to tell what pilot nationality is but SE Asia units were filled mostly with pilots from the region so OZ, NZ & Can volunteers filled a good bit of the rosters, which is why I think these units should be CW not Brit. For these units I was able to find a pilot nationality roster of these units as you can see in the leader file I sent you a few weeks ago shows some of the nationalities. JC Making changes like this can open Pandoras can of worms. Each of the units you mention were on the strength of the RAF. It was 488 (New Zealand) Sqn RAF (A Chapter XV EATS Sqn), same goes for 456 (Aust)& 457(Aust) Sqns unitl they returned to Australia and came onto the RAAF strength. IMHO members of these units should be rated as British or Commonwealth, as most were a mixture of Commonwealth pilots and Air Crews. Very few RAF squadrons had 100% British Pilots. The same can be said for the FAA Sqns, there were a lot of Canadians there plus a smattering of OZ & Enzed pilots. The only exception could be 321 (Dutch) Sqn, was it crewed from Dutch pilots sent out from England, I thought the DEI pilots made their way to Australia and crewed 18 & 120 Sqns RAAF. I feel that apart from making 488 squadron either a New Zealand outfit or a Commonwealth outfit to aloud this unit to upgrade to the Hurricane Mk IIb in early 1942 that you are correct and it should be left alone!! This should be done only because this was the was what happen to 488 squadron in early 1942. MJT
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"My God, I hope you don't blame me for this. I had no idea where you were." Air Vice-marshal Pulford upon the loss of "Force Z"
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