REGRETTABLY WE MUST STRESS THAT..........
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18 November 2022
A request has been made seeking the whereabouts of a former 1980's VC10 ALM who was FS Annie Dobson. It concerns a flight operated in 1988. If anyone knows of Annie and how she may be contacted please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or contact the 'Were you on 10 Squadron's VC10s ?' Facebook site.
21 August 2022
The Association has recently had a request from the Netherlands, asking if we can trace any of the crew (- or now most probably and sadly, just their relatives) of a Halifax which was shot down by a Luftwaffe aircraft from 11/NJG 1 and which subsequently crashed at Swier, near Wijnandsrade, north-east of Masstricht in Holland on the night of 22/23 September 1944. A Memorial Walk is held in the area of the crash each year by those from the local area. The email request to us reads:
“ I am a Dutch amateur investigator in the South of Holland and my friend Paul van Zwijndrecht has given me your email address. Paul and I investigate the crash of Halifax Mark III MZ 574 flown by pilot George Kite who lost his life during his crash on 23rd of September 1944 in Wijnandsrade.
Paul and I also found some Halifax parts on the crash site and every year when the “ Memorial Walk” is in Wijnandsrade, we showed the people the Halifax wreck parts.
Our local TV station also made a report about our research:
Https://l1.nl/l1mburg-centraal-halifax-166588/
For next year we want to contact family survivors of the crew and we hope that your 10th squadron association can help us to find some family survivors.
I hope your association are ably to help us “
Does anyone reading this know of any relatives who may be interested in making contact with the Dutch team?
If so, please write direct to Bas Bruls at his email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
The Halifax crew were:
Fg Off G.R.G. Kite Pilot (Can) Killed in the crash
Sgt J.W. McGiverson Flt Eng PoW
Plt Off G.W. Chorley Nav (Can) PoW
Plt Off H.J. Maling Bomb Aimer PoW
FS S.G.T. Saunders Wireless Op Killed in the crash
FS F.P. Mannion Mid Upper Gnr PoW
FS V.I. Simmonds Rear Gnr PoW
It is believed that the Mid Upper Gunner F.P. Mannion, from the Derbyshire town of Glossop, east of Manchester, was an Association member a long while back but regrettably we have no records for him now.
If anyone can help, please get in touch.
August 2022
CREW PHOTO SOUGHT
David Mullinex is the son of former WW2 Hailfax wireless operator Warrant Officer George Mullinex who served on 10 Squadron at RAF Melbourne between November 1943 and August 1944. His crew led by its captain Eric Burgess, completed a full tour of ‘ops’ and George himself carried out 36 flights before being posted away for a non-operational tour at Castle Bromwich, near his home in Birmingham.
Sadly, George passed away ten days before Christmas in December 2016 and his obituary may be seen in our Obituaries Section by scrolling (a fair way) down the list of late former members of the Squadron.
Whilst we have seen numerous crew photographs of the Squadron’s WW2 crews, very few of them are captioned with either dates or names. David Mullinex has since found that he has few (if any) photographs of his father’s ‘Burgess’ crew and now wishes us to ask if anyone has one and if so to please get in contact.
The crew’s last ‘ops’ flight, minelaying near Heligoland on 22/23 May 1944, is given here:
Flt Lt Eric Burgess - captain
Fg Off A. Wallis - nav
FS E.B. Hayes - air bomber
FS George Mullinex – wireless op
Sgt G. Thorpe - mid-upper gunner
Sgt A. Gilliland – flt engineer
Plt Off (Can) A. McCulloch – tail gunner
If you are a relative of any of this crew’s members and have a photograph of them, please get in touch via our 10sqnass@gmail.com address. We will then put you in contact with David Mullinex.
August 2021
FAYID / AQIR -Middle East 1942
My grand father Thomas Latham flew with 76 Squadron as a flight engineer.
He was one of the 16 crews that were sent out to RAF Fayid in July 1942 together with 16 crews from 10 Squadron.
The attached photo is from my grandfather and I’m trying to identify the airmen in it. It was taken at RAF Fayid, Egypt.
Could you please post the photo and ask the question, Who's Who?
