A massive continuing thanks to Brian for his ongoing efforts with the 1940 Form 540 – June is now added to our collection for your perusal.
Slowly, but steadily the 540’s for the War are coming together – but there are still a lot of months to do – so if you want to step up and join Brian and others, then please contact me!
Read Form 540 June 1940 here.
My continuing thanks to Brian for his sterling single handed efforts with Operational Record Book for 1940 – May 1940 has now been added to the ‘Squadron Records’ section of the blog.
Included in Brian’s email were a couple of ‘transcribers notes’ of interest:
“May 17th. Weather report – Cloud section has the only examples I have seen in the ORBs were the ampersand is used instead of “at”.”
“May 21st. Formation of new flight. It would seem that although the New Zealand flight took over the 75 number plate in April 1940 it still operated as a flight until this date when it split into “A” and “B” flights and officially became a Squadron. Presumably following an expansion in the number of aircraft and personnel.”
View May 1940 here.
My repeated thanks to Hubert and Martyn for their continuing efforts transcribing the Squadron ORB’s. I am pleased to announce and present another 2 new, complete Form 540’s, for March 1944 and April 1945.
I will once again, repeat my call out to all of you for volunteers to join Brian, Hubert and Martyn in the ORB project – every month that someone finds the time to transcribe, completes another small part of the overall Squadron record and provides more information for people visiting the website.
View Form 540 March 1944 here.
View Form 540 April 1945 here.
My thanks again to Brian for his continuing efforts transcribing the Squadron ORB’s. I am pleased to announce and present another new complete Form 540 for May 1945.
I will once again, repeat my call out to all of you for volunteers to join Brian, Hubert, Martyn and Dave in the ORB project – every month that someone finds the time to transcribe, completes another small part of the overall Squadron record and provides more information for people visiting the website.
View May here.
My repeated thanks to Hubert for his continuing efforts transcribing the Squadron ORB’s. I am pleased to announce and present another 2 new complete Form 540′s for November and December 1944.
I will once again, repeat my call out to all of you for volunteers to join Hubert, Martyn and Dave in the ORB project – every month that someone finds the time to transcribe, completes another small part of the overall Squadron record and provides more information for people visiting the website.
Many thanks to Martyn for completing a new month for the ORB project. I am pleased to announce and present a new complete Form 540 for March 1945.
This is Martyn’s first experience at a transcription activity and he noted in his email with the month that the concentrated process of reading, typing and reviewing made him feel that he was actually within the events being described on the pages of the document – I know this feeling and from personal experience, I have also felt a real sense of sadness when a crew, who through a protracted transcription activity, becomes a regular and familiar set of names, are it feels, suddenly lost again in front of your eyes.
I was told repeatedly at school, that the best way to learn and understand something is to copy it down – I think this is doubly true for the ORB’s.
There are plenty of pages left – maybe some of you might like to see the events of a month with the Squadron in a new light.
See March 1945 here.
Many thanks to Hubert for his continuing efforts transcribing the Squadron ORB’s. I am pleased to announce and present 2 new complete Form 540’s for September and October 1944.
I will repeat my call out to all of you for volunteers to join Hubert, Martyn and Dave in the ORB project – every month that someone finds the time to transcribe, completes another small part of the overall Squadron record and provides more information for people visiting the website.
Many thanks indeed to Hubert, son of Hubert Rees, lost on the Homberg raid of the 20th November 1944, for kindly taking the time to add another 2 months to the ORB Form 540 Archive. Having done a number myself, Hubert’s effort and patience in transcribing these 2 months is fully appreciated.
If we have any other masochists out there that would perhaps like to give some time to add a another month to the archive – please feel free to contact me and I will give you some homework!
Many thanks to Sarah for her efforts! Form 540 complete for August and September 1945.
Its interesting to compare and contract the size and relative detail of the Form 540 between the early part of the war and the end. Whilst the Forms from 1943 show an astonishing and (for the typist) frustratingly high level of detail regarding crew movements, by 1945 the detail becomes very scant indeed – good for a transcriber, but very frustrating indeed for the researcher.
Read Form 540 August 1945 here
Read Form 540 September 1945 here
Despite a rather complicated ordering process (which led me to believe they would come as a digital download), the Operational Record Books (ORB’s) for 1945, 1944 and 1943 arrive on 3 CD’s from the National Archives at Kew this morning. A quick reformat to pdf, and a saving as a single document for each year allows me to transfer them to my iPad for easier reading. It feels fortuitous that they arrive so quickly after Wayne sending me the March ’45 crew list to Dortmund.
These documents are incredible.
I am not sure what I was expecting, despite the general advice and recommendations from the guys on the LAF – the documents seem remarkably detailed and cover not only the individual raids (including crew lists, up and down times and to varying degrees aircraft numbers), but also a daily diary and more interestingly a record of crew movements in and out of the Squadron. Closer viewing shows that there were certainly changes in approach to this documentation – the 1943 record seems far more accurate and detailed regarding the movements and promotions of the individuals than the equivalent records for 1945.
I get out a pad, a pen and start searching for Bob……..
I receive an email from Wayne today – it lists a full crew for 1945. The list is as follows;
12 March 1945.
Lancaster I RF127 AA.W Up 13:01 Down 18:16
F/O Zinzan, V. NZ425314 Captain
W/O Coote, J. Nav
F/O Sommerville, R. A/B
Sgt Parr, M. WO/Air
Sgt Ackroyd, A. F/Eng
Sgt Hutchinson, H. MU/Gnr
W/O Torbitt, M. R/Gnr
Bomb Load 1 x 4,000 lb H.C, 13 x 500 lb ANM.
Primary Target – Dortmund.
Tracking error of .02 large on G.H. H2S on at 16:50 on run to the target.
It feels as if I am slowly putting a picture together now. It also feels slightly as if my loyalties feel split – its almost as if Bob had 2 ‘families’ – one in 1943 and one in1945 – where should I begin? I don’t want to ignore one of them, but at the same time I don’t want to go off on a wild goose chase looking for stuff that might not be there, if its at the cost of finding other information………
I need to see the ORB’s to learn more about the crew….
Extract from 1945 ORB for the raid on Witten, 12/12/45. Dad is not listed – he didn’t fly in the Squadron till 1/2/45.
Jim follows up Wayne’s post with a set of images from the 1944 ORB for the raid on Witten. Fascinatingly, the record of the raid notes that Vernon Zinzan landed heavily on return, resulting in the Air Bomber F/O Mesure sustaining a broken leg – I wonder if this was the start of a chain of events that resulted in Bob becoming the bomb aimer for Vernon’s crew?
75(nz)squadron 