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I have a soft spot for the Avro Anson, in RAF service from 1936 to 1968. A versatile twin engined workhorse of relatively modest origins, it was never going to receive the adulation given to other more glamorous aircraft from the same period. Yet it reliably carried out what it was designed to do, in its unassuming bumbling manner, and had one or two unexpected episodes during the early years of WW2 in a Coastal Command role. Fitted with non-standard .303 machine guns on the fuselage sides, to supplement the single Lewis gun in a dorsal turret and a Vickers machine gun in the nose, the humble "Annies" of 500 Sqn became adept at shooting down fast and over-confident Me 109s, which overshot the slowcoach maritime patrol aircraft. At least 3 of the 109s were downed, plus a Heinkel 111.

Several of the "unofficial" extra gun mountings had been manufactured by the Tilling-Stevens light engineering factory in Maidstone, and provided free of charge to the RAF at Detling airfield nearby, as a contribution to their war effort.

During the post-war years as a CCF cadet I had several "air experience" flights in Ansons, in their changed role as station communications and transport aircraft - with all those guns removed! Including one memorable return journey from RAF Andover to RAF St Athan and back. The S/L pilot had a meeting to attend, and offered 6 of us a flight with him for company on the slow journey. I thought St Athan was in Cornwall, confusing it with St Eval, and on landing and disembarking I brightly said "I've never been to Cornwall before" to a nearby LAC. He was quick to respond "You still haven't, this is Wales!" No doubt thinking that these cadets with "Maidstone Grammar School CCF" shoulder flashes must be idiots ...

The St Athan station turned out to be a major maintenance base, and we spent a happy couple of hours aircraft spotting until our return Annie flight. That was about 1955, and we were able to get up close and personal to Gloster Javelins and Meteors, EE Canberras, Hunters and many more, at various stages of servicing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avro_Anso ... al_history

1st two "air experience" flights were in Ansons at Lyneham 1952.

Refuelled a few as they passed through Istres/Orange.

Seen a few around but this prompted me to check my father logbooks. Around 50 hours in the Annie largely in No 31 General Reconnaissance School at Charlottetown PEI in Fox's neck of the woods. Otherwise used as a general refresher training between flying Wellington and Halifaxes at Little Rissington and Squiresgate. Time to have a hunt around the loft for the Pilots Notes.

We did indeed have many Ansons around these parts, and indeed Anson parts around these parts. Two parts were in the museum I worked at one summer, but nobody knew what aircraft they were from, so I did some research.

http://www.bedequemuseum.ca/ww2-aircraft-parts.html

As an addendum, I later had a visitor to the museum who was able to complete the picture of what happened to the two Ansons on the original delivery flight mentioned in the story. The trip was a delivery of two aircraft, with the weather being snow squalls (common here) and cloud on the deck. The lead pilot led the unfamiliar #2 in close formation across the short Northumberland Strait (It being wartime, the comprehensive weather and mission briefing was probably "The weather's doggo, follow me!") , then south down the #2 highway, which is basically dead straight.....apart from a sharp 90 abeam Summerside. The #2 was not expecting this and lost visual. Having arrived over the water again, and unaware of position (they were both flying solo), he decided to put it down just before he ran out of fuel, in a field next to Bedeque, as it happened. This is where the crash story originated, but in fact the aircraft was undamaged! The visitor had been the farmer's daughter, and they had helped with the recovery. The aircraft was towed back to the start of the field next day, given the absolute minimum fuel, and the best pilot was drafted in to get the thing airborne, which he just managed, landing 3 minutes later at Summerside.

My pilot on one trip was Harvey Hilliard. Fast forward 17 years, pilot on 8 was Graham Hilliard. 'Is your Dad . . ?'. He was.

There was a memorable flight around that time, the undercarriage would not go down. The Master Pilot stopped one engine and motored the prop horizontal. He made an asymmetric approach and shut down the other engine, motored its prop horizontal. He made a 3 point landing on tail wheel and both protruding wheels. The aircraft was undamaged and was awarded a Green Endorsement.