Mark Sewell This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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10 Sqn Association Comment:
See attached pdf below for the original photo and two versions which have been enhanced to hopefully identify the personnel more easily.
The Background Story……………
Just as 10 Squadron were preparing to leave Leeming and relocate to Melbourne in July 1942, a number of its crews were detached to the Middle East for what initially was going to be for just a short period of time. It was supposed to be a 16 day detachment named ‘ Operation Bareface ‘ but it transpired that the detachment turned into a posting. In early September the units formed No 462 Sqn Royal Australian Air Force and operated as such for a while, albeit with precious few Aussies.
The picture in the pdf is believed to be of both 10 Sqn and 76 Sqn members who made up the detachment. Initially the detachment was based at Aqir, in Palestine and now an Israeli airfield, but it proved to be too far away from planned targets in the North African Campaign and so it became the Squadron’s maintenance base whilst ops were mounted further forward, usually from Fayid, Egypt, located about 70 miles northeast of Cairo.
If the photo is of 76 Sqn personnel, the chance of a 10 Sqn family recognising a face is probably reduced. However, in early September 1942 the units combined to form No 462 Sqn RAAF and operated as such for a while, albeit with precious few Aussies.
OC 10 Sqn went on record about the consternation and dissatisfaction that this development caused to his men - weddings being rearranged etc as a result for example, and it is assumed that OC 76 had similar feelings.
One response to our enquirer’s original Facebook posting in 2020, came from New Zealand and states, ”I think that the 6th from the left, seated, is my father, R.G.A. ‘Shorty’ Burgess who was on 10 Sqn and out in the Middle East, via Malta, where he flew 16 Operations with 10 and 462 Squadrons.”
Should anyone be able to name any other faces of their relatives in the picture please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.@gmail.com or
Mark Sewell direct at his email address given above.
November 2020
The Association has had an enquiry which some of our 'older' VC10 crew members may be able to answer.....
The end of each VC10 on No 241 OCU culminated in the early days with a 'Global' Trainer. (It was changed in later years to go only as far as Hong Kong.)
A Global Trainer departed Brize Norton on 10 February 1973 and returned home again to Brize on 21 Feb1973.
Its route was via Akrotiri, Gan, Tengah Singapore, Kai Tak HKG, Andersen Guam, Wake Island, Hickham Honolulu, McClellan Sacramento, Offutt Nebraska, Edmonton Namao, Brize Norton. The training captains on board were Sqn Ldrs Al Sheppard and Paddy Delaney.
It is understood that a film crew were on board making a documentary (whether MoD or BBC is unknown).
If anyone who was on that trip can give further information or links to whatever film resulted please get in contact with us.
February 2019
In August 1940 10 Sqn lost a Whitley bomber during on a raid on a Milan, Italy airframe factory. The 2nd pilot Fg Off Kenneth Higson was killed but the rest of the crew led by a Sgt Green (no initials available) were captured and were made PoWs in Stalag Luft lll (of the films 'Wooden Horse' & 'Great Escape' fame).
A book was written after the war by the crew's air gunner, Plt Off Albert E.V. Oliver. It is entitled 'Kreigie'. (this was the German term for a PoW)
Whilst the book is featured on numerous book-seller websites it is presently unavailable at them all.
Should any reader have a copy which they might be prepared to lend to Plt Off Oliver's family for a short while, please get in touch with us via our This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. email address.
February 2018
10 SQN WW2 HALIFAXES NAMED FAROUK
There appear to have been 3 x Halifaxes named Farouk which flew on 10 Sqn from RAF Melbourne in WW2.
The first was a Mk2 with Reg No: DT 792 which crash-landed at Melbourne on 3 August 1943 when flown by Fg Off J.G. Jenkins and crew who all survived. It is believed that the aircraft was written off.
The second possible Farouk was also a Mk2, Reg No: HR924 which when again being flown by Jenkins and crew, was attacked by a German fighter and unable to release their bombs, the crew returned to UK but were advised to bale out before abandoning the aircraft over the Noth Sea off Patrington. Again the crew all survived. It would seem highly lightly that this crew may have also named HR924 Farouk although this fact cannot as yet be proven.
