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General Forums => Aircraft and Vehicles => Topic started by: KD303 on January 06, 2006, 10:10:27 AM

Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: KD303 on January 06, 2006, 10:10:27 AM
OK, as promised here are some of my Dallchy Strike Wing photos. Dallchy Strike Wing was near Banff Strike Wing in NE Scotland and operated Beaufighters. It was found that using Mossies and Beaus together was impractical due to performance differences so they had their own wings. These pictures are all from the same attack on shipping in Risnes fjord, Norway on April 23 1945. They were all taken within seconds (fractions of seconds in some cases) of each other but from different aircraft and offer a fairly unique, multi-perspective view of a single attack with rockets, cannon and machine guns. Black flak bursts can be seen in most of the photographs.
These scans aren't of great quality because they are of large photographs and even then I had to crop them a bit.

This first picture was taken by aircraft "U" of 455 squadron which had just fired 2 rockets. Two Beaufighters can be seen on the left with a lot of tracer coming from the lower A/C. Flak splashes can be seen in bottom left of pic. Much more flak is visible in original but due to cropping you can only see some of it.
http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=m4ce4R (http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=m4ce4R)

This one from  "T" 144 showing a higher view of the scene.
http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=IhEPOYD (http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=IhEPOYD)

This is from "W" 144 Squadron and is quite something. A flak burst can be seen near on of the beaufighters just in front of the plane which took this picture.
http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=Qvclxd (http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=Qvclxd)

This is very dramatic due to the very close proximity to the target and is from "F" 144. This aircraft is just a few feet from the flak postion in the bows of the ship and just about to fly over the flak in the stern. Brave pilots. Note the tracer rounds glowing just to the left of the ship's masts. These appear to be from A/C rather than flak.
http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=yGK5HMIX (http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=yGK5HMIX)

And finally a rear view as they break off the attack leaving a lot of destruction in their wake.From "O" 455 Squadron
http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=ZkqcAU1N (http://www.fileul.com/view.php?file=ZkqcAU1N)

I hope these are of interest and I'm glad to share them. It's worth bearing in mind just how fast this attack would have been and that these images freeze action that took just a few seconds.
I'd be interested to hear any comments about these photographs.

KD
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Fencer51 on January 06, 2006, 10:56:40 AM
er.. links? :huh
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: KD303 on January 06, 2006, 12:15:07 PM
Links took a while to get working properly. Also I wrote Dallchy in the text of my post. Should be Dallachy.

KD
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Furball on January 06, 2006, 12:23:46 PM
unbelieveable.

thank you so much for sharing these & the Banff pics.
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: KD303 on January 06, 2006, 03:29:01 PM
BTW, if you want to see the pictures in a smaller form to give you a better over-all view then click under the photo where it says, "You can download your file here". Left click the "Here" and you'll get a small version.

KD
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Scherf on January 06, 2006, 09:27:36 PM
Those are quite exceptional photos mate.

Only two words come to mind:

More! More!
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: SMIDSY on January 07, 2006, 08:58:54 AM
i showed these photos to my dad. apperently my grandfather flew in them durring the war. and here i thought he only flew in black widows.
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Furball on January 07, 2006, 10:28:08 AM
iirc the US used beaufighters for a while when they were waiting for Black Widows to be made.  i may be mistaken though.

i love the beaufighter, made such an under rated contribution during WWII, i bet the pilot has a fantastic forward view from that position.

(http://www.ww2guide.com/beau_7.jpg)
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Debonair on January 07, 2006, 04:15:53 PM
I met a USAAC P-61 pilot once, he said they used Mossies before the P-61s & that the Mossies were better because they were faster
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Angus on January 07, 2006, 05:17:05 PM
The Beau was well armed, decently fast, and rugged.
However, I've heard that it was hard to fly.

It would probably have a place in AH, someting with cannons, Rockets AND a torpedo is a formidable anti shipping weapon.