I learn so much here. Many thanks Fox for those links. Now I know that my fathers Anson 5's were all ply versions. Sadly we never made it back to PEI to visit Charlottetown.

He arrived on HMT East of Scotland, docking I presume at St John, as his first listed station was at 31 PDC at Moncto,n NB. He then took several trains across to No 23 EFTS at Davison, Saskatchewan to start on Cornells for two months, Then across to No 39 SFTS at Swift Current, Saskatchewan for four months on Oxfords. Then back to Charlottetown for a month on Ansons before eventually returning back home.

I was lucky enough to have spent several weeks with him re-tracing his steps around both Davison and Swift Current. His old field in Davison still visible but now eclipsed by a new airport a few miles on the other side of town. Stayed in the same pub he used to use and had his favourite of waffles and maple syrup for breakfast. Swift Current much expanded and the unspoilt countryside of the nearby Cypress Hills much developed with holiday cabins around the many lakes which sadly rather spoiled the trip for him. We were, however, able to experience the local beers which he recalled were known as Prairie Cat's Piss. Certainly nothing special. The locals also had the weird habit of adding salt to the beer - your pints or equivalent served on a tray witha little bowl of table salt to sprinkle in your beer. Weird.

I would guess he got the train up from Halifax, NS to Moncton, NB, the former being the major port where all the convoys usually arrived. The railway is the main line and still exists.
They are a funny lot in Sask. My cousin, who lives in Manitoba, refers to Sask as 'The Gap' (..in civilization between Manitoba and Alberta).
Should you find yourself up this way, you'd be very welcome to stay. However, there is little left of any of the training facilities; Charlottetown's being cleared with the expansion of the airport. There's no RCAF presence on the Island anymore, since CFB Summerside closed after the Cold War ended. We do at least have good beer and cider.

Fortunate to have had one Anson trip - Finningley to Marham and return.

Sisemen wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 17, 2019 6:54 am

Fortunate to have had one Anson trip - Finningley to Marham and return.

Northern Comms Sqn. We lost them when we moved from Coningsby to Cottesmore. Station Flight, hang over from days when aircrew had to be fly for their flying pay. SF enabled aircrew on ground appointments, Ops, Int O, SFSO, Sim to qualify.

Other air forces had similar rules. We had an RCAF pilot used to lob into Waddington Friday evening and hop off Monday morning. We were PPO but he didn't bother and always managed to avoid OC Ops.

Having never flown in or even seen an Anson until recently in the museum at Duxford I was surprised that the aircraft was much bigger than I had imagined. It is funny how one's imagination can cloud the reality of something one has read about so often.

I only flew in one only once - an "air experience" flight from Old Sarum in the early 60's when I was an ATC cadet. Montrose Air Station Heritage Museum are restoring one. They reckon it will take them 5 years to bring it up to a standard for display in the museum. It was in the bare scuddy when I saw it a couple of weeks ago - fuselage longerons all removed, just the metal frame. Unfortunately before they received it some unthinking person lifted the fuselage with a forklift and it's kinked in four places.

It's probably not news to anyone who knows about Ansons but this bears repeating. This story fascinated me when I was in my youth. (no sound for the first 15 seconds).

Fox - many thanks for the invite. Time for me to do some more research. Dad always spoke of the long train journies, of the intense cold, of keeping engines running to stop them freezing and the joy of navigation exercises - so easy when flying over a N/S and E/W grid pattern of roads/tracks - just count off the numbers.

That Montrose museum looks quite a place, and refurbishing that "Annie" will keep them fully occupied for a while. Behind that vintage airfield tractor is a pulse-raising exhibit in the shape of a Spitfire Vb, which gladdensthe heart even though it's a full-size replica! I wouldn't mind having one of those ...

603DX wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 18, 2019 4:19 pm

Behind that vintage airfield tractor

A David Brown Taskmaster, I believe.

The profits of which, kept Aston Martin in business.