The third Halifax with that name was a Mk 3, Reg No: LW 167. A photo of its nose-art above seems to show a catoon figure with a bomb dangling on the end of a fishing line. It has been suggested that the cartoon character bears a similarity to a variation of the Disney cartoon Snow-White’s ‘Dopey’ dwarf character.
This third aircraft was often flown by the 10 Sqn CO, Wg Cdr Dudley Radford during his time on the Squadron between April and October 1944 but other crews also flew it. After Radford had left the Squadron this aircraft was later shot down on a raid to Magdeburg three months later on 16 Jan 1945, when flown by Fg Off W.E.L. Whitbread and his crew. There were no survivors but the crew are all remembered at the Runnymede Memorial.
Whilst it is known that a detachment from 10 Sqn in July 1942 went to Aqir,Palestine and later Fayid, Egypt, where King Farouk was the ruler, it is unlkely that any of these crews would have later returned to Melbourne since the detachment was to form a separate squadron. - King Farouk was not particularly popular with the British during WW2. However, some of 10/227 ground crews may have returned to 10 Sqn. This detachment was designated 10/227 Sqn and on 7 September 1942 joined with 76/462 Sqn at Fayid, Egypt and was then redesignated 462 (RAAF) Sqn (although there were in fact no Australians on it).
The 10 Sqn Association is attempting to trace the reason why the name Farouk adorned its aircraft as late as 1944/45 since any links with those who had named it back in 1942 would be long lapsed.
If anyone with any knowledge or collection of ‘nose-art’ can throw any light on this query they are invited to get in touch with the 10 Sqn Association via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
OFFICIAL RECORDS
Readers are advised that pdf files of RAF squadron Operations Records Books may be purchased online from the National Archives at Kew. For 10 Sqn, your search should start by looking in the AIR 27 Category. (eg Catalogue Reference: AIR 27/141/13 & 14 for the month of March 1940)
Downloads cost £3.30 each. Before purchasing a particular month it is advisable to click on the " View Details " block to see how many pages your download contains. Some number over 100 whereas others, for the same fee, only include a few (less than 10) pages. Simply click on the red words NATIONAL ARCHIVES below and it will take you directly to the 10 Sqn Catalogue Search page. Do not forget that there were also Royal Australian (Sunderlands), Indian (Spitfires) and South African, Air Forces that had their own 10 Sqns. Do not get confused and purchase records for the wrong squadron!
On detachment overseas in the Middle East 10 Sqn RAF served under the number 10/227 Sqn...............
Unfortunately not all NA downloads are in their correct chronological place, possibly due to errors made when they were scanned from the original documents. If you cannot find the period that you require for your research it may still be available in some other date period...Most frustrating, we know, from personal experience!
We are slowly building up a collection of these Forms 540/541* (see below) for our website members. It is our hope and intention to obtain the full set at some future date. If you already have some, in pdf format, please consider donating a copy to our website. We would be most grateful. Use our contactus facility for this, please.
* Note: The records themselves are in two separate styles:
1. The Form 540, which we in the Association simply call the "Diary", is a summary of the monthly events and lists the day-to-day occurrences on the Squadron. Sometimes these contain humorous remarks, details of the weather and other significant events, together with Postings In/Out, Medal Awards and are therefore, as our name suggests, a Diary of the Events. They usually contain between 2 and 5 pages.
2. The Form 541, which we have termed as "Ops", is more structured in its writing. It is essentially a listing of the "work done" and contains crew lists, aircraft registrations and targets, together with events that occurred to specific crews/aircraft on their missions. Sadly this is also where the phrase, "Missing - Nothing was heard from this aircraft after take-off", frequently occurred in the WW2 F541s. These can contain up to 50 or even more pages.
3. There are also Combat Reports available for download from the National Archives @ £3.30 each. They are under the reference AIR 50/180. Bear in mind that the dates are often a day after those listed in the F541 and they may also be filed under the Air Gunner's name.
If you are the relative of a past Squadron member, researching your family history, don't forget that it costs only £8 per year to join the 10 Sqn Association.