Anyway, wonderful pictures and thanks for sharing!
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Karnak on January 07, 2006, 07:16:32 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Debonair
I met a USAAC P-61 pilot once, he said they used Mossies before the P-61s & that the Mossies were better because they were faster

Yup.  Mossie was the best nightfighter of WWII.

Well, maybe those Me262 nightfighters, but I'd have to know more about their radar performance and the pilot's workload.
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: KD303 on January 07, 2006, 08:05:48 PM
Glad you find them as interesting as I do.
The Beau was also a good NF in its day. "Cats Eyes" Cunningham himself (he hated the nickname apparently) clocked many of his kills in the Beau. Most? If I remember correctly, he and R/O John Philipson made the first Beaufighter radar interception of an enemy A/C.
It's amusing that even today people write that he was called "Cats Eyes" because of his exceptional eyesight, seemingly unaware of the fact that it was a cover story, along with the carrot eating story, to protect the then very secret airborne interception radar.

Anyway, let's try and keep this thread about Beaus and preferably the above photographs and related stuff.

KD
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Angus on January 08, 2006, 05:27:31 PM
The top scoring RAF nightfighter pilot "pair" started off in a Beau, and ended off in a Mossie, - named the "eager beaver"
The pilot's name was "J.G.Benson", he flew together with Lewis Brandon most of the time.
Benson scored his first in a Defiant (!), then onto Beau's and eventually Mossies, Mk II and the XIX. KIlls were He 111, Do's, Ju88's, Ju 188's, 110 and closing with a He 219.
Much of the action was over the mainland of Europe.
They bagged some V-1's at night as well. (not a radar scramble, they saw their flares and caught them!)
I have a book from them something for Karnak I guess ;)
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Klum25th on January 08, 2006, 07:03:38 PM
Nice pics. Its just cool to see photos taken of one pass with about 5 planes can do to a ship.

Beau would be awsome to have in AH2. I can see my self blowing up some ships, and bases with thing.

Do you have any P47 ground attack photos. I know P47 guys liked to go for trains, buildings, just about anything that moved and had something german on it.
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: KD303 on January 09, 2006, 01:48:29 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Klum25th
Do you have any P47 ground attack photos. I know P47 guys liked to go for trains, buildings, just about anything that moved and had something german on it.


If you do a search on google you'll find  P47 gun camera pics and movies. I have no original P47 photos.

By the way, there were a lot more than 5 planes involved in the attack in Risnes Fjord.

KD
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: SMIDSY on January 09, 2006, 06:56:35 PM
i wish we had the beufighter. :cry  PWEEZ! HTC!! give us teh bwistowl
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: DoKGonZo on January 10, 2006, 12:36:27 AM
Cool plane, but do we need a slower Mosi?

I'd rather have the B-25H ... 8 forward firing .50's, 3000 lbs of bombs, and a 75mm cannon.

(http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/bombers/b25h-4.jpg)
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: icemaw on January 13, 2006, 11:24:58 AM
Quote
Originally posted by DoKGonZo
Cool plane, but do we need a slower Mosi?

I'd rather have the B-25H ... 8 forward firing .50's, 3000 lbs of bombs, and a 75mm cannon.

(http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/bombers/b25h-4.jpg)


Now thats an HO monster would love to hunt dweebs in lala's with that!
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: Karnak on January 13, 2006, 11:34:59 AM
The 75mm cannon on the B-25H was loaded manually.  The loader could not load it under any sort of manuevering.  In tests the USAAF found the 57mm Mollins gun on the Mosquito Mk XVIII to be superior due to the autofeed.
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: DoKGonZo on January 13, 2006, 01:11:38 PM
Yeah. But the B25H would be great for going after fleets and bases. The A20G is nice, but it doesn't have cannon for dealing with GV's or ships.
Title: Dallachy Strike Wing Beaufighter Photos
Post by: gripen on January 13, 2006, 04:50:49 PM
Cool pictures, Thanks.

gripen