hello out there!!, I stumbled onto this site last friday, while looking for RAF Killadeas and was facinated by threads from Skyhawk, James S and Peter Clare about 210 sqdn and 131 otu, and especially the crash of AH551, as my uncle Donald Mudd was killed in that crash!! I have some old photos of him and his comrades which i will try and post as soon as i can.
Thank you for posting up your photos - I am always delighted to be able to put another face to a name. Best Regards james S
Steve, Hello and welcome to the forum. I have to say that the original thread about RAF Killadeas is excellent and it is nice to see your photographs posted. Regards Tom
Steve sent me these last night and asked me to post them up extracts from his uncles logbook. The ORB for 131 O.T.U. is very scattered , scrappy and surrenders little detail of what the unit actually did and how they achieved it - this is probably true of most OTU records. What constituted a course , the nature of the training is not detailed nor are the nature of the various training flights , logbook entries are the only sources for this to be honest. ( I will add copies later tonight).
Final pages. I am grateful to Steve for sending me these pages and for allowing me to post them on the forum.
The Bismarck flight , the aircraft was in contact following the 209 and 240 Squadron Catalinas. F/lt. Van der Kiste , I think this gent later commanded 201 Squadron. Gosling and Lewin both well known names. Ogle Skan , Lynwood , Edwards - all well known Lynwood was the CO of 131 at Killadeas , Ogle-Skan and Eddie Edwards , both well known men. Herrington , a historian in post war years , in May 43 he had a crash near Innismakill Island adjacent to the watch tower on Gay island.
Very nice. Thanks very much indeed Steve for sending these and thanks James for posting. Regards Robert.
Here is a photo of Van Der Kiste. It Reads "Wing Commander Guy Van Der Kiste DSO OBE ex 210,201 and 88 Squadrons".
I will contact a grandson of the gent and ask if he can check out the dates in his grandfather's log - almost certainly the same man.
From The Times, May 31, 1941 GALLANTRY IN AIR OPERATIONS PILOT'S RECONNAISSANCE OVER NORWAY The King has approvd the following award in recognition of gallantry displayed in flying operations against the enemy:- DISTINGUISHED SERVICE ORDER Flight Lieut. Robert Edgar Guy VAN DER KISTE, No. 210 Sq. In April this officer was the captain of an aircraft which carried out a reconnaissance of the Norwegian coast from Hammerfest to Harstad, entailing a flight of many hours. The greater part of the reconnaissance had to be carried out at less than 2,000 ft., but Flight Lieut. Van Der Kiste made a skilful use of the low cloud and the topographical features of the country that very little oppostion from the ground was encountered. At Harstad, where there was no cloud, he approached the twon flying just above the water level and, despite anti-aircraft fire, flew right in and completed his reconnaissance. By skilful low flying among the fjords he was able to avoid any damage to his aircraft. On a previous occasion Flight Lieut. Van Der Kiste carried out a reconnaissance at a low altitude under extremely trying conditions. Although his aircraft was damaged by enemy fire, he completed his mission and skilfully flew back to base.
This is one I have as well Robert , it is a good read. I did have some correspondence with the author some years ago but at that time he was not in good health and I really didn't want to be a trouble or a burden. (Some of the diagrams I provided are in the book)